American History X
Believe it or not but I, until recently, have never seen American History X all the way through. I’ve seen parts of it when it was on TV and I knew of its background but I’ve just never seen it. Well, one of Stephanie’s co-workers let us borrow the movie and it’s everything I thought it would be. I will say to those that have never seen it, it’s rated R for a reason. Spoilers ahead.
American History X tells the story behind the dramatic transformation of Derek Vinyard. Derek is an above average student in high school who turns to rage and anger after his father, a cop, is killed. His rage is fueled by a white supremacist that takes advantage of kids and gets them to do his bidding. Derek eventually becomes the prodigy skin head that all the kids lookup to. This is great for him until he goes to prison for killing two people and gets his butt raped, literally. Also, while in prison he sees his fellow skin heads for what they really are and begins to question his beliefs. Derek eventually overcomes his rage and prejudice in time to help save his younger brother Daniel. Daniel has followed in his brother’s footsteps hanging out with the same crowd and becoming angry and full of rage.
The author does a great job showing how racist try to blame their problems on other people for the most petty of reasons. To summarize one scene, Derek rallies a whole bunch of teens to raid a convenient store because the owner is Korean and has hired some “border jumpers.” While the fact that some businesses do hire illegal immigrants is not right in my opinion it never warrants a raid or animosity/rage/hatred/etc. My summary/synopsis does not give the movie justice. If you like ‘eye opening’ movies like The Shaw Shank Redemption, my all time favorite, you’ll like this one.
