History Film / AmericanHistoryX

* BrokenAesop:
** In a clearly unintended but quite tragically ironic way, the ending [[spoiler:(Danny, reformed under Derek's influence and ready to renounce racism, being shot and killed by a black kid)]] can come across as this. While the message of the film is intended to be "Racism is wrong as there are good and bad individuals of every race and racial prejudice only perpetuates violence", those last minutes can almost make it seem as if the message were "Be nice to minorities, otherwise [[spoiler:they'll just kill you for no reason]]", in what jarringly feels like an invalidation of the entire movie's point. There's a bit from the script that was cut from the final film that clears this up -- [[spoiler:the black kid was pressured by his brother into killing Danny.]]
** Prison works, especially with the PrisonRape.

* BigNo: Danny when he sees Derek about to commit the curb-stomp murder that sends him to prison. He even tries to run out and stop him, but he's too late.

* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler: Derek renounces his racism and convinces Danny to do the same. They are later seen destroying Danny's neo-Nazi paraphernalia. It's headed for the inevitable HappyEnding it should have... Then the black kid Danny taunted earlier pops up out of nowhere [[note]]deleted scenes explain it as a gang initiation[[/note]] and murders Danny.]]

* CycleOfRevenge: The message the film was going for. Hatred never solves anything, it just launches more hate. Derek's father is murdered, Derek commits murder, Danny gets murdered. The tragedy at the end is that all of that death is ''pointless''. Sweeney and Lamont solved so much more with patience and hard work than any of that violence ever could.

* DeadManWriting: The ending. [[spoiler:Danny, after his murder, narrates the film's ultimate Aesop that hate drags people down and traps them in cycles of never-ending revenge. He's actually reading out the conclusion of the paper he wrote for Principal Sweeney, which he had finished before his death.]]

* DeathGlare: Derek. See the above picture.

* FanDisservice: The prison shower scenes show a lot of muscular men nude, but the setting doesn't make it appealing in any way. One instance even ends in a PrisonRape on Derek. Before the prison sequence, Derek also spends a lot of screen time shirtless and parading around like a star athlete... but his giant swastika tattoo more than ruins his sex appeal.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Henry's reaction immediately after he [[spoiler:shoots Danny]], as he realizes that [[spoiler:he just murdered someone and blew his own life away for something as minor as receiving a dirty look from a racist.]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: What ultimately makes people like Cam, Derek, and even Dennis dangerous is that they're able to articulate their arguments well and make correct observations and statements to support their worldview, and then convince others to join them in their beliefs. The raid on the corner store is a great example, where Derek makes an impassioned anti-immigration speech with many valid points, but then gets a large gang of people to believe that, because his points are valid, they should react by destroying a store owned and run by immigrants.

* HateSink: Despite the movie's message that hate is baggage, Cameron Alexander comes across as a completely despicable individual without a single redeeming quality. He is responsible for the corruption of Derek and others, feeding into their latent bigotry and inciting hate crimes. While he acts the part of AFatherToHisMen, in the past he has been more than willing to throw his followers under the bus when it benefits him. When Derek returns from prison reformed, he makes a mockery of his rape in prison. In a deleted scene, he appears to display compassion towards a homeless veteran, but only with the intent of spreading his racist beliefs. Shortly after, he menaces an interracial couple and drives them out of the diner.

* BigEater: Seth. When sent out of the room, he complains that he's hungry. He even picks the black jelly bean out of a bowl of white jelly beans and pours them into his mouth.

* BrokenAesop: In a clearly unintended but quite tragically ironic way, the ending [[spoiler:(Danny, reformed under Derek's influence and ready to renounce racism, being shot and killed by a black kid)]] can come across as this. While the message of the film is intended to be "Racism is wrong as there are good and bad individuals of every race and racial prejudice only perpetuates violence", those last minutes can almost make it seem as if the message were "Be nice to minorities, otherwise [[spoiler:they'll just kill you for no reason]]", in what jarringly feels like an invalidation of the entire movie's point. There's a bit from the script that was cut from the final film that clears this up -- [[spoiler:the black kid was pressured by his brother into killing Danny.]]

