Blair Space: American History X

This article was published on Blair Space at:
http://movies.blairspace.com/reviews/77.html

American History X

This film knows what it wants to say and goes out there to say it. I had to laugh when I saw a few people said “well the message is hideously obvious”, well yeah, it is suppose to be (out of interest that comment still trails the comment I heard about Phantom Menace, “the best Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi” though I presume that one was intentional).

American History X is a gripping portrayal of racism in America. Using black and white for the flashbacks it paints quite a picture of what times used to be like. That said, it is set over a three year period so it’s not like we have particularly moved on from the olden days as it’s not that long a period.

The film tells the story of Derek a raciest that ends up killing some black guys and gets sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter. On release he returns home to find his younger brother Danny heading down the same road as landed him in jail and sets about to save him.

The film pretty much begins with his release and the story of how he ended up there is told through flash backs when he lead the skinheads in his area, though he himself was really just a puppet of Cam Alexander (a guy who looks incredibly similar to Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State but isn’t).

The plot does what it can for the back story – despite Derek attributing his downward spiral to his fire-fighter father being shot dead, later flash-backs show the influence of his father runs a little deeper. There was no real subtly about it though, it was pretty clear we are suppose to think his father was a raciest.

It’s a brutal film and there is no getting away from that – though some of the shots cut away must notably Derek killing one of the black guys by getting him to put his mouth on the curb and stamping on the back of his head, the close range shots see blood splattering everywhere and there is a violent rape scene in one of the prison flash-backs.

Derek’s portrayal in the film is quite refreshing – the main point being is that here we have effectively a Nazi who isn’t a clumsy fool. This is almost always the stereotype, I mean think of Alf Garnet. Derek is just like anyone else though, except for the fact that he is a raciest that has been shaped by Cam. He cries, he has emotion – that’s the kind of stuff that made Bruce Willis’s character so great in Die Hard.

The movie has its comedy moments (though I am not sure that, that is actually a good thing for the movie). When the line “Can I make a video? I have a great idea for a musical comedy?” I was expecting them to burst out laughing, acknowledging that is was a joke but it never came.

American History X is a powerful and moving film. It really got me thinking and provoked thoughts like I haven’t seen a film do in quite a while. If this film even mildly interests you then check it out.