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* LittleBrotherIsWatching
to:
* LittleBrotherIsWatchingLittleBrotherIsWatching: After he gets out of prison, EdwardNorton tries to convince his little brother to stop imitating his white supremacist life style.
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Changed line(s) 81 (click to see context) from:
* HeelFaceTurn: Derek.
to:
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler:Danny. Not long after he does an about face, he is shot and killed by the one he dissed earlier.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: Derek.
* HeelFaceTurn: Derek.
Deleted line(s) 115 (click to see context) :
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Not for who you'd expect, though.
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* LittleBrotherIsWatching
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* NotSoDifferent: The Neo-Nazis and the black gangbangers. In particular, Danny and Henry. See FridgeBrilliance.
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* NotSoDifferent: The Neo-Nazis and the black gangbangers. In particular, Danny and Henry. See FridgeBrilliance.
Changed line(s) 130 (click to see context) from:
** [[FridgeBrilliance Of course the racist arguments are more persuasive.]] This is being told in flashback from a person who was convinced by them as he's writing about his life and those arguments. We're hearing what Danny heard.
to:
** [[FridgeBrilliance Of course the racist arguments are more persuasive.]] persuasive. This is being told in flashback from a person who was convinced by them as he's writing about his life and those arguments. We're hearing what Danny heard.
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* SoundtrackDissonance: In the basketball game flashback, the triumphant-sounding score that blares when the racist white players defeat the black players, banishing them from the court.
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* FanDisservice: The prison shower scenes.
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* EccentricExterminator: Seth. The quirk is that ''he's a [[ThoseWackyNazis Neo-Nazi]]''. While driving his exterminator car he even sings along with a song on the radio that is so profoundly racist that it need not be repeated here.
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Removed the Gory Discretion Shot trope, as, in the uncensored version, it is all shown.
Deleted line(s) 69 (click to see context) :
* FanDisservice: The prison shower scenes.
Deleted line(s) 80 (click to see context) :
* GoryDiscretionShot: The infamous curb-stomp scene (thankfully) happens off-camera.
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'''''American History X''''' is a drama film made in 1998.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: The infamous curb-stomp scene (thankfully) happens off-camera.
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**[[FridgeBrilliance Of course the racist arguments are more persuasive.]] This is being told in flashback from a person who was convinced by them as he's writing about his life and those arguments. We're hearing what Danny heard.
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* AmericanTitle: Of the subversive variety.
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Changed line(s) 49 (click to see context) from:
** Henry murders Danny for giving him a dirty look and blowing smoke in his face. There was peer pressure and reputation involved, but that's all Danny actually did to warrant it.
to:
** Henry [[spoiler: murders Danny Danny]] for giving him a dirty look and blowing smoke in his face. There was peer pressure and reputation involved, but that's all Danny actually did to warrant it.
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Changed line(s) 107 (click to see context) from:
* PickyEater: The fat neo nazi grabs a big bowl of jelly beans and proceeds to pick every black one out before raising the bowl and pouring the whole rest into his mouth at once.
to:
* PickyEater: The fat neo nazi grabs a big bowl of jelly beans and proceeds to pick every black one out before raising the bowl and pouring all of the whole the rest into his mouth at once.
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Changed line(s) 107 (click to see context) from:
* The fat neo nazi grabs a big bowl of jelly beans and proceeds to pick every black one out before raising the bowl and pouring the whole rest into his mouth at once.
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* PickyEater: The fat neo nazi grabs a big bowl of jelly beans and proceeds to pick every black one out before raising the bowl and pouring the whole rest into his mouth at once.
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* The fat neo nazi grabs a big bowl of jelly beans and proceeds to pick every black one out before raising the bowl and pouring the whole rest into his mouth at once.
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Changed line(s) 49 (click to see context) from:
** Henry murders Danny for basically giving him a dirty look and blowing smoke in his face.
to:
** Henry murders Danny for basically giving him a dirty look and blowing smoke in his face.face. There was peer pressure and reputation involved, but that's all Danny actually did to warrant it.
