Though the violence is shocking when one examines neo-nazis, what is more
shocking is the intelligence and the ignorance, dually scripted in the brains of these
soldiers. Irate people who need something to feed on look to these groups which
prey on loners and rage-filled youth. The intelligent leaders, like Derek Vinyard
(Norton), are picked to spew a whole bunch of political jargon, complete with
statistics, in order to hook the impressionable outcasts who venture into his view.
The ignorance of people like little brother Danny (Furlong), who doesn’t know any
better and idolizes Derek, leads to a group of disgruntled youth, fighting a war with
their animosity and putting children in the line of fire. It’s a hard concept to grasp.
The "ideological Aryan man" garbage being sold to children in order to make
powerful those who are strong and have a bone to pick : this is the underlying
subject of Tony Kaye’s powerful vision.

Derek’s father was shot putting out a fire in a crackhouse. Derek, alone in the
world and supporting his mother (Beverly D’Angelo) and 3 siblings, looks to the
local Venice Beach skinhead leader, Cameron, played by Stacy Keach with putrid
and vile disdain. Derek is eventually sent to jail for manslaughter when
he murders two African-American would-be carjackers outside his house
(one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen on the screen). After undergoing a
transformation that can only be called brutally necessary (he is raped and cast out
by fellow skinhead inmates), Derek attempts to restore dignity to himself and
become human again. He does it with the help of Sweeney (Avery Brooks,
commanding and full of presence), a former schoolteacher of his (now Danny’s
principal). Eventually, Derek is allowed to leave prison. He is on a mission to
restore himself. When he finds Danny heading down the same path he was - he
immediately takes charge.

Of course, this makes for a huge and weighty role for Norton who absolutely
owns the film. While the ideas / themes of the film may seem a bit too familiar, the
execution, particularly of Norton’s character, takes the film far beyond the levels of
tradition or convention. The film enters a realm of pure and absolute honesty. It
never compromises its characters, it treats them as they are. Norton starts out a
monster, able to see the world only in black and white, good and bad, Caucasian
and Minority. The script allows enough screen time and packs enough emotion to
transcend a change and to complete it within the film’s two hour duration. (It is a
rarity in American motion pictures that a character / idea will be fully developed by
the time the end credits roll.) By the end, he is no longer a monster, but a human
being; intelligent, kind and able to see the world as it truly is: with all colors
integrated on a palette of reality. Kaye takes a literal approach to this,
shooting the film before and during Derek’s prison time in black-and-white and
shooting in color when he emerges a changed man.

To once more push the film and return to my original point, I must say I was
extremely impressed with the way Norton handled the script. Screenwriter David
McKenna takes an extremely gifted and enthusiastic young mind like Derek’s and
allows society’s ills to feed on it. There were probably a dozen times during the film
when he begins to speak and the audience is able to read the double meaning of his
speech. An example : Norton is explaining the Rodney King verdict and its
aftermath. He begins speaking and escalates as he makes point after rich and
brilliant point. As he draws toward the end of his lament, we see his refusal to allow
his mind to speak for itself as he resorts to a terrifying rally of white power. What
began as a well-thought out and masterfully spoken argument becomes clouded
with Norton’s other, more single-minded level of thinking. The two-sided coin
speaks for itself : influenced by a hate group, Norton has become a machine, unable
to think for himself, brainwashed and doomed by dangerous propaganda. As he
recycles it to his family and their Jewish guest (Elliot Gould, stubborn and timid),
the hate wells in his black and empty eyes : he is going to explode. When he does
blow, murdering the two African-American youths, his eyes transform once again
into an eerie, mesmerized gaze of true power and control. As he sets his gun down,
the police officer covers his swastika tattoo (directly over Derek’s heart). The
moment is gut-wrenching. The film follows suit.

Though we may never be able to control and put a stop to hate groups, the film
leaves us with a ray of hope and a word of warning. After being rehabilitated,
Derek tells us that "hate is baggage", a needless trait that can slow us down and
keep us from achieving our goals. As the shocks and brutalities pile up in 'American
History X', we are given the same clear-cut point in the film as in Derek’s quote.

The film is a riveting achievement, the kind of film that immediately garners
controversy, which will unfortunately downplay and shroud the essential ideas
being projected. It is not as strong as it could be - it allows itself to follow too many
different strands of the narrative, bogging it down and clogging its clarity. But, oh
my, is it a powerful little film. If I said Norton deserves an Oscar nomination, I
would be right. For once, allow yourself to ignore what has been rumored about the
film and delve completely into this dramatization for what it is : an unprecedented
page marker for troubled times.