One of the most over-rated movies of all-time.

Rating: Null/10 (7 December 2008)

This movie is supposed to be realistic, yet fails on a number of occasions, and that alone should be enough to bump it out of a top 250 list.
When Norton split from his gang in prison, the opposing gang would've at least beat him. In reality, his laundry room friend not only wouldn't have been able to help him, but he wouldn't have ever associated with Norton in the first place.
When Norton's ex-gang was chasing him and his brother, they would have inevitably caught up to them and at least beat them, yet a shoddy decision was made to make the crowd simply vanish at the flick of a frame. Very lame, and very obvious.
When a game of basketball is played between the skinheads and the blacks to stake claim over some territory, and the blacks lose, they simply walk away angrily as if something is really stopping them. Hokey.
The kid shoots the other kid in a school restroom because he blew smoke in his face. Not only does he decide to do this in the middle of a school day, in school, but he just stands there after he shoots him. I understand why, but again, very unrealistic.
There are all sorts of unrealisms like that throughout the movie. The list is quite long. Aside from that, Norton's acting was good, but most of the rest of the acting in the movie was done by actors who just couldn't handle it.
This movie has probably gotten such praise because of the subject matter, combined with: lots of drama and tragedy and hope this and reformation that, plus Edward Norton, who is himself a good actor, but still highly over-rated.
To sum this up, American History X was an oversimplification and consistently unrealistic.