weak directorially, strong performances nevertheless

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2000)

The scandal of Tony Kaye disowning his work and condemning New Line who took it away before he could realize his 90-minute cut is well publicized by now. And it's no surprise why the director became so enraged: American History X is definitely in need of major editing. In it's two hour theatrical version, this study of California skinheads seems haphazard and even amateurish at times. The studio's attempt to improve the film actually made it much worse:the picture looks like an effort by an ambitious, self-indulgent high school student assisted by his far less inspired teacher. Most of the black-and-white sequences (flashbacks of Norton's and Furlong's life as skinhead brothers) are much more powerful and beautifully shot than the trite and cheaply melodramatic color scenes set in the present day. One cannot help but contemplate this film's potential on all levels of production: for one, it should have used a more urgent and appropriate soundtrack of modern hip-hop and hardcore instead of the typical Hollywood solution to all dramas which we've all heard literally hundreds of times; and also cut down on the slow motion, arguably the most gratuitous since The Postman. Still, Norton's extraordinary performance and several thought-provoking scenes make one wonder what the movie could have been if Kaye was allowed to perfect his material without intervention.