it's tough to really say something nice about a type of person who's so ethnocentric that any humanity they once had is now gone , but by god , " american history x " does it , and for that , i commend it . 
it not only takes balls but intelligence to make a human being out of a neo-nazi skinhead , a kind of person who dedicates their lives to hating anyone who's not what they are , and this film wisely and miracurously pulls it off . 
the subject of this film is one of them , but he is worse than one of the blind followers that make up most skinhead members since he is the leader of the pack . 
he's the one who instigates them to take a firm grip onto their rage , and then in another brilliant stroke , justifies it with political propoganda that makes eerie sense when he speaks . 
he's so utterly convincing as a public speaker and so firm in his convictions that it comes as a shock when he actually goes through the rehabilitation process . 
his name is derek vinyard , and he's played by edward norton with so much fire and intensity that when he speaks he's almost as convincing and arresting a public speaker as , say , malcom x . when we first see him , he's clean shaven , with a jet black swastica emrboidered on his left breast , a devlish goatee , and he's attacking the black carjackers outside of his house dressed in nothing but his white boxers and carrying a handgun in his hand that never seems to run out of bullets , at least when he doesn't need them . 
he so believes in his convictions that he's willing to put his beliefs to the test , even if he knows it will mean a stop in prison , if only for a couple years . 
 " american history x " is about derek , how he became a neo-nazi skinhead , how he rose to power , how he was rehabilitated in prison after murdering two black men in a fit of rage that was less to do with the stealing of his car and more to do with proving himself , and how he tried to save others , namely his younger brother , from making the same mistake . 
we see him at all of these stages - as a smart teenager , a vicious hate monger , a man having an epiphany , and the man who tries to correct what he's done before - and in all of these , we get a portrait of a man from all sides . 
or at least , that's the intention . 
the film's framing device is his brother , danny ( edward furlong , perpetually looking about 13 ) , also now a skinhead , and how his principal , bob sweeney ( avery brooks , who i just found out was or is the captain on star trek's deep space 9 ) , is trying to " correct " him . 
when the film opens , danny has just written a book report on " mein kampf , " landing him in trouble with sweeney , which causes him to make him write a paper on derek's life and how it has gotten him nowhere . 
coincidentally , this day is the day derek is released from prison , and when we see him , he's cleaned-up , not as buff , and has a full head of hair . 
he's just as intelligent , but still very rough along the edges , but he's wisened up . 
he's no longer controlled by his anger at blacks and jews , and tries to persuade danny , who's becoming what derek was before , to give up his lifestyle . 
but danny won't . 
he goes to a large skinhead beer bash , meets with the skinhead leader ( stacy keach ) , and then discovers that derek is as opposed to neo-nazi-dom as he was for it a couple of years ago . 
the film circles around this , then spins off into non-linear flashbacks , all done in black and white . 
we mostly see derek at his prime as a skinhead , living in venice beach , organizing vicious and quasi-sadistic raids on local stores that no longer hire the white , middle-class teenagers since they can easily get cheaper illegal immigrants to do the same work , and mouthing off his theories on affirmative action and how illegal immigrants and blacks have destroyed the fundamentals this country was built on . 
to them , the white man is the one who has gotten the fuzzy end of the lolipop , and he not only speaks elloquently , forcefully , and intelligently , but he backs everything up with political reasons , justifying their rage at least to them . 
and frighteningly enough , much of what he says sounds true . 
 " american history x " is a collection of really great scenes and moments , rather than a cohesive , great film that flows effortlessly from one moment to the next . 
in it , there are some of the best scenes i've seen all year . 
one scene features a dinner between derek's family , and his mother's newest boyfriend ( played with reserve by eliott gould ) , a jewish liberal who quietly disagrees with derek's rightist views , launching the scene into a fit of rage and anger that builds unparalled emotions in the audience ( gould's reaction to derek's final summation is unnerrving ) . 
another scene uses humor and traditional macho sex talk to build a friendship and a nice connection between derek and a black co-worker ( guy torry ) while folding laundry in prison . 
and another soon-to-be-classic is actually divided in two : the murder of the two black men that winds derek in jail , which contains a final murder so nasty that it may be the most revoltingly shocking all year . 
there's much more to appreciate , like the acting , which is uniformly good , with stand-outs coming from avery brooks , beverly d'angelo ( as the long-suffering mother ) , and gould ( who has one horrible line , but other than that , comes off with the best performance he's given in what seems like a really long time ) . 
norton walks off with the film , though , coming off with such intensity that he reduces anyone not doing an adequate job to rubble . 
in only the fifth movie of his career , norton has invented himself as one of the most reliable and intense actors of his generation , and maybe the best . 
there's nothing like it when norton really gets rolling in this movie , spewing out lines with such authority that he commands all attention from the audience , coming off with power similar to that of a young maron brando . 
that he allows the little emotions to seep through is amazing . 
sadly enough , this isn't going to be the great portrait of racism that it perhaps hopes to be . 
it's too unambitious and even a little contrived to really take off as either a powerful statement or an emotional masterpiece . 
the ending , especially , is pencilled in from other movies , tossed in just so the emotional keyboard can be trounced upon . 
some of the skinheads are reduced to mere cliches ( kevin smith regular ethan suplee fairs rather annoyingly as the " fat skinhead , " whose lines consist without fail of expressing his desire to eat more ) , and even the dramatic arc isn't as well travelled . 
furlong's danny never seems to really be learning a lesson , since the flashbacks refuse to show his point of view , and when he decides to make a change by the end ( which was inevitable ) , it doesn't seem like it has actually arrived there . 
even derek's descent into skinhead-dom doesn't seem justified . 
though his fireman father ( william russ , the dad from " boy meets world , " and don't ask me how i know that ) is killed by a black junkie , and even before he spoke against affirmative action intelligently , there never seems to be any real back story why derek became so intense about his beliefs . 
as such , one can see why the director , tony kaye , wanted to have his name removed . 
sorta . 
 " american history x " is a very good movie , and i was very moved by it , but it could be a lot better , and the problem seems to be that the cut as it is is not up to what he claims to be his potential . 
somewhere , he claims , there lies a tony kaye cut , and that was to be the true cut until it was viewed by norton , who then ordered another cut , and that is thus . 
although he aimed for the directing credit to go to " alan smithee , " the resident name for any film that is to be disowned by its director , it wasn't allowed to him , under the grounds that once you disown a film , you can not badmouth it ( but really , that's the macguffin - no one really wanted a film this good to be given the alan smithee sign of disapproval ) . 
kaye's right in that it's not up to par , even if he's not referring to normal par but rather his own personal par . 
this will not be a " do the right thing " for the late 90s . 
yet it still gets its point across intelligently , and backs it up with its story ( its message , that one cannot be so enwrapped in one's own beliefs or pain and suffering will occur , is literally said over the narration , unfortunately ) . 
and even if it isn't perfect , at least when avery brooks turns to norton after he has been beaten and raped in prison , and asks him if anything he's done has made his life any better , it realy hits a nerve , not only in derek , but also in the audience .