American History X
WARNING - CRUNCHY -
[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=a08PnAc76CI[/media]
ATTENTION: This synopsis outlines the basic facts of what happens in the film. It does give away the ending. You can right click and select the text to read it. It's white so those who don't want it spoiled can choose not to read it.
The film tells the story of Derek Vinyard (Norton), from the early to mid 1990's Venice Beach. An extremely bright and charismatic student, Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi underground after his father is killed by a black drug dealer in the early 90's while trying to put out a fire at a suspected drug den. Derek had already been influenced by his father's critical views on black culture and affirmative action (his father refers to it as "affirmative black-tion").
Eventually Derek becomes second-in-command of the Venice Beach neo-Nazi gang, "The Disciples of Christ (D.O.C.)", which entices young whites to join by promising protection from predominantly minority gangs who are prominent in the area. The gang is masterminded by Cameron Alexander, an aging, manipulative Nazi sympathizer.
One night three black men drive up to the Vinyard house and start breaking into Derek's car. Derek shoots one of the men, killing him, and wounds a second. Derek kills the wounded man by ordering him to place his mouth on the curb and then stomping on the back of his head (known as a "curb stomping"), effectively breaking his jaw and neck. Derek's little brother, Danny, watches in horror and then witnesses his brother submitting to the white officers and smiling triumphantly as he is handcuffed and led away.
Derek is sentenced to three years in prison, charged with voluntary manslaughter. Danny notes that if he had testified, Derek would have gotten life imprisonment. In prison, he joins the Aryan Brotherhood, for protection. During this time, his white supremacist gang, angry at many of Derek's actions (ironically, mostly due to his anger over the group's dealings with a Mexican gang), gang rape him during a group shower while the guard on duty turns a blind eye.
Meanwhile, Derek makes the acquaintance of a black inmate named Lamont with whom he works in the prison laundry room. Although Derek initially scorns Lamont, he gradually warms to him. Following the rape, Derek distances himself from the Aryan Brotherhood, and Lamont emerges as his only true friend. Just before Derek is released on parole, he realizes that only through Lamont's intervention did the black prison gangs leave him unharmed after the Brotherhood withdrew their protection.
Derek returns home to find that Danny has modeled his own life like Derek's pre-incarceration beliefs. Derek visits his old neo-Nazi mentor, Cameron Alexander, and informs him that he'll no longer associate with him. He also tells him to stay away from Danny. Danny angrily confronts Derek. Derek tells him about his experiences in prison. The confession seems to prompt a change in Danny. They walk home and begin to change their ways, ripping down all their Neo-Nazi posters and regalia on the bedroom wall. After showering, Derek looks at the swastika tattoo on his chest in shame and regret, and puts a hand over it, showing he has indeed changed.
The next morning, Danny walks into his high school bathroom and is fatally shot several times in the chest. The gunman, a black youth, was previously involved in an altercation with Danny, when Danny stood up for a young white male being harassed by the black youth. Derek runs in and embraces his brother's body, crying uncontrollably, feeling guilty for his brother's death.
The film ends with Danny narrating the conclusion of a paper about his brother he was assigned to write by his black principal Dr. Sweeney, in which he quotes the conclusion of Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address:
“ We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory... ...will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. ”
—Abraham Lincoln[1]
An alternative ending of the film showed Derek, overcome by grief and rage, shaving his head and presumably returning to his white supremacist ways.
I actually really like this film. It is disturbing and very out there, but its a terrific film, one more reason I LOVE Edward Norton.
What do you guys think? Did this film help or hinder racial prejudices?
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