* CurbStompBattle: In the fight that lands Derek in prison, Derek takes on three men, two of them armed, with only a handgun and the element of surprise. He quickly shoots the two, and the third while he tries to drive away. He then drags the remaining man over to the curb and has him place his mouth on it before killing him with a vicious stomp to the head in the [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] murder.

* IronicEcho: Derek sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo. Lamont, a black man, also sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo.

!!This film provides examples of:

* ButtMonkey: Derek and Davina are both more than happy to berate Seth in the present. He's a fat racist, which makes him an AcceptableTarget, but you wonder why he sticks around. He used to be Derek's bestest, most racist friend when Derek was the DarkMessiah of Southern California's neo-Nazi movement.
* CatchPhrase: Lamont, aight?

* AccidentalPervert: At the start of the story, Danny tries to alert Derek that a couple of black guys are breaking into his car. Derek happens to be [[ImmodestOrgasm boning]] the crap out of his girlfriend at the time.

-->I know this place. I know the place you are in. There was a time where I used to blame everything and everyone for all the pain and suffering and vile things that happened to me. That I saw happen to my people. I used to blame everybody. Blame white people, blame society, blame God! I didn't get any answers because I was asking the wrong question.

* BeingEvilSucks: Derek turns away from his neo-Nazi lifestyle as he realizes how wretched it has made his life: "And I kept asking myself all the time, how did I buy into this shit? It was because I was pissed off, and nothing I ever did ever took that feeling away. I killed two guys, Danny, I killed them. And it didn't make me feel any different. It just got me more lost and I'm tired of being pissed off, Danny. I'm just tired of it." The ArmorPiercingQuestion that prompts his HeelFaceTurn; "Has anything you've done made your life any better?" essentially marks the contrast between this trope and EvilFeelsGood.

* BrokenAesop: In a clearly unintended, but quite tragically ironic way, the very ending [[spoiler:(Danny, reformed under Derek's influence and ready to renounce racism, being shot by a black kid)]] can come across as this. While the message of the film is intended to be "Racism is wrong as there are good and bad individuals of every race and racial prejudice only perpetuates violence", those last minutes can almost make it seem as if the message were "Be nice to the minorities, otherwise they'll just kill you for no reason", in what jarringly feels like an invalidation of the entire movie's point. There's a bit from the script that was cut from the final film that clears this. [[spoiler:The black kid was pressured by his brother into killing Danny.]]

* CoitusInterruptus: Danny sees the Crips breaking into Derek's truck and goes to his bedroom to tell him, only to find Derek and Stacy having raw and VERY noisy sex. It actually takes Danny a few seconds to get their attention, at which Stacy screams and calls him a pervert.
* ClusterFBomb: 214 uses of "fuck" are used in this film. An example: from beginning to end, all Derek says in the rape scene are "Fuck you!"

* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Danny died before Derek got to the scene in the climax, but his bawling brother cradles his corpse in agony]].

* DownerEnding: Derek has abandoned his former neo-Nazi ways, but the racist Disciples Of Christ gang is still active and has now been incited by an assault that sent their leader Cameron to the ICU, while [[spoiler: Derek's little brother Danny was killed by a black kid less than a day after following Derek in renouncing neo-Nazism. This is even worse in the original ending, where Derek returns to neo-nazism, meaning everything was completely for nothing, though this is thankfully not the one used in the canon film.]]

* FullFrontalAssault: {{Justified}} in that it's a PrisonRape.

* LooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Perhaps. The character arc of Derek Vineyard bears some notable similarities with that of Frank Meeink, a real-life former neo-Nazi who changed his ways after a three-year stint in prison, and some sources have described the film as loosely based on his story. However, the writer and director have never admitted to using Meeink's story as an inspiration, and Meeink was never consulted during the making of the film. Meeink has said his experience was a lot worse than what's shown in the film, but that he nonetheless thinks the film will do a lot of good in the world. [[https://www.thedailybeast.com/he-was-the-neo-nazi-who-inspired-american-history-x-his-nazi-pals-are-now-cops]]

* ChekhovsGunman: Henry, the black kid who Danny confronts in the school bathroom. [[spoiler:Literally.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Twice, in Derek's case. When the Aryan Brotherhood leave the scene after raping Derek in the prison shower, he lays on the floor, numb to the world, and shortly thereafter breaks down on the hospital bed. Later, at the end of the film, Derek is reduced to a [[ManlyTears blubbering mess]] when [[spoiler:Danny dies]].

* EvilMentor: The white supremacist leader Cameron Alexander manipulates whole scores of youngsters into the neo-Nazi lifestyle by presenting himself as a wise mentor. Like a true evil mentor, he also has no problems selling out his followers when it suits him.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Cameron Alexander is friendly, polite, and seems to have affection for the youths under his influence, acting as a father figure to many of them. This affability makes him even worse, as it shows just how much power he has on these impressionable, misunderstood kids. In reality, however, Cameron has no problem selling out any of his followers to save his own ass, and has already done so in the past. To Cameron, the kids are nothing more than tools to further his fascist goals, not anyone he actually gives a shit about.

* FlashbackEffects: The flashback sequences to Derek's childhood are DeliberatelyMonochrome.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The MagicalNegro says to Derek, "Lemme tell you something, you better watch y'ass."

--> '''Derek:''' She's coughing her lungs out and you're blowing this shit in her face all day?

** On one hand, after being sent to prison for horrifically killing two black gang members in an act of racism-motivated DisproportionateRetribution, Derek's CharacterDevelopment includes renouncing his Neo-Nazi ties and convincing his younger brother Danny to do so too, a clear redemption arc.

* HateSink: Despite the movie's message that hate is baggage, Cameron Alexander comes across as a completely despicable individual without a single redeeming quality. He is responsible for the corruption of Derek and others, feeding into their latent bigotry and inciting hate crimes. While he acts the part of AFatherToHisMen, in the past, he has been more than willing to throw his men under the bus when it benefits him. When Derek returns from prison reformed, he makes a mockery of his rape in prison. In a deleted scene, he appears to display compassion towards a homeless veteran, but only with the intent of spreading his racist beliefs. Shortly after, he menaces an interracial couple and drives them out of the diner.

* HypocriticalHumor: Danny berates his mom for smoking, then takes a drag before stubbing out the cigarette.
* IHaveNoSon: After Derek attacks his own sister during a family dinner and drives his mother's Jewish boyfriend away, she realizes how lost her son is to her and throws him out. When she later visits him in prison she tells Derek that Danny worships him and is starting to follow in his path, going as far as to bitterly state that Danny is "flushing his life down the same toilet" as Derek. After Derek gets out of prison and becomes TheAtoner, his relationship with his mother has improved a lot.

* IronicEcho: Derek sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo. Lamont sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Derek starts off as a violent skinhead ringleader, but ultimately comes to renounce that path, letting go of the anger that has burdened him all his life.

''American History X'' is a 1998 [[CriminalProcedural crime drama]] film directed by Tony Kane (in his feature directorial debut) and written by David [=McKenna=]. [=McKenna=] wrote the film's script based on his childhood and experiences of growing up in San Diego.

''American History X'' is a 1998 [[CriminalProcedural crime drama]] film directed by Tony Kane.

Creator/EdwardNorton and Creator/EdwardFurlong star as brothers Derek and Danny Vinyard: both promising students who are drawn into involvement with a Neo-Nazi gang in California's multicultural Venice Beach area. The charismatic Derek becomes a hero to both the Neo-Nazis and his young brother, until his trip to prison radically alters his previously held convictions. Now reformed, Derek is spurred to prevent Danny from going down the same terrible path he did.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Derek has sworn off racism, but not in time to prevent his brother's death in race-related violence]].