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** Henry murders Danny for basically giving him a dirty look and blowing smoke in his face.
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** ShutUpHannibal: Via a punch to the mouth
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* SlasherSmile: Look at Stacy's expression when [[spoiler: Seth points his gun at Derek.]]
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* BigBad: Cameron
** TheDragon: Derek was one to Cameron
** TheDragon: Derek was one to Cameron
Changed line(s) 68 (click to see context) from:
* GangBangers: The black street gangs in Venice Beach. In opposition to them, Derek formed a gang of white skinheads who were sick of being pushed around.
to:
* GangBangers: The black street gangs in Venice Beach. In opposition to them, Derek formed a gang of white skinheads who were sick of being pushed around. around.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Cameron sports a villainous-looking scar above his lip.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Cameron sports a villainous-looking scar above his lip.
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* ThoseWackyNazis: The DOC, a racist skinhead gang headed by Derek.
to:
* ThoseWackyNazis: The DOC, Disciples of Christ (DOC), a racist skinhead gang headed by Derek.
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Changed line(s) 77 (click to see context) from:
* IResembleThatRemark: Derek takes exception to his sister calling him "Mister KKK". He's not part of a low rent organization like the KKK. He has ''class''. Danny's impressed.
to:
* IResembleThatRemark: Derek takes exception to his sister calling him "Mister KKK". He's not part of a low rent organization like the KKK.TheKlan. He has ''class''. Danny's impressed.
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* AffablyEvil: Cameron Alexander is friendly, polite and seems to have real affection for the kids under his rule, seeing himself as a father figure to many of Them. This makes him even worse as it shows just how much power he has on these impressionable, misunderstood kids.
to:
* AffablyEvil: Cameron Alexander is friendly, polite and seems to have real affection for the kids under his rule, seeing himself as a father figure to many of Them.them. This makes him even worse as it shows just how much power he has on these impressionable, misunderstood kids.
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Changed line(s) 92 (click to see context) from:
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Danny stops to watch a near fight at a basketball game[[hottip:**:amongst a bunch of black guys, one of whom Danny had tangled with earlier]], it seems to continue the story of Danny's RealTime difficulties with some black kids at his school. Then [[Ironic Echo we learn that it mirrors the basketball game that preceded the attempted robbery that sent Derek to prison]].
to:
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Danny stops to watch a near fight at a basketball game[[hottip:**:amongst a bunch of black guys, one of whom Danny had tangled with earlier]], it seems to continue the story of Danny's RealTime difficulties with some black kids at his school. Then [[Ironic Echo [[IronicEcho we learn that it mirrors the basketball game that preceded the attempted robbery that sent Derek to prison]].
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Spelling and Thread Mode.
Changed line(s) 45,49 (click to see context) from:
* DisproportionateRetribution: Derek kills a man for trying to steal his truck.
** Not exactly. When Derek ambushes the thieves, one of them aims at the door with a gun, as if willing to shoot alarmed truck owner. Still hardly a self-defense but he kills a accomplice to a guy ready to kill him in cold blood.
** Also, Derek killed a man while Lamont stole a TV. Lamont was in prison before Derek got there, he's still there when Derek leaves.
*** Three-strikes law?
*** There's a bit of a difference between Derek and Lamont. Derek took a plea deal and he got out on parole before Lamont. Before he erased it from his essay, Danny wrote [[spoiler: that if he'd testified at trial then Derek would've gotten life in prison]]. Lamont committed a bulgarly, but a cop also lied and said that Lamont assaulted him with said television. So that's assault with a deadly weapon during a robbery ''and'' against a police officer. That's probably why Lamont got more time than Derek.
** Not exactly. When Derek ambushes the thieves, one of them aims at the door with a gun, as if willing to shoot alarmed truck owner. Still hardly a self-defense but he kills a accomplice to a guy ready to kill him in cold blood.
