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Discussion
My wife and I are watching the entirety of the IMDb Top 250 as a fun little movie project. Last night was American History X, which definitely deserves its place on that list.
The thing I find myself thinking about most every time I see this movie is the subplot that basically sandwiches the film.
SPOILERS FOR A QUARTER CENTURY OLD MOVIE AHEAD
One of our two leads, Danny Vinyard (played by Edward Furlong) is a teenager in high school. A white high schooler is taking a beating from three black students for allegedly telling the teacher that Little Henry (played by Jason Bose Smith)--was cheating.
Danny Vinyard exits a bathroom stall, confronts Little Henry who talks a little smack, and Danny responds by taking a long drag off his cigarette and blowing the smoke in his face. Little Henry lets it go because he has to get to class. Danny helps the bullying victim up, telling him he needs to stand up for himself.
As the film concludes, we return to that same bathroom. Danny uses a urinal and in walks Little Henry, this time with a loaded handgun and shoots Danny repeatedly, killing him.
So what's your take on this subplot? The film's other lead, Edward Norton's Derek Vinyard, is the real star and focus of the plot in which he kills two black men seeking some sort of retribution for an incident at a local basketball court. His incarceration changes him significantly, partly seeing fellow neo Nazi skinheads in prison not having any real ideals they stick to, befriending a black inmate (Lamont played by Guy Torry), and his continued friendship and support from Dr. Bob Sweeny (played by Avery Brooks).
Derek gets through to his younger brother Danny and helps realize all the hate and propaganda is bullshit and fuel for angry youths who aren't actually doing anything to improve their or anyone else's situation; they're just lashing out stupidly.
Derek and Danny tear down all the Nazi propaganda and iconography and seem to be headed down a new path, all for Danny to get killed over something that didn't really seem to have anything to do with race to begin with.
So then I can't help wondering... is Derek going to go back to the way he was? His father planted the seeds of racism, his father's murder radicalized him, and then Cameron (played by Stacy Keach) turned him into the Nazi thug.
Is the film suggesting this fairly maleable character is going to turn back to his Nazi ways since his brother was murdered by a black teen, or is "What did I do?" as he's holding his brother's body implying he's taking responsibility? That he's not blaming others anymore?
But then... how is this his fault? Aside from Danny being white and Little Henry being black, race doesn't seem to be a factor. Yes, Danny blew smoke in Henry's face, but Henry was bullying a kid and maybe Danny would've done the same thing to a white bully. It didn't really seem like the bullying nor the smoke blowing were necessarily a racist thing either way.
I'd be interested in reading other people's thoughts on this subplot or even just how people feel about it.
"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." ~ Abraham Lincoln
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Danny has been playing Skinhead at school for awhile now, and it's probably earned him a reputation. The interaction we see may not seem like it's all about race, but we learn how old and deep the racial tension and violence in the area is. Danny's brother killed some guys that the bathroom boys might have known, and Danny wears a shaved head, gets confrontational with black guys, and does his book report on Mein Kampf. To those kids, he was a skinhead on Friday and he's a skinhead on Monday.
Excellent reply. Thank you!
There's a deleted scene (if I remember right) that should ahve been left in the movie imo that show's Little Henry's relationship with his brother, which is a foil to Danny and Derek's relationship except Henry's brother encourages him to retaliate violently, coaxing him into shooting Danny that day at school.
I've always read the tragedy ending as a continuing play on the core theme of the film about escaping cycles of violence and abuse; that even when you try to get out, the world outside of you can drag you back in or your past can still come back to bite you. Cycles of violence are not easily escaped because the real horror of cycles of violence is that they are social products and not solely an individual concern.
Cycles of violence don't end just because you recognize they exist and they cannot be resolved by merely walking away/letting it go. They're far more insidious because they are not solely in our personal or individual control.
In a lot of ways American History X feels like it can be seen as a response to a lot of 'White Savior' schoolhouse movies that were very in vogue in the 90s, and a refutation that our history with racial animus can be easily resolved by just deciding not to be racist anymore.
That's so fucking cynical and bleak, but I do believe you're right.
It's sad, but it's also unfortunately realistic.
This was one of my favorite movies as a sheltered 20-something who didn't really know much about the world.
