American History X (1998)-"R"

Run Time:119 minutes

3 and 1/2 stars out of 4

One of the best surprises of 1998/99, American History X proved itself, despite that its director, Tony Kaye, only had experience in British commercial directing, and writer (David McKenna) had never been heard of in Hollywood before. Set in modern day Verona Beach, California, the storyline follows two white Protestant brothers, Derek (Ed Norton) and Danny (Edward Furlong) Vinyard. After their father is murdered fighting a fire in a black neighborhood, the already somewhat racist Derek goes off the deep end, and into fullblown white supremicism. Under the mentoring of a local Neo-Nazi leader, Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach), Derek turns into his protégé, organizing a raid into a Korean-owned convieniance store, chasing black people out of his neighborhood, and finally murdering several black men trying to steal his car. For the brutal killing of the gang members, Derek is sentenced to a several-year prison term. While in prison, Derek is forced to work with a black man every day, and the man's companionship helps to change Derek's life, and outlook on minorities. Derek returns home a changed man, yet is heralded as a hero by the Neo-Nazi's for his savage crime. Even worse, his brother Danny has followed him down the exact same path, as a leading member of Cameron Alexander's following. Derek battles with his past self, and his present Neo-Nazi foes to try and help his brother to do what is right, and leave Cameron. Edward Norton delivers a moving, realistic, and very powerful performance in his role, one of the real driving forces of an already talented cast. Furlong also comes through on his role, and Keach is downright scary, like in some of his other films. The direction is excellent as well, a real triumph of a first effort for Kaye, with scene after scene of brutal, in-your-face reality of life as a Neo-Nazi, a frustrated poor white family, and racism at its core. This film is one of the great ones of the year, intense and true all of the way through, and is not to be missed. The only thing that I would would hold back from a 4-star rating would be a kind of fragile character depth on the Vinyard's father.