Don't believe the hype

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2004)

I was curious to see what other people thought of this movie, and am genuinely surprised to see this ranked so highly in IMDb polls.
What are the sins of American History X? First of all, the narrative structure is confused, to no good purpose. By showing Edward Norton's jail-stay in flashback, when we already know he's grew disillusioned with the movement, all dramatic interest is removed from the scenes. And the method of his conversion was so trite as to be laughable. While his prison scenes should have been the most powerful part of the movie, they just felt like a waste of time (and using B&W for the past is such an embarrassingly Hollywood device).
Secondly, the script is just terrible. You feel embarrassed for the actors as they're forced to talk entirely in polemic. Characters just didn't talk or relate to each other in a way similar to how people talk or relate to each other. And I felt American History X's take on violence was too cartoonish, where it should have felt genuine. The scenes felt adapted from action movies, whether the scene was sufficiently brutal or not doesn't make it better or worse.
You have to review artwork based on what the artist was trying to do, and how well he did it. The movie was trying to provide insight in the neo-Nazi mentality, while providing insight into the real cause of the racial violence. However, the unrealistic characters and the Hollywood-ish take on violence left the movie flat in both regards.