American History X (1998)
Has anything you’ve done made your life better?
THE SUMMARY: A black guy kills a white guy’s dad, so he becomes a neo-Nazi and kills two black guys, but then befriends black guys in prison, so he saves his younger brother from hating black guys until a black guy kills him too. I don’t know that I’ve ever hated and loved a movie so much simultaneously. It’s like an extended ADL infomercial - pure propaganda, but entirely entertaining. I was howling with laughter the movie didn’t intend.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER ELECTRIC NINJA: Some people may prefer one half of Edward Norton’s character arc over the other (you choose for yourself), but a great movie nonetheless. It’s a brutally violent story about race and hatred in America. Blonde may hate this movie, so I suggest she watch it in reverse, lol.
JAMIE AND JEANNE’S AI FACESWAP ART:
Give it like two more years - this photo will be real.
That haircut is oddly natural for Blonde.
How we talk to each other off-air.
THE BEST:
A 30-year-old high school kid says the N-word.
It’s unintentionally hilarious: Almost every single person is a stereotype. All the white people are trashy neo-Nazis. All the black people are criminals or basketball players, or both, except the one ‘magical negro’ school principal who’s supposed to save everybody but can’t stop the school shooting anyway. And of course, the Jewish guy is the propaganda master of the story. Everyone is the worst possible caricature of their race, in a movie that’s otherwise lecturing me about not believing such things. As we’ll get to, that’s actually more of a problem than an asset, but I was laughing throughout, even if the movie meant for me to take all these people very seriously.
‘Hello, fellow kids’ Edward Norton: One of the movie’s unintentionally funniest scenes is the ‘Derek’s hate origin story.’ His dad was just killed by a black guy, so Derek, a young impressionable man who was just telling his dad the other day how awesome his black teacher is, suddenly radicalizes into dropping the N-word on TV. It’s not just hilarious because he said the N-word or talked about AIDS, though. It’s hilarious because a nearly 30-year-old Norton goes into ‘hello, fellow kids’ mode with his long hair, his backward cap, and his long-sleeve t-shirt under a no-sleeve t-shirt. The whole presentation is inherently funny, and I refuse to believe the movie producers weren’t smirking and chuckling while making it, no matter how serious they expect me to be watching it.
It’s completely correct on many points (but you’re supposed to believe otherwise): Each time one of the movie’s ‘racists’ explains his views and I’m supposed to think he’s bad, he makes a compelling case that seems almost inarguable. In fact, those arguments are all the more compelling considering they’re prophetic - the movie is now 25 years old, and many of these characters’ warnings have already come true.
Derek gives a speech about illegal immigration before the store raid. The only thing wrong with it is that he describes a mere two million illegal immigrants in California (which of course was probably true at the time). At the dinner conversation with Murray, while debating the Rodney King incident, Derek concisely explains how the problems within the black community are a product of their own choices, not racist social forces. The conversation is strikingly similar to discussions about George Floyd today. Derek’s dad explains the problems with affirmative action and replacing classic literature with ‘black’ literature for the sake of ‘diversity.’ Every question he raises has been realized today. We are absolutely propagandized to value equal outcome. The DEI ‘inclusion’ of one thing necessarily means the exclusion of something, or someone, else. We are filling important jobs not with the most qualified, but with someone of the preferred race, or sex, or sexuality. And it’s hard to believe there isn’t a hidden destructive agenda behind these things, exactly as he warns.
The problem with the prophecy, however, is the same as the problem with the comedy. You’re supposed to think the opposite. You’re supposed to think these views are bad and obviously incorrect.
So where’s the lie tho?
Still looking for the lie.
Okay so there just is no lie.
THE WORST:
Anti-propaganda movie is all propaganda: American History X is the most propagandistic ‘anti-propaganda’ movie I’ve ever seen, and it’s not close. For all the ‘truths’ this movie supposedly demonstrates, consider all the fundamentally untrue things it insists you accept:
If a racial minority attacks you, that’s your fault: Two black guys are breaking into Derek’s car, but he’s the bad guy for taking out the trash. In fact the break-in is Derek’s fault, actually, because he beat them in basketball on hateful terms. Danny is bad for his hate too, and Derek is bad for teaching it to him, so it’s understandable why a black kid would kill him.
