Amazing, upon first glance.

Rating: 8/10 (25 July 2004)

AMERICAN HISTORY X is the powerful story of a proud skinhead named Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), who gets sent to jail for 3+ years after murdering a couple of young black men who invade his property. When he gets out, a reformed man, he finds that his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is following in his old footsteps--and even turned in a school paper entitled, "My Mein Kampf." Danny's school principal, Dr. Sweeney (Avery Brooks), tells him to rewrite this paper and instead focus it on his own brother. After Derek attempts to flee from his old skinhead gang, and embarrasses Danny in the process, he tells Danny of the story that led him into jail, and what happened once he was there... which Danny then puts into his paper, in the process known as passing it on.
AMERICAN HISTORY X is one of those movies that, upon first glance, is really amazing; but upon repeated viewings, it becomes easier and easier to notice its glaring flaws. The main flaw here is the script. It is awfully written, although there are several humorous moments and also several powerful ones (probably due to great acting and direction, though). Truly, the only interesting parts of the movie are the ones telling of Derek's past (filmed in black and white for an interesting contrast)--the current events, filmed in color, are rather boring and are most specifically when the terrible script shines through. And, though it's a pretty unrealistic movie for the most part, it's made up for.
Then there are the aspects of the movie that you can't really win or lose with. The acting is the most obvious of this category. Edward Norton is GREAT in his starring role (and, kind of oddly considering he plays a skinhead jerk for most of the movie, very attractive), and really holds the movie together. Edward Furlong is also great, though he receives the brunt of the bad lines in my opinion. Among the supporting cast, Fairuza Balk is good as Derek's girlfriend Stacey; Ethan Suplee is good as Derek and Danny's friend Seth; Jennifer Lien is great as Derek and Danny's sister Davina; and Guy Torry is also great as Derek's fellow inmate Lamont. However, the rest of the cast is pretty bad. Beverly D'Angelo stands out in particular as Derek and Danny's mother Doris, as does Avery Brooks as Dr. Sweeney. The former is very melodramatic and has awful delivery, while the latter is completely monotonous and expressionless. Elliott Gould (as the mother's boyfriend Murray) has bad vocal delivery, but he also appears in one of the most heart-breaking scenes in the film.
There are some very good and powerful moments, though, which can all be credited to Edward Norton's marvelous acting. The dinner scene is very sad and unnerving, while the smiley/arrest scene is almost unbearable to watch because it's so horrific and well-done. Even the second time that I watched the film, and I knew what was coming, I found myself cringing when Derek orders the burglar to put his mouth on the curb. The prison scenes are pretty unnecessary and badly carried out, however. And the ending totally shocked me--I could feel my jaw drop and stay there until the credits rolled.
After first viewing, I was ready to give AMERICAN HISTORY X a 9. After my second viewing, though, I was less impressed (maybe because I wasn't so shocked and amazed by the disturbing and distressing ending), and was ready to give it only a 7. The average of those two: 8/10.