Very contrived, badly-acted and unrealistic soapbox movie to let us know "Racism is bad!"

Rating: 1/10 (19 February 2008)

American History X is a very contrived and unrealistic soapbox movie against racism. The purpose of the movie is simple: beat viewers over the head with a simplistic message that they all already agree with in the first place! Namely, "Racism is bad!" Everyone already knows racism is bad, so a movie comprised of 2 hours worth of strung-together ridiculous contrivances that exists solely for the purpose to push the message "Racism is bad" is not exactly a work of art. Nor is it food for thought. This movie won't tell anyone anything that they don't *already know*, therefore the existence of the movie is pointless.
Edward Norton plays a hardcore Nazi skinhead. He *looks* the part, but as soon as he opens his mouth, any chance of him being believable in that role is utterly destroyed. Edward Norton talks like - and has the demeanour of - a computer geek. There is no way to reasonably be immersed in believing he is a hardcore Nazi skinhead. For this reason I'm going to have to say Edward Norton gives a terrible performance in this movie. *Good* actors can change their voice, demeanour, and the aura they give off. Edward Norton cannot. He uses the exact same voice, and has the exact same wimpy computer geek demeanour/aura in American History X as he does in every single movie role he ever does. It bewilders me why such a bad actor - with no range whatsoever - is so popular. It actually makes this movie be *unintentionally hilarious* to see such a buffed guy be so incredibly wimpy and non-threatening.
Edward Furlong plays his little brother. Furlong gives a good performance as always, however, he isn't given anything to work with. All his lines are very generic and bland.
Avery Brooks gives an okay performance as the school principal, but there is nothing special about it. He's exactly the same in this movie as he is as Sisko in Deep Space Nine, or the gangster in the movie The Big Hit. Actually it seems Avery Brooks has actually *dialed down* his intensity in American History X; an intensity he has in all those other roles but *not* in American History X. So I must conclude that Brooks' performance in American History X is worse than usual.
Edward Norton is supposed to be playing an extremely smart individual, yet his actions in this movie are anything but. He foolishly sets up a chain of events where if he had any intelligence at all, he would have foreseen that that chain of events would be sure to lead to his rape in prison. He also would easily have avoided prison in the first place if he had any intelligence. He also would have been able to prevent the bad ending his brother receives if he had any intelligence. Yet he sticks around the neighborhood like a moron at the end of the movie, which is what allows for his brother to be murdered.
The ending of the movie is ridiculous, and actually ends up *reinforcing* the (incorrect) idea that Norton's character's original beliefs in this movie are accurate. The movie exists to say "Racism is bad!" in big flashing NEON letters. However, the ending of this movie (perhaps inadvertently) completely destroys this message by implying that Norton's character was right to be a Nazi skinhead. The ending of the movie has a Black guy murdering Furlong's character for no reason. Furlong blew smoke in his face earlier in the movie, but that is not a reason to shoot someone dead over (maybe a beat down at the very most). It is not something someone would do in real life. Yet this movie (perhaps racistly) has a Black kid killing a White kid for no reason whatsoever, which lends (tragically!) undeserved credibility to idea that the Nazi beliefs are correct and Norton's character was wrong to abandon them. This movie can't even get it's own very basic message right.
0/10.