American History X

One of the reasons I like the film is that the racism isn't shoved down your throat. It's subtle and believable. There's no characters standing around screaming about "Those goddamn Mexicans, I don't want THEM changing my locks so THEY can rob the place with their little essays!", right in front of them.

The acting is great all around, and Edward Norton gives one of the best performances of all time. I can't believe he didn't win best actor. While I haven't seen Benji's performance, I doubt he was half as good as Norton. The film is also highly inspirational and moving.

How is it that this wasn't even nominated for best picture, while Crash was AND won? Crazy.

This should be shown in schools.

A good friend of mine suggested this film, and I really didnt know what to expect going in, but after this film was over, I sat in stunned silence. I knew that racism was horrible, but I found through this film that it does not come without a terrible price..the loss of love, friends, family...and the realization that everything that you believed to be true isnt always the way things are. Edward Norton's performance takes the viewer through this journey, and its not a pretty one. He goes from an bright young man, to a vengeful bigot, to a remorseful excon with a brothers life in jeopardy, and you feel as though you are looking in on someones life in the course of 2 hrs. All of the acting in this film is first rate, and the ending wasnt quite as predictable as others might have you believe...it is quite shocking, as is much of the film. It causes quite a debate on the way people view others whos skin color is not the same. As Dr. King said, judge me not on the color of my skin, but on the content of my character. I live with racism, because I am a black man living in America...it exists, but if we educate ourselves like the main character in AHX, it wont stay around for much longer. Hopefully it wont be too late, as it was for him. Peace and Love, JB33 Rating 5 stars

I give this movie a 10 because

1) Edward Norton was the meaning of masterful acting, you could just look at his eyes and understand every little pain he felt and caused. His smile and manner switching before and after was so distinguishing that if you did not speak English you could just follow him.

2) cinematography : not only the black and white phase was amazing some other shots was masterful

3) the cause , I watched this movie in 2019 and it is as important and as relevant as it was 21 years ago

When I first heard of "American History X," I thought it was going to be "just another movie." Man, was I wrong! The first time I watched it, I sat there as it ended, and I was just completely in a state of shock. This movie, more than any other movie I had seen on the subject of racism, really made me think twice about how I treated people of a different race. The way that Derek Vinyard's family was almost completely split apart and destroyed due to his racist beliefs should be a wake-up call to those people who have any racist beliefs whatsoever. I believe that this movie was a whole lot more than just a ground-breaking, controversial drama; it was a portrayal of exactly how much damage can be done to a family and a nation simply because of the hate for a person or people of a different color, for almost no reason at all. The Bible says that "God created man in his own image." It also says to, "Love your neighbor as yourself," which, right there, implies that racism is not something people should even consider. I wouldn't recommend that anyone under the age of 16 see this movie due to its graphic content and language; however, I believe that everyone who is over the age of 16, should see this movie at least once. This way, more people will get a chance to see the true consequences of racism, and how it can easily tear apart a family.

The tragedy of evil is that in trying to stop it, you create it. So if you want to stop doing evil actions, you also have to stop seeing evil because to see evil you must project evil... therefore, you create evil. If you genuinely want to be moral, you got to make a counterintuitive move of giving up all morality. All of your moral rules give them all away. Only then you will truly be moral but if you go around touting your morality, and telling people how moral you are and how immoral they are, that immediately tells that you're not embodying your morality. A genuinely moral person would never do that because true morality is not based on rules, it's not a self-image that you adopt, it's not a list of 10 commandments that you follow. When you think you're so righteous and so moral, you will go and kill people in the name of your morality which is precisely what creates evil.