Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2002)

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen...it is rare that racism is "realistically" portrayed in a movie, especially in a hollywood movie. When I heard of this movie, I expected the mindless bashing of Nazis. While I personally consider it plain wrong, I feared this movie just would not go deep enough, and I would forget the next day. But I was wrong, I think I will always remember this movie when I discuss the topic, and believe me, when you are german like me, you discuss it a lot. The story itself is very simple; An american neo nazi rises to the top of the local gang. His brother admires him and follows his footsteps, but when the older brother goes too jail for killing two black men, he sees and experiences things that change his mind, and when he comes out he tries to save his brother. The story is fairly standard...just the way the story is presented makes the movie exceptional. Furlong and especially Norton give outstanding performances, and all the other characters are very well portrayed. And I do not agree with some reviewers who say the 180 deegree change of Derek is unreallistic...I hope and I actually BELIEVE that a person can change, see their own mistakes, through open minded thinking. There is now wrong philosophy, but following without thinking is wrong (my opinion, but I feel this is what the movie is trying to say too). I say you have too see the movie. Chances are you will not like it. You might hate it. But the chance that it gives you inspiration to think about a very grim and never to be forgotten part of human (not german, american, HUMAN) history are enough to justify spending two hours of your life on it.