| American History X | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Tony Kaye |
| Produced by | John Morrissey |
| Written by | David McKenna |
| Starring | Edward Norton Edward Furlong Beverly D'Angelo Avery Brooks Stacy Keach Jennifer Lien Fairuza Balk Elliott Gould Ethan Suplee Guy Torry William Russ |
| Music by | Anne Dudley |
| Cinematography | Tony Kaye |
| Editing by | Jerry Greenberg |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | October 23, 1998 |
| Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $23,875,127 |
American History X is a 1998 American drama film directed by Tony Kaye. The film tells the story of two brothers, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) and Daniel "Danny" Vinyard (Edward Furlong) of Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. Both are intelligent and charismatic students, and Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi movement after their father, a firefighter, is murdered by a black drug dealer while trying to extinguish a fire in a South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. Derek kills two black gang members trying to steal his truck, and is sentenced to three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. The story shows how Danny is influenced by his older brother's actions and ideology and how Derek, now radically changed by his experience in incarceration, tries to prevent his brother from going down the same path as he did.
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The opening scene, shown in black and white, depicts Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), a white supremacist, killing two black thugs who try to break into his car, while his brother Danny watches in shocked disbelief. The film then switches to color and skips ahead three years, and we see Danny, a 16-year-old white supremacist, sitting outside the principal's office, where his history teacher Murray (Elliott Gould) explains to the principal, Dr. Sweeney (Avery Brooks), that Danny wrote an essay sympathetic to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. After some discussion, Dr. Sweeney calls Danny into his office and informs him that he will now be his history teacher, calling the class "American History X", and that his first assignment is to write a paper about his brother Derek, or be expelled from Venice Beach High School.
Flashbacks throughout the film show Derek's transformation into a vengeful white supremacist in Venice Beach. Having already been influenced by his firefighter father's latent racism, Derek is driven to action when his father is shot and killed while fighting a fire in an African-American neighborhood. Eventually Derek becomes second-in-command of a neo-Nazi street gang, The D.O.C., and entices young whites to join. The gang commits acts of intimidation, such as damaging a store owned by a Korean and challenging a group of black players to basketball games, in order to win the basketball court as turf. At first, these incidents go off unnoticed by the family until an argument with Murray, who happens to be jewish, leads to Doris (Beverly D'Angelo) to ask Derek to leave home. Later that night while Derek is with his girlfriend Stacey (Fairuza Balk), three black men attempt to steal Derek's truck. Upon discovery of this through Danny's mentioning of the incident, Derek shoots at the two of the three men, killing the first one instantly. The second man, who was one of the black basketball players, is wounded and killed with a curb-stomp in the street. Danny watches in horror as this unfolds. The police arrive immediately afterward and arrest Derek as he proudly smiles wickedly across the street at a shocked Danny.
After being convicted of voluntary manslaughter, Derek is sentenced to three years at the California Institution for Men in Chino. While there, he joins the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. After about a year, he becomes disillusioned with the gang, especially over the group's friendly dealings with a Mexican prison gang. When he voices these opinions, he is ignored by the other white supremacists. Derek, however, decides to no longer associate with them when he befriends a Black prison inmate, Lamont (Guy Torry), who he is paired with in folding prison sheets. His fellow Neo-Nazis take notice before they beat and rape him in the shower in retaliation for leaving the gang while a prison guard turns a blind eye.
While still recovering from the attack, Derek is visited by Dr. Sweeney, whom he asks for help to be paroled. Sweeney informs him of Danny's aspirations of becoming a neo-Nazi like Derek and heading to right where he is. Sweeney confides in Derek that he used to hate white people as a youth, and he came to the realization that racism is pointless. Sweeney asserts that Derek has spent his life pursuing answers, and then asks him: "Has anything you've done made your life better?" This proves a turning point for Derek, who further distances himself from the Aryan Brotherhood and changes his outlook on life. Lamont emerges as Derek's only true friend in prison, and is part of the reason Derek stays alive as he uses what influence he has to stop the black prisoners from hurting Derek.
When Derek returns home he finds that Danny has become a white power skinhead and then tries and fails to convince him to leave the gang. Derek then tells the leader, Cameron Alexander, that he will no longer associate with him and the gang at which Cameron provokes Derek who beats him before leaving his office. During an ensuing confrontation, Derek's friend Seth Ryan points a pistol at him, which Derek wrestles from him, and points it at the angry crowd before running away from the party. Danny angrily confronts Derek who tells him about his experiences in prison. The confession seems to prompt a change in Danny and they walk home with the insinuation that they will start to change their ways.
The following morning Danny finishes his paper, and Derek gets ready for a meeting with his parole officer. Derek walks Danny to school before his meeting, and on their way they stop at a café where they are met by Dr. Sweeney and a police officer. They tell Derek that Cameron and Seth were attacked the previous night, and have been hospitalized. Derek claims no knowledge of the incidents yet they ask him for help, which Derek reluctantly agrees to do.
At school, Danny enters a bathroom before class starts and is confronted by a young black student, with whom he had a confrontation the previous day over protecting a white student. The student fatally shoots Danny three times in the chest. When Derek arrives on the scene he tearfully cradles his brother in his arms. The film ends with Danny narrating part of his paper, 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 swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Tony Kaye, the film's director, cut a first version and the test screenings had gone well so New Line didn't want to drastically change things. With some suggestions from New Line., Kaye manufactured a second cut but shortened it heavily causing New Line to reject it since it was little like the first cut. Film editor Jerry Greenbert was brought in to cut a new version with Edward Norton. New Line showed the new version that Norton had assisted on and the feedback from the audience was positive so try to convince Kaye for this version to be the final cut.[1]
Tony Kaye disowned this version as the final cut of the film, as he did not approve of its quality.[2] He tried (and failed) to have his name removed from the credits,[1][3][4] openly telling some interviewers he tried to invoke the Alan Smithee pseudonym "secretly" reserved for such cases.
American History X received mostly positive reviews and Norton's performance was critically acclaimed. Based on the reviews of 72 critics collected on Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of critics gave the film a positive review.[5] It grossed $6,719,864 from 513 theaters in the United States, and a total of $23,875,127 worldwide.[6]
Edward Norton was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
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