A good film, but limited in scope.

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2001)

I would imagine that this could make a very fine book because the issues that the script attempts to address are fascinating and infinitely complicated. However, in a two hour time frame it is very difficult to attempt to understand how the human mind and psyche operates as well as how family dynamics are constructed and/or break down.
This movie is primarily concened with the effect racism, loss and hatred have had on Daniel and Derek Vinyard. They lost their father in a racially motivated killing and the stress and tragic results this event had on their family led both of them to turn toward hate, particularly the older Derek who, under duress, vainly attempts to fill his father's shoes after his death. Derek's decision to turn toward a local skinhead organization has a significant impact upon his younger brother who is in need of a father figure.
While Derek is in prison he begins to try and reform his ways and through the help of a former teacher, begins to see past the intellectual and logical confines of the racial-hatred he had adopted. His experiences with skinheads in jail only further solidifies his feelings that something is very wrong with racial hatred. Without a doubt we could devote a lengthy picture to studying Derek's character development, his motivations and how his decision making leads him to the different stages in his development. This movie mistakenly attempts to both briefly accomplish this and examine the development of the younger Daniel. The two hour format does not allow more than a cursory attempt at character examination and furthermore, we find that the social tensions and racially motivated hatreds that are so prominent in these two main characters, are not evenly remotely addressed from the point of view of persons on the other side, notably minorities or other poor or lower-middle class whites struggling with similar economic difficulties.
The movie leaves us with another equivocal point, what about the racially motivated killing of Derek's brother Daniel. What is the purpose of this action in the story? While on the one hand racial killings occur on a regular basis and for apparently simple reasons, how does this relate to the trajectory of the story? To me it seems like a very simple and Hollywood way of ending a story that is too complicated to resolve in so short a time frame. Is this God paying Derek back? That too seems extremely sophomoric an ending, a very biblical explanation to a question that, by its very nature, is challenging conventions and demanding that those who are willing to entertain its implications, rise above simple answers and their own assumptions and prejudices. The ending is a disappointment because it does not acknowledge the very difficult and complicated causes which led to its very occurence.
I have to admit, I walked away from this movie feeling dissatisfied. While this was a good film with excellent acting, I must add that the script seems as though it either falls short, or loses its resolve.