Conservative or pro-America views are indistinguishable from neo-Nazism: Throughout the movie, the American flag and the swastika are displayed together, as though pro-America is inherently pro-Hitler. The message is clear: if you have pride for your country and your ancestors, you shouldn’t. That’s hate.
If you hold these views, you’ll inherently become violent: And if you dare hold those forbidden views, not only are you indistinguishable from a Nazi, but you’ll become uncontrollably violent too. You’ll be raping Mexican women down at the grocery store. You’ll be beating your sister’s ass over her leftist views. You’ll be yeeting black guys in your underwear on the street with remarkable precision. Which is fine, actually - I wish I was that good of handgun shot. But the movie’s point? Don’t entertain these views - you’ll spontaneously transform into a violent terrorist.
White people are ackchyually the most dangerous: Only the white guys attack Derek in prison. And not just attack, but they brutalize him in the most humiliating way possible: the prison butt-rape. Meanwhile, the black prisoners respect Derek’s basketball game, so of course, they leave his rectum untorn, which fundamentally changes Derek’s worldview. Remember: group judgments are bad, unless the group is white people.
Anti-stereotype movie is all stereotypes: The ostensible point of the movie is not to judge or ‘hate’ people based on group identity, but of course that’s exactly what this movie does. The black guys are criminal basketball players, and the Jewish guy is a scheming manipulator, but the worst and most outlandish stereotypes are those of the white ‘neo-Nazis.’
Even actual Nazis don’t unironically decorate their bedrooms as trailer trash Hitler memorial sites. Where are the swastika bedding and the Führer beanie babies? Likewise, they don’t go to Nazi punk rock shows, as though such a thing would even be legal in California anyway. They don’t weigh 400 pounds, and drive around singing a white power rewrite of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. And they definitely don’t violently raid small businesses. The crime demographics are absolutely otherwise. This is a problem for Foot Lockers, not immigrant-owned grocery stores.
Like the prior propaganda point that if you hold these views you’ll become violent, the point here is that if you’re a white person with any level of pride, you’re a fat, poor, hateful, pathetic loser.
How exactly am I supposed to interpret the ending?: What did… Derek… do? Dafuk you mean, what did Derek do? That’s exactly what Derek says when Danny is shot dead. ‘What did I do?!’ A black guy just killed his brother, and Derek’s immediate reaction is to blame himself, because somehow his prior ‘hate’ is responsible for this insane criminality.
It’s completely absurd, but how am I supposed to interpret this scene? If anything, it shows ‘love’ for love’s sake means nothing. It’ll get you killed. Derek and Danny had just disavowed their hate, and Danny was murdered anyway. This ending undoes the movie’s entire point, that you shouldn’t judge black people as dangerous. Instead, all of Derek’s prior points were affirmed - black criminality is indeed a big problem.
How are Derek and Danny bad guys with bad views, if their views were confirmed in the end?
Or maybe this was setup to a sequel that never worked out: in American History X 2, Derek is re-radicalized after a black guy kills his family member… again.Preposterous premises: In addition to all the absurd caricatures and stereotypes, there are several plot points that are just too silly to accept:
Derek dominates the black guys in basketball: I’d believe Derek could beat these guys in many basic life skills, but basketball is not on that list. In fact, I’d believe Derek could beat these guys in anything but basketball. He even beats them in looting, at least at that grocery store. But Derek dunking on the brothers is a step, or a jump, too far.
Why does the stomped guy bite the curb?: If you’re shot and bleeding out, and a guy tells you to bite the curb so he can curb stomp your jaw off, why would you oblige? Why would you assist the curb stomping? Just lay there and beg to be shot, instead of scraping your teeth begging for mercy.
Why did they butt-rape, anyway?: Yes, I know I already talked about the butt-rape. But I’m coming back to it. Why would Aryan Brotherhood guys, organized on the principles of racial purity and rigid behavioral standards, commit some of the most heinous degeneracy for the sake of a laugh? I don’t buy it. If you know anyone who’s been butt-raped by a Nazi, prison or elsewhere, I’ll stand corrected. But I don’t think this is a thing that happens.
I believe he could beat them in anything but basketball.
This school shooting isn’t news.
THE RATING: 2/5 Wickies. I’m conflicted, because in entertainment value, it’s a near Five Wicky™, but for trying to propagandize me into thinking that fundamentally true things are false, and I’ll become violent if I believe them, I am obligated to assign a low score.
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NEXT WEEK: Unforgiven (1992)
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