** Also, Derek killed a man while Lamont stole a TV. Lamont was in prison before Derek got there, he's still there when Derek leaves.
*** Three-strikes law?
*** There's a bit of a difference between Derek and Lamont. Derek took a plea deal and he got out on parole before Lamont. Before he erased it from his essay, Danny wrote [[spoiler: that if he'd testified at trial then Derek would've gotten life in prison]]. Lamont committed a bulgarly, but a cop also lied and said that Lamont assaulted him with said television. So that's assault with a deadly weapon during a robbery ''and'' against a police officer. That's probably why Lamont got more time than Derek.
to:
* DisproportionateRetribution: Derek kills a man for trying to steal his truck.
** Not exactly. Whentruck. (Although when Derek ambushes the thieves, one of them aims at the door with a gun, as if willing to shoot alarmed truck owner. Still hardly a self-defense but he kills a an accomplice to a guy ready to kill him in cold blood.
blood.)
** Also, Derek killed a man while Lamont stole a TV. Lamont was in prison before Derek got there, he's still there when Derekleaves.
*** Three-strikes law?
*** There's a bit of a difference between Derek and Lamont.leaves. Though Derek took a plea deal and he got out on parole before Lamont. Before he erased it from his essay, Danny wrote [[spoiler: that if he'd testified at trial then Derek would've gotten life in prison]]. Lamont committed a bulgarly, burglary, but a cop also lied and said that Lamont assaulted him with said television. So that's assault with a deadly weapon during a robbery ''and'' against a police officer. That's probably why Lamont got more time than Derek.
** Not exactly. When
** Also, Derek killed a man while Lamont stole a TV. Lamont was in prison before Derek got there, he's still there when Derek
*** Three-strikes law?
*** There's a bit of a difference between Derek and Lamont.
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* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the face of his multiple pro-Nazi tattoos and the fact that he went to prison for the brutal murder of a black man, and the fact of his incredibly racist rant on national television, and the fact that his little brother wrote a racist screed on ''Mein Kampf'', why should we like this guy? Oh, he's spent the last ten minutes being dismissive and insulting of the big fat racist. So has his beautiful sister. Surprisingly, it works.
** CharacterDevelopment anyone?
** CharacterDevelopment anyone?
to:
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the face of his multiple pro-Nazi tattoos and the fact that he went to prison for the brutal murder of a black man, and the fact of his incredibly racist rant on national television, and the fact that his little brother wrote a racist screed on ''Mein Kampf'', why should we like this guy? Oh, he's spent the last ten minutes being dismissive and insulting of the big fat racist. So has his beautiful sister. Surprisingly, it works.
**works. CharacterDevelopment anyone?
**
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* TheLoad: During the basketball game, Ethan Supplee's character is just a big fat cheerleader.
to:
* TheLoad: During the basketball game, Ethan Supplee's character Seth is just a big fat cheerleader.
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* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Danny stops to watch a near fight at a basketball game[[hottip:**:amongst a bunch of black guys, one of whom Danny had tangled with earlier]], it seems to continue the story of Danny's RealTime difficulties with some black kids at his school. Then [[hottip:Ironic Echo: we learn that it mirrors the basketball game that preceded the attempted robbery that sent Derek to prison]].
to:
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Danny stops to watch a near fight at a basketball game[[hottip:**:amongst a bunch of black guys, one of whom Danny had tangled with earlier]], it seems to continue the story of Danny's RealTime difficulties with some black kids at his school. Then [[hottip:Ironic Echo: [[Ironic Echo we learn that it mirrors the basketball game that preceded the attempted robbery that sent Derek to prison]].
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* MuggingTheMonster: Turns out it's a very bad idea to steal an angry skinhead's car.
