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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 971
Released: April 6, 1999 |
| Our Price: $4.98 |
| Used Price: $2.43 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Edward Norton's Academy Award nominated role as a White Supremist who sees the error of his ways while jailed for murder. Unfortunately, he leaves prison to find his brother (Edward Furlong) heading down the same path.
DVD Features:
Biographies
Deleted Scenes
Filmographies
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Theatrical Trailer
Description of American History X:
Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his Oscar-nominated performance in American History X nearly convinces you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If that statement doesn't horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character's eloquent defense of racism is disturbingly persuasive--at least on the surface. Looking lean and mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton) has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been intensified through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing tyrant and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach, California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding alienation.
The film's basic message--that hate is learned and can be unlearned--is expressed through Derek's kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose sibling hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny's mind, martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek's gift of rebel rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward sentiment, and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye (who would later protest against Norton's creative intervention during post-production) manages to juggle these qualities--and a compelling clash of visual styles--to considerable effect. No matter how strained their collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically forceful impact. --Jeff Shannon
American History X Reviews:
classic 
2009-12-03 - What makes American History X work so well is Ed Norton's acting.
His charator, ex-neo Nazi Derek, had been in jail: he had actually brutally murdered a black man, but was not caught for this crime. While in prison, his life is actually saved by another black man, who he befriends.
Derek comes out of prison reformed and is trying to save his younger brother, who is following the same path that led Derek to jail.
We know Derek did horribly brutal things in the name of white power before going to jail. But he is shown in American History X as a whole person; intellgent, and working to find the right way to put his terrible past behind him.
Watching, I found myslef caring for Derek dispite the despicable person he was, because Norton has created an intigrated, vulnerable person in the charactor. Beverly D'Angelo also does outstanding work as Dereks sick mother--a far cry from her work in the Vacation films.
It's been done 
2009-11-23 - There is nothing new here just the usual Hollywood hype. Grossly exaggerating the threat of neo-Nazi's while ignoring California's minority gangs. More people are killed by gangs in one day than in the last 10 years from the nazi's. If you watch/buy this, just don't think. It aims soley at the emotional.
American History X 
2009-10-11 - So i dont really see the point in doing this. I wanted the movie, I bought the movie, it came in the mail, and now I own it. It was pretty simple and basic. I reccommend the movie to anyone who has not seen it.
Disturbing Yet Very Powerful
2009-08-14 - Edward Norton is a fabulous actor, yet his portrayal as an angry, hate-filled skinhead in AMERICAN HISTORY X may be his best, most powerful performance. Norton so immerses himself in the role of a young man feeling disenfranchised from his culture and society that his racist rants take on a surreal logic all their own; one of the primary reasons this is such a disturbing film.
The interracial interaction and tension is as volatile as it is believable, making the first half of the film extremely uncomfortable to watch. Stacy Keach playing a cold, cunning, calculating mentor to the skinhead gang is extremely effective, and Edward Furlong is compelling as Norton's impressionable younger brother. The brothers come from a highly dysfunctional family, matriarched by a frightened, unstable mother (Beverly D'Angelo). Once Norton's character is sent to prison for gunning down two African Americans, AMERICAN HISTORY X takes a decided turn, as the protagonist experiences a reawakening--and a very ironic friendship.
Upon his release our main character has a much different outlook on life, yet cannot turn his younger brother away from years of indoctrinated hate, and the film moves relentlessly toward its hopelessly tragic (and horrific) conclusion. One does indeed reap what one sows--a powerful lesson to take from AMERICAN HISTORY X, a compelling, engrossing, yet disturbing film.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
deep movie 
2009-08-10 - just a really deep movie & touches on rascism in the world & how you can make a change if you change yourself
