American History X
One of the most frustrating films I've ever seen. On one hand, the film is supremely well acted, lovingly shot and well paced. Everything is in its right place, and I never thought any one aspect of the storyline was ignored.
On the other hand...this has got to be one of the preachiest films I've ever seen, and it doesn't work, because neither side of the argument is properly fleshed out. The screenplay is, to describe it broadly, very weak. For every cogent point about equality and "best man for the job" made by the skinhead side, there's degrading language that harms any and all chances of commiseration. There's never a shade of grey anywhere (much like every waking moment of the homelife of these kids being saturated with racial turmoil, with zero normalcy). On the side of the "good guys," there's...not much of an argument at all. Perhaps the writers of this film didn't consider answers to the skinhead arguments necessary. There's never any voice of reason in this film, nobody there to break down ludicrous ideas. All there is is prison rape and black acquaintances to turn tides that had been rolling on for years and years.
Derek expresses his prejudices via socioeconomic rants...did he completely change his opinions on illegal immigration, welfare, outsourcing, etc. because of his experiences in prison? Perhaps he's still staunchly conservative, minus the white power propaganda and hateful rhetoric, but the film never goes deep enough into that. Instead it's the extraordinarily linear "white man hates black man, white man finds white man is as fucked up as every other race, white man loves black man." And it happens in about 40 minutes. I can understand Danny tearing his room apart at the drop of a hat after hearing his brother's story because I never got the impression that he bought into all that bullshit to begin with, but I assumed Derek's racism was something he at least took some time to think through. Guess not.
Also, the ending didn't sit right with me because I don't know how Derek responded to it. If he had gone back to being a skinhead prick, the conclusion of the film would have been considerably different than what we were given (namely, we have a LONG way to go vs. just let shit go because we're basically past all that). I'm going on the assumption that Derek has changed his ways for good, but you can't tell from what we have here. I don't mind ambiguous endings, but this one makes a strong claim and doesn't follow through on it: so it's not good to let shit piss you off. OK, how did Derek respond to his brother being murdered by a black kid? And, if he responded positively/negatively, how did it impact his life? Was he happier than he would have been otherwise? This is shit that a slightly deeper film would have tackled. As it is, I think the moral is pretty decent, and I generally enjoyed the rest of the film. The first half especially. The second moved far too quickly, and the outside influence of the skinhead gangs (unrealistically) disappeared out of the blue.
I want to discuss this film before I rate it on netflix and the like, because I'm not sure if I missed something and am way off the mark here.
PS: The basketball scene is patently retarded.
