Excellent but curiously unmoving

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2003)

A white supremacist Derek (Edward Norton) is sent to jail for brutally killing two black men who try to steal his car. Through some harrowing experiences in jail he realizes his way of thinking and living was wrong. He gets out and tries to prevent his young brother Danny (Edward Furlong) from becoming the same as him...but is it too late?
First off I'm giving the film an 8. I thought is was excellent but it does have problems--it's overlong (I was bored more than once); there's way too many slow-motion sequences; there's disjointed editing; a finale I saw coming from a mile away and an annoying tendency to cut from b&w to color constantly. Those issues aside the film is great.
The script and imagery is strong and graphic (as it should be) and there's some great acting here. Norton is just superb (he was Oscar-nominated); Furlong is subdued but good as Danny--a lot of his emotions come through in his eyes; Beverly D'Angelo was just great as their mother and Fairuza Balk is frightening as Norton's girlfriend. The only bad acting was by Avery Brooks--but he's not really a main character so it doesn't really hurt the film.
Some of the sequences in here were very difficult to watch (the attack on the store, the prison sequences and the finale) but they're meant to be that way. This movie hits you over the head with its message but it does work. It just didn't affect me that strongly. As I said, I saw the ending coming from a mile away so it didn't shock me at all. Still, it is a powerful film. Well worth catching.
Also there was a huge amount of controversy when this was released. It seems the director (Tony Kaye) accused New Line Studios of letting Edward Norton into the editing room and cut the film himself (this is no shock--Norton is known as a control freak). He requested his name be removed from the credits and replaced with Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. He didn't win his request. If Norton did indeed edit this film--he shouldn't quit his acting job. The editing here is herky-jerky and the film could easily lose those slomo sequences.