Despite having no true qualifications in the fields of writing or film studies, my lifelong attachment to cinema has finally propelled me into the world of WordPress. Well, it’s either that or it’s my sudden realisation that I can use the internet for more than just watching compilations of unsuccessful X factor auditions. They are funny though. Anyway, I would like to present to you my “description” (I hesitate to call this a “review”, as that suggests this will contain conflicting criticisms and praises, rather than just a series of disorganised observations) of one of my favourite movies, American History X.
As I begin my second paragraph… I realise I’ve automatically created another text box. I have no idea what this means, however I’m already three lines (now four lines) in so let’s just continue. Although I imagine this chronological approach will soon unravel into a disconnected splatter of text, I’ll start from the beginning. Tony Kaye’s 1998 masterpiece begins with our teenage protagonist, Danny Vinyard, awakening in the dead of night to the sound of his older brother’s car being broken into. We are immediately confronted by a dull, monochrome opening scene which truly sets the tone for the darkness of the film, although further along in the movie we discover that only the flashbacks are shown in black and white, which I assume is to display the difficulty the protagonist has when confronting these memories, almost as if they are so gritty and unpleasant, that he can’t bare to revisit them in their full colour and impact.
As most of you will know, the scene comes to an end after Danny’s brother, Derek kills the black car thieves without hesitation. Although only a portion of this is shown at the beginning. The most brutal of his two murders is shown later in the film, again in black and white, and the racial slurs he yells throughout, and the swastika tattoos scattered across his chest show that these murders were driven by race hate. I assume that this scene was split into two to prolong Danny’s great suffering, so that throughout the movie, our empathy for what he has been through is consistently raw and fresh. I also think it connects to my previous point which refers to Danny being unable to truly grasp the horror of what he saw, so his mind breaks the memory down into more digestible, monochrome fragments.
Four paragraphs in and I’m still hoping these are paragraphs and I haven’t written four separate blogs by accident. Anyway, the next scene brings us to the present (well, 1998) and the setting is Danny’s high school, where his black headmaster discusses the racially inappropriate material Danny has written, and the influence his older brother has had on his mindset. Another thing I noticed while watching the movie was the lack of original beliefs. This film is a perfect representation of how tradition can effect how people adjust to the changing of society. American History X uses Dr Sweeney (the black headmaster), to show the progression of society as a whole, as just the fact that a black man can hold the title of Doctor shows how far civilisation has come. However, the two protagonists, Danny and Derek are used to show how “tradition” can undo progress. As it was the brothers’ father who first implants the racist opinions into Derek’s developing mind, and these ideas were encouraged when his father was killed by a black man.
Alright, well I’ve had a look at a couple of other blog posts and if I continue I’m afraid this might be a bit too long… but I’ve covered a couple of themes I wanted to and I guess that’s enough. Let me know if you enjoyed reading.
Mike’s Movies 