American History X (US 1998)
(***1/2 VU Stars) Rated R

Shawn Fitzgerald
Virtual Urth

A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.

Starring:
Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Avery Brooks, Fairuza Balk, Beverly D'Angelo, Elliott Gould and Stacy Keach

Written by David McKenna
Directed by Tony Kaye

* NEW LINE CINEMA. 118 MIN *

A harrowing look at hatred in modern-day America, Tony Kaye's "American History X" is a film that pulls no punches and offers no easy answers. What it does offer is a landmark performance from Edward Norton, perhaps the most versatile young actor American cinema has seen in a very, very long time.

The story follows an intelligent young man named Derek Vinyard (Norton) and his decline into the world of disillusion and hate known as White Supremacy. Once a thoughtful and easy-going teen, he soon begins his change when his casually racist fireman father is killed while trying to put out a fire at a suspected drug den. Falling under the wing of a neo-Nazi (Stacy Keach), Derek soon becomes a recruiting agent for local white kids. While the local movement grows, Derek's soul withers further and further away, polluted more and more by hate. This moral deterioration culminates when Derek kills three black gang members who try to steal his truck. He is caught and sent to jail, where he is shown the error of his ways. The hard way.

With the help of one of his former teachers (Avery Brooks), Derek begins to reform. It, however, may be too little too late. While Derek was in prison, his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is starting to head down the same path Derek did. Now, aside from trying to leave the world he helped create, he also has to try to save his brother from making the same mistakes he made.

First-time director Tony Kaye keeps things from going into cliché land by giving the film a (at-times) documentary feel, with tight closeups and some fast camera movement (Kaye was also the film's director of photography). He does go a little bit overboard with some rather splashy effects that would seem better suited for his television commercial work, not for a theatrical film.

No matter, however. For whatever tricks he uses, it can not dilute the power of David McKenna's uncompromising screenplay or the incredible performances. Norton gives Derek layers of intelligence, pain, rage, redemption and humility. It is definitely a role he could have gone over the top with. but restraint is Norton's ace in the hole, and he plays it beautifully. He is given solid support from Furlong, who is starting to show some real promise as an actor, Brooks as the teacher who refuses to give up on either Danny or Derek, as well as Keach as the head Neo-Nazi and Beverly D'Angelo as the boys' (very) long-suffering mother.

"American History X" is a tough film to watch. It's scenes of brutality and violence are downright shocking at times. But it is a film that does have something to say and does so quite clearly: that hate is a virus that affects us all, a virus that is equally as destructive as any known disease out there. The film is also smart enough not to offer a clear cut answer. It instead leaves that for the viewer to ponder and figure out for themselves.

Derek & Danny Vinyard
(Edward Norton & Edward Furlong)

The last day in the can

I'll shoot some supremists

Danny wants to kill some colored folks...

What's Derek going to do?