American history X is a crime and drama movie published in 1998. Directed by Tony Kaye, the film illustrates
the ambivalent life of Derek Vinyard, whose role has been played by the excellent Edward Norton. It has been
described by Adam Smith from The Empire as " a terrifying look at the humanity implicit hatred. Flawed but
fascinating." .
Through this movie, we are witnessing the transition of a young Derek from a deeply racist, violent and
tormented state to a tolerant and understanding person. Fed by anger and sadness due to their father's
murder, him and his brother, Danny reacted to the terrible news in an extreme manner. Indeed, their desire
for vengeance was translated into the adherence to a skin-head gang, that preached violence and hate
towards the minorities.
The analysis of the scenes led us to the observation that the society is painted through the theoretical
approach of conflict. Moreover, it is seen into and out of the emic perspective. We clearly have a social
structuring, meaning that there is a dominant group as it happens the white community and a dominated
one. The social relations are described as unequal, conflictual and bellicose.
Apart from that, the general society in the movie is post-modernist. The reason being is that the selfishness
and egocentrism is easily distinguished. There's a contrast however since Derek has modernist approach of
society since he preaches the overall well-being of the Americans by acting against immigrants.
As soon as the movie starts, we can see the main symbols used to identify the belonging to the social-group
of skin-heads; they're white males with a shaved head and tattoos all over. Even the way they dress is easily
differentiated, therefore we could say that they're opposed to social norms, beliefs and values making them
a counterculture characterized by ethnocentrism. They became 10 times what they were before Derek went
to jail. Later in the film, we can find numerous material objects related to Nazism such as portraits of Hitler
hanging on Danny's room, swastika on necklaces... Besides that, we notice the use of another symbol which is
the nazi salute especially in the prison where an inmate, to test Derek, greeted him with it.
Derek had a powerful interview with a journalist after his father's death. He described the situation of
America, stating that all the problems the country has are race related and the crime against his father, who
was killed fighting fire in a black neighborhood, is a race crime. We could say that this is the point where the
brothers deviated from society and constructed their own abnormality.
One of the most important and also violent scenes of the movie is the one where Derek, mercilessly, shoots
and kills four black teenagers who wanted to steal his truck. He has been sanctioned to three years in prison
as a mean of social control.
The scene where the Vinyards have dinner with the mother's boyfriend who's no other than Danny's history
teacher highlights the beliefs that Derek has about the minorities in the US. His mother argues with him
saying that the black community is enraged by the discrimination and poverty and that their deviance doesn't
come from biology, nor psychology but from society. Another concept seen in this scene is the private
patriarchy. Indeed, we notice that Derek is placed at the main seat around the table meaning that he's
controlling the household. Furthermore, the mother and sister are the ones taking care of the kitchen. He
also, at some point, tells his sister to learn to listen and hits her.
The movie is interspersed with flashbacks from the time Derek spent in prison.
There we witness a shift in his mindset. Indeed, he met another inmate with whom he had to do laundry.
Since he was black, the interactions of the two were one sided since Derek didn't speak at all. However, as
time passed, they got closer and closer until being friends. We could see the shock on Vinyard's face when his
new prison friend told him that he was sentenced to six years for stealing a TV. This corresponds to the
institutionalized racism that America suffered a lot from.
Derek had a conversation with Sweenie when he was hospitalized due the injuries he undergoes in the prison
where he stated his life regrets. The teacher who belonged himself to the troublesome black community
qualified his previous mindset as blaming everything negative that happened to him on others; white people,
god etc. This racist behavior corresponds to the scapegoat theory.
At the end of the movie, there's a dinner flashback where the father was still alive. A discussion about black
history was held In this scene, and he displayed his political views about the African American community.
Derek and Danny have been heavily influenced by their father who took charge of their primary socialization.
As a conclusion, we can say that the main protagonist realized that hate took him nowhere but deep into the
sinkhole.
In addition to that, American society is truthfully pictured. This movie is a cinematically appealing and hard
hitting. It talks about how we as a society feed ourselves with hatred without even taking time to think about
the reasons. It makes you think that there are perspectives of things different from yours and how we just
ignore them because of our egocentrism and narcissism.
Zineddine Erjati