American History X [VHS]

American History X [VHS]
by Tony Kaye

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Product details

Actor: Avery Brooks, Beverly D'Angelo, Edward Furlong, Edward Norton, Jennifer Lien
Director: Tony Kaye
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 119 minutes
Release Date: 1999-08-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Studio: New Line Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of American History X [VHS]

Movie Review: classic
Summary: 5 Stars

What makes American History X work so well is Ed Norton's acting.

His charator, ex-neo Nazi Derek, had been in jail: he had actually brutally murdered a black man, but was not caught for this crime. While in prison, his life is actually saved by another black man, who he befriends.

Derek comes out of prison reformed and is trying to save his younger brother, who is following the same path that led Derek to jail.

We know Derek did horribly brutal things in the name of white power before going to jail. But he is shown in American History X as a whole person; intellgent, and working to find the right way to put his terrible past behind him.

Watching, I found myslef caring for Derek dispite the despicable person he was, because Norton has created an intigrated, vulnerable person in the charactor. Beverly D'Angelo also does outstanding work as Dereks sick mother--a far cry from her work in the Vacation films.

Movie Review: It's been done
Summary: 2 Stars

There is nothing new here just the usual Hollywood hype. Grossly exaggerating the threat of neo-Nazi's while ignoring California's minority gangs. More people are killed by gangs in one day than in the last 10 years from the nazi's. If you watch/buy this, just don't think. It aims soley at the emotional.

Movie Review: American History X
Summary: 4 Stars

So i dont really see the point in doing this. I wanted the movie, I bought the movie, it came in the mail, and now I own it. It was pretty simple and basic. I reccommend the movie to anyone who has not seen it.

Movie Review: Disturbing Yet Very Powerful
Summary: 4 Stars

Edward Norton is a fabulous actor, yet his portrayal as an angry, hate-filled skinhead in AMERICAN HISTORY X may be his best, most powerful performance. Norton so immerses himself in the role of a young man feeling disenfranchised from his culture and society that his racist rants take on a surreal logic all their own; one of the primary reasons this is such a disturbing film.

The interracial interaction and tension is as volatile as it is believable, making the first half of the film extremely uncomfortable to watch. Stacy Keach playing a cold, cunning, calculating mentor to the skinhead gang is extremely effective, and Edward Furlong is compelling as Norton's impressionable younger brother. The brothers come from a highly dysfunctional family, matriarched by a frightened, unstable mother (Beverly D'Angelo). Once Norton's character is sent to prison for gunning down two African Americans, AMERICAN HISTORY X takes a decided turn, as the protagonist experiences a reawakening--and a very ironic friendship.

Upon his release our main character has a much different outlook on life, yet cannot turn his younger brother away from years of indoctrinated hate, and the film moves relentlessly toward its hopelessly tragic (and horrific) conclusion. One does indeed reap what one sows--a powerful lesson to take from AMERICAN HISTORY X, a compelling, engrossing, yet disturbing film.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

Movie Review: deep movie
Summary: 3 Stars

just a really deep movie & touches on rascism in the world & how you can make a change if you change yourself

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Summary of American History X [VHS]

Edward Norton was nominated for a 1998 Best Actor Oscar for his role as Derek Vinyard, a thoughtful kid turned neo-Nazi after his father is slain. Edward Furlong plays his younger brother, Danny, determined to follow in his brother's footsteps. The easy routes the film seems prepared to take never materialize. It continually makes Derek's transformation both in and out of his racist beliefs believable and persuasive. Stacy Keach is given the head vampire role of the local skinhead chapter, Cameron, and he's the closest this film comes to an overt overstatement. Norton, however, is fantastic, embodying a person who roller-coasters through hatred like he can't wait to ride again. His diatribes are not unlike what can be heard on any given conservative radio station on any given day, but he doesn't spew them as cant or screed. Only when his violent emotions take charge, negating any sense or stand, is the underlying fallacy and nature of his beliefs made plain. This film was undermined by the film's own director, Tony Kaye, who made such a braying ass of himself and his work that it distorted the public's view of what is an interesting social and psychological lesson in the war between ideas and ideologues, reason and racism. --Keith Simanton

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