Controversy in the Film American History X
Controversy in the Film "American History X"
The controversial American History X is an excellent film directed by Tony Faye starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. This film chronicles the behavior of a ex-nazi skinhead named Derek Vinyard (Ed Norton), the events encompassing his incarceration, and the effects of his life on his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) who idolizes him. The film begins with Derek violently murdering two black men that are trying to break into his car and home. The murder is the event that sends him to prison and forces him to reflect on his life. Prison is also the point of self-disclosure. The self-disclosure manifests itself in the form of Derek’s prison flashbacks. He discloses this information to his brother in order to explain why racism and prejudice is wrong. We also learn that Derek was put on this path to hate by his father, and this hate was accentuated by his father’s death/murder while carrying out his duties on the job as a fireman. We also learn that he mentored a local white supremacist named Cameron that groomed Derek to lead a large number of other skinheads. While in prison he is put on the path to enlightenment ironically by two black men. One of them is a former high school professor (Avery Brooks) that Derek respected, and the other is a fellow inmate that befriends him. He is then released from prison to find his family living in less than satisfactory conditions and Danny heading in the same direction as Derek once was. Danny says he will be just like Derek, which is his self-fulfilling prophecy, and accomplishes this, only the outcome is worse. Derek’s goal now is to save Danny’s future by telling him the errors of his past. However, he is a day too late because some of Danny’s previous actions prove to have grave consequences.
Derek faces a number of issues as we follow him along his journey of self. One of these issues being self-esteem. Previous to Derek’s enlightenment he had very high self-esteem as far as how he was perceived, in fact it was too high. He thought himself and other white protestants like him to be of the master race. In this he suffered from the fallacy of overgeneralization. ...