** Worse still, it was the truck that his father, whose murder by black drug dealers ignited his hatred, had left him.
** Worse still, it was the truck that his father, whose murder by black drug dealers ignited his hatred, had left him.
to:
* MuggingTheMonster: Turns out it's a very bad idea to steal an angry skinhead's car.
**car. Worse still, it was the truck that his father, whose murder by black drug dealers ignited his hatred, had left him.
**
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* {{Shower of Angst}}: Derek in the prison shower. Guess what happens to him after...?
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* {{Shower of Angst}}: ShowerOfAngst: Derek in the prison shower. Guess what happens to him after...?
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* {{Wag The Director}}: Tony Kaye was removed from the project after shooting completed and Edward Norton delivered the final cut of the film. He's been accused of vainly giving himself more screentime, while others seem to believe that he merely stepped in to rescue the film from the scrap heap.
to:
* {{Wag The Director}}: WagTheDirector: Tony Kaye was removed from the project after shooting completed and Edward Norton delivered the final cut of the film. He's been accused of vainly giving himself more screentime, while others seem to believe that he merely stepped in to rescue the film from the scrap heap.
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The entire battle itself counts as a curb-stomp.
Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
* CurbStompBattle: Literally. Possibly the TropeNamer, if not the TropeCodifier.
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* CurbStompBattle: Literally. 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 tried to drive away. He then drags the remaining man over to the curb and has him place his mouth on it, then he invokes this trope literally. Possibly being the TropeNamer, if not the TropeCodifier.TropeCodifier.
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Added broken aesop.
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* BrokenAesop: [[spoiler:"Don't go around saying how black people are violent killers, or they'll prove you right."]]
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** Averted with the prison white supremacist gang, who run a drug ring in the prison, much to Derek's disgust.
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*** There's a bit of a difference between Derek and Lamont. Derek took a plea deal and he got out on parole before Lamont. Before he erased it from his essay, Danny wrote [[spoiler: that if he'd testified at trial then Derek would've gotten life in prison]]. Lamont committed a bulgarly, but a cop also lied and said that Lamont assaulted him with said television. So that's assault with a deadly weapon during a robbery ''and'' against a police officer. That's probably why Lamont got more time than Derek.
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** Not exactly. When Derek ambushes the thieves, one of them aims at the door with a gun, as if willing to shoot alarmed truck owner. Still hardly a self-defense but he kills a accomplice to a guy ready to kill him in cold blood.
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[[quoteright:274:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/american_history_x_7551.jpg]]
EdwardNorton and EdwardFurlong star as brothers Derek and Danny Vinyard: both promising students who are both drawn into involvement with a Neo-Nazi gang in California's multicultural Venice Beach area. The charismatic Derek is the leader of a racist gang and a hero to his young brother, until his trip to prison radically alters his previously held convictions. Derek is spurred to prevent Danny from going down the same path he did.
The film is framed as starting near the end, with Danny writing a paper about the events that led to Derek being sent to prison. The film covers the transition from hatred to the gradual realization of the pointlessness of resentment, as well as the nature of racism.
----
!!The film has examples of:
* AbhorrentAdmirer: Derek's sister notices Seth trying to upskirt her with his camera and... rearranges herself.
* 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 boning the crap out of his girlfriend at the time.
* AffablyEvil: Cameron Alexander is friendly, polite and seems to have real affection for the kids under his rule, seeing himself as a father figure to many of Them. This makes him even worse as it shows just how much power he has on these impressionable, misunderstood kids.
* AlliterativeFamily: Dennis and Doris Vinyard name their children Derek, Davina, and Danny.
* AngryBlackMan: Sweeney says he was an angry young man.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: ''"Has anything you've done made your life better?"''
* TheAtoner: Derek at first was a violent and racist {{Jerkass}}, but he tries to save his little brother from the same fate once he gets out of prison.
* AxCrazy: Derek's girlfriend Stacey is always visibly excited, manic even, by violence.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Avery Brooks as Dr. Robert Sweeney, who is willing to fight for the Vinyard brothers, in whom he sees echoes of his younger self.