It's stock has fallen a bit since then, mostly because while I still see it as a good 'it makes you think' movie, I think it failed to fully explore its themes. The big issue American History X has, and what thinking about it highlights imo, is that resolving our history of racial violence and grievance is far too often treated as a 'white people just need to learn better' problem.
That's why that deleted scene really needs to be in the movie imo.
Because it's not just about white people.
Danny and Derek never engaged Little Henry or his brother. They never even tried. The movie even highlights the failure of 'the white personal journey to betterment' narrative by cutting Little Henry and his brother out of the movie more or less undercutting the themes of the film itself imo*.*
You can't resolve racial violence, and you can't resolve cycles of violence, by treating it like it's the personal journey of white people who just need to learn better. Cycles of violence have to be understood, approached, and resolved wholistically.
You have to actually talk to people and actually make things right. Derek for all that he tried, didn't do that and while his personal growth was certainly important to him it was insufficient to resolve the broader social problem.
I think the movie does have the problem of ironically shelving most of the black story in favor of what the white characters are going through, but also... is it me or does Danny get turned from the white power shit too easily?
Derek basically sits Danny down and explains what he went through in prison and just seems to immediately flip a switch.
I would like a lifetime of indoctrination--Danny was younger than Derek when he was first exposed to Nazi ideology--and idolized his Nazi brother and racist father. To just suddenly go from attending white power parties to tearing down all the Nazi bullshit in room so quickly is jarring.
Like... I wish it were that easy to convert a Nazi, but we know that's not true.
I feel like Derek's girlfriend and best buddy had the more realistic reaction.
Indoctrinated people react powerfully to anything or anyone suggesting they were duped.
Look at everything Derek went through to finally reverse course. He was still holding onto his bullshit after the prison rape scene. Dr. Sweeny still had some convincing to do. Danny only needed to hear Derek's story to realize he was immersed in hateful nonsense?
Oh yeah. This is a criticism I've seen of the film that if convincing Nazis to not be Nazis was that easy, then there wouldn't be any Nazis. EDIT: Further highlighted by the irony that the film is popular with Neo-Nazis who choose to read its ending as justifying Nazism and delegitimizing not being a Nazi. Because the world his a fucked place sometimes with fucked people.
Granted, another theme of the film, and maybe a more hopeful side of it, is the importance of role models.
Derek idolized his father, when maybe he shouldn't have.
Danny diolized his brother, when maybe he shouldn't have.
Little Henry idolized his brother, when maybe he shouldn't have.
Derek turning around and trying to get his brother out of Nazism is a good thing, and it does highlight the importance of role models, being a good example, and that individually a person can help other people out of bad places. The movies themes are just, imo, incomplete and do not form the complete circle I think they wanted to.
Danny blows smoke in the guys face for two reasons. 1) He’s a black guy and blowing smoke in his face illustrates how little Danny thinks of him and his race. 2) He’s standing up to him signaling he’s not afraid just like his brother taught him in the basketball game we see later in the movie. White guys gotta stand up to black guys.
So later when Derek is cradling dead Danny, even though Derek doesn’t know the circumstances of what went down exactly, he knows that he indoctrinated Danny into the theology that likely got him killed. Even if Danny didn’t do anything specifically to warrant his own murder, it was at the least retaliation against Derek by the black gangs who want to punish Derek for what he did.
Derek knows this, and that he was too late to prevent catastrophic consequences for his actions as a skinhead. Therefore it’s HIGHLY unlikely he’d return to an ideology (white power) that imposed such a cost and that he admitted openly was bullshit. Rather he would just eat the cost (dead brother) and continue on with his life.
Great fucking answer.
Thank you.
I always took it as him accepting responsibility.
His brother becoming a casualty of a local war and racial divide that he had a massive impact on propagating and escalating.
It's a film about American History. Weak minds being easily subverted to violent causes that serve others.
I think that the focus on this subplot might be more to do with male machismo and cycles of violence. While the pervading theme of the movie is that of racial hatred and ideological violence that uses past experiences and misinformation to manipulate people into an ideological framework this other violence is is a more "human" and "primal" one. The violence seen in these interactions is, unfortunately, a by-product of engrained cross race, cross cultural masculinity taken to an extreme. The juxtaposition of this with the overall narrative leaves it as a powerful message that ideologies come and go, some are violent and some are peaceful, but until we tackle the structural violence at the heart of what many individuals take to be a core personality trait the cycle of violence will always find a way to come back.