Norton makes it happen

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2000)

American History X only got one oscar nomination: Best Actor, Edward Norton. He lost to the tour de force performance of Roberto Benigni in "Life Is Beautiful". Whether Norton deserved it over Benigni (I hope that is the right spelling) is a question worth debating, both were career-making performances. I think that Norton probably deserved it a little more for 2 reasons: 1. He plays COMPLETELY against type. You can not believe that this is the same relatively tame Edward Norton who won so many people over in such movies as Rounders and the People Vs. Larry Flynt. Rarely are there such acting transformations. 2. Norton carried the movie. The direction was somewhat sloppy, the script had a couple holes here and there, and besides Furlong's convincing peformance as an impressionable youth, the acting is only so-so. But Norton was solid, convincingly ranting and raving and recruiting. The slow transformation of Furlong's character into a neo-nazi under Norton's influence and then the transformation back to tolerance truly exemplifies how the Nazi movement could have spread through Germany over 60 years ago. The movie is definitely worth a watch. Some heads may be turned by it, even.