Synopsis :
In the opening scene, Danny Vinyard, a young white supremacist, sits in his principal’s office. Danny’s history teacher, Murray (who is Jewish), explains to the principal, Dr. Sweeney (who is black), that Danny wrote a book report sympathetic to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Sweeney then informs Danny that he is now Danny’s history teacher. The class is called “American History X”, and Danny’s first assignment is due the next morning: a paper about his brother Derek. The next scenes are flashbacks showing Derek’s transformation into a vengeful white supremacist. Derek had already been influenced by his firefighter father’s latent racism, and is driven to action when his father is murdered. Derek goes on a racial slur-laden tirade blaming blacks, Asians and Hispanics for his father’s death, saying that most of the crimes in the country are race-driven.
Eventually Derek becomes second-in-command of a neo-Nazi gang, The DOC, and entices young whites to join by promising protection from predominantly non-white gangs. The gang commits acts of intimidation, such as damaging a store owned by a Korean and challenging basketball games against groups of black players. One night, while Derek is having sex with his girlfriend Stacey (Fairuza Balk), three blacks arrive on the lawn and break into Derek’s truck. Brandishing a handgun, Derek exits the house and violently confronts the men, killing two and wounding the other before curb-stomping him. Danny watches in horror, then witnesses his brother submitting to the police officers and smiling triumphantly.
Derek is sentenced to prison after being convicted with voluntary manslaughter. In prison, Derek joins the Aryan Brotherhood, but he becomes disillusioned with the gang, especially over the group’s friendly dealings with a Mexican gang. When he voices these opinions, he is quickly shut down by the other white supremacists, so Derek chooses to not associate with them any more. The leader and members of the Aryan Brotherhood rape and beat him in the showers for revenge for leaving the gang and no longer associating with them while the white guard on duty turns a blind eye. Derek gradually becomes friends with a black inmate named Lamont while working in the prison laundry room.
Dr. Sweeney visits him in prison, and Derek asks him for help on trying to not cause problems for his family. Sweeney informs him of Danny’s aspirations of becoming a neo-Nazi like Derek and heading to right where he is. He confides in Derek that he used to hate white people as a youth, but he came to the realization that racism was 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 his only true friend in prison, going so far as to protect him from the black gangs.
Derek returns home to find that Danny has become a white power skinhead. After failing to convince Danny to leave his gang, Derek informs the leader, Cameron Alexander, that he will no longer associate with him, and tells him to stay away from Danny. After being provoked, Derek beats Cameron before leaving his office. During an ensuing confrontation, Derek’s friend Seth Ryan points a gun at him. Derek wrestles the gun from Seth’s hand 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. They walk home and begin to change their ways, ripping down all their neo-Nazi posters and regalia on the bedroom wall.
The following morning at sunrise, Danny tells the end of his story. Derek gets ready for a meeting with his parole officer, and Derek and Danny leave the house together. Derek walks Danny to school before his meeting, and on their way they stop at a café. There, they meet with Dr. Sweeney and a police officer. They tell Derek that Cameron, the leader of the white supremacists, and Ryan, a member, were found last night after being jumped, and that they are now in the hospital. Derek claims no knowledge of the incidents.
At school, Danny enters a bathroom before class starts and is confronted by a young black boy who is a gang member, with whom he had a confrontation the previous day. The black student ends up shooting Danny three times in the chest. Derek races back to the school and cradles his dead brother and cries over his corpse. The film ends with Danny narrating part of his paper, in which he quotes the conclusion of Abraham Lincoln’s 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.”
Starring :
Edward Norton … Derek Vinyard
Edward Furlong … Danny Vinyard
Beverly D’Angelo … Doris Vinyard
Avery Brooks … Dr. Bob Sweeney
Jennifer Lien … Davina Vinyard
Ethan Suplee … Seth Ryan
Stacy Keach … Cameron Alexander
Fairuza Balk … Stacey
Elliott Gould … Murray
Guy Torry … Lamont
William Russ … Dennis Vinyard
Joseph Cortese … Rasmussen (as Joe Cortese)
Jason Bose Smith … Little Henry (as Jason Bose-Smith)
Antonio David Lyons … Lawrence
Alex Sol … Mitch McCormick
Director :
Tony Kaye
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