* BaldOfEvil: The skinheads. Could be considered an InvokedTrope.
* BattleDiscretionShot: The scene where Cameron and a compatriot are attacked by some random black guys. A deleted scene shows them hassling an interracial couple then being chased down. The final cut has it happening entirely off-screen.
* BeingEvilSucks
* BerserkButton: "I'm not fat! I'm '''husky'''!"
** Derek has one when Cameron tries to lie and say he has done hard time (he spent a few four months in prison before making a plea deal to save his own ass) and Cameron has one when Derek calls him a chicken hawk and calls him out on his hypocrisy.
* BigBrotherMentor: For better or worse.
* BigBrotherWorship: Played with.
** Danny plays this perfectly straight. Derek is his idol and Danny will follow in Derek's footsteps. Period. When Derek goes neo-Nazi, Danny goes neo-Nazi. When Derek comes home and says, "No. This is not the way.", Danny gives it up and eschews Nazism in all its forms.
** Davina, the elder sister, is more complex. She adores Derek in the present and thinks he's wonderful. She's willing to follow his lead and, indeed, is very nearly silent except for criticizing Derek's former and Danny's present neo-Nazi friends. [[DeliberatelyMonochrome In the past]], she was willing to go after Derek with a baseball bat (though not without some fairly heavy provocation). Clearly, she loves the man [[CharacterDevelopment her brother is now]] much more than the boy he was.
** Henry, the kid at the end who [[spoiler:murders Danny]] did it because his big brother told him to.
* 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.
* BlatantLies: "I want to talk to my brother. Seth, go wait in Danny's room. '''I'm glad to see you. I'm glad to see you, man.'''"
* 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?
* ChekhovsGunman: Henry, the black kid who Danny confronts in the school bathroom. [[spoiler:Literally.]]
* ClusterFBomb: From beginning to end, all Derek says in the rape scene are "Fuck you!"
* CoolOldGuy: Sweeney.
* CoolTeacher: Sweeney exercises remarkable influence over Derek as a great teacher, until Derek's father squelches it as "n****r bullshit". He does the same for Danny, though he's since been promoted to principal. That he and Derek have that connection is what makes his later intervention so effective.
* ComingOfAgeStory: Simultaneously that of Derek and Danny.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The murder that lands Derek in prison.
* CurbStompBattle: Literally. Possibly the TropeNamer, if not the TropeCodifier.
* DarkMessiah: Derek even looks like the page picture. He's referred to as Father Vinyard after he gets out of prison by some impressionable youths.
* DeathGlare: Derek. See the above picture.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The flashbacks.
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Danny]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: Derek kills a man for trying to steal his truck.
** Also, Derek killed a man while Lamont stole a TV. Lamont was in prison before Derek got there, he's still there when Derek leaves.
*** Three-strikes law?
* TheDogBitesBack
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The film's message is "racism is bad", but the contrast between the generally charismatic Nazis and the villainous black gangs, along with some general MisaimedFandom tendencies among certain audiences, means that the film is actually quite popular in certain white supremacist circles. Which is just plain maddening the more you think about it...
** The most (in)famous scene in the film is when Derek curb-stomps that black man from the basketball courts; ''you're not supposed to think it's cool or awesome.''
* DonutMessWithACop: Lamont stole a TV from a shop right next to a donut store. There were three cops there when he came out.
* DownerEnding
* DrugsAreBad: When Derek establishes himself not just as a bad guy (see: CurbStompBattle) but as a leader, he makes one of his followers drop and stub out a joint. "We don't do that. Have some respect." On the other hand, a lot of white supremacist groups dislike marijuana for its associations with black culture.
* EasyEvangelism: To be fair, what Derek went through is likely to make anyone do some reflective thinking.
* EmbarrassingTattoo: Derek's no longer proud of the swastika on his chest.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the face of his multiple pro-Nazi tattoos and the fact that he went to prison for the brutal murder of a black man, and the fact of his incredibly racist rant on national television, and the fact that his little brother wrote a racist screed on ''Mein Kampf'', why should we like this guy? Oh, he's spent the last ten minutes being dismissive and insulting of the big fat racist. So has his beautiful sister. Surprisingly, it works.
** CharacterDevelopment anyone?
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas
* EverybodySmokes
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The neo-Nazis all assume that prison messed with Derek's head or that he's scared of revenge for the murder he went to prison for.
* EvilOldFolks: Cameron Alexander, the creepy old fascist who is manipulating Danny into joining his gang.
* EvilMentor: Cameron Alexander, again.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Derek's hair growing back out in prison shows his change of heart and the passage of time.
* FanDisservice: The prison shower scenes.
* FatBastard: Seth, the morbidly obese and hilariously inept sidekick of Derek.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The MagicalNegro says to Derek, "Lemme tell you something, you better watch y'ass."
* FreudianExcuse: Derek's father was a kind of Archie Bunker-style blue collar racist who plants the seeds for Derek's future political views. When his father is murdered by black gang members, Derek interprets this as an indication that his father's racial politics were right all along.
* FullFrontalAssault: Justified in that it's a PrisonRape.
* GangBangers: The black street gangs in Venice Beach. In opposition to them, Derek formed a gang of white skinheads who were sick of being pushed around.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Good people are portrayed as victims of smoking (Derek's mom), evil people enjoy smoking (all dem neo-Nazis).
** Derek specifically criticizes Danny for smoking and gently criticizes his mother for the same.
---> '''Derek:''' She's coughing her lungs out and you're blowing this shit in her face all day?
* {{Gorn}}: The murder that sent Derek to prison and the death of [[spoiler:Danny]].
* HeelFaceTurn: Derek.
* HotMom
* {{Hypocrite}}: Turns out Cameron's vaunted prison time was just a two month stint before he rolled on some kids.
* HypocriticalHumor: Danny berates his mom for smoking, then takes a drag before stubbing out the cigarette.
* IResembleThatRemark: Derek takes exception to his sister calling him "Mister KKK". He's not part of a low rent organization like the KKK. He has ''class''. Danny's impressed.
* TheIllegal: The focus of some of Derek's rants and at least one raid.
* ImportantHaircut: Shaving it off shows that Derek has taken his father's racism UpToEleven. Inverted later on when Derek grows his hair out to demonstrate his disaffection with the neo-Nazis.
* IronicEcho: Derek sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo. Lamont sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo.
* ItsAllJunk: The Nazi decorations and posters in Danny's bedroom. You can feel healing going on as Danny and Derek tear them down together.
* JawBreaker: Derek kills a man in a disturbing scene with a curb stomp.
* JerkAss: Almost all of the characters. But Derek himself counts, at first.
* KickTheDog: Derek's villain dinner, ranting about the Rodney King riots that culminates with him grabbing his sister by the hair and choking her with a handful of ham, then delivering an anti-Semitic screed chasing away his mother's boyfriend. This is also when we see the murder that landed him in prison.
** Every time Cameron shows up.
* KnightTemplar: Derek before he gets out of prison.
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: After he gets out of prison.
* TheLoad: During the basketball game, Ethan Supplee's character is just a big fat cheerleader.
* MagicalNegro: Lamont, who protected Derek from the African-American gangs in the prison he was incarcerated in. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Dr. Sweeney, whose role is to challenge Derek and Danny to grow beyond their origins, not to "save" them ''per se.''
* MaleFrontalNudity: The shower scenes.
* ManHug: After Derek gets out of prison, he and Danny. Even includes the line, "What's the matter, too big to give me a hug, tough guy?"
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Danny stops to watch a near fight at a basketball game[[hottip:**:amongst a bunch of black guys, one of whom Danny had tangled with earlier]], it seems to continue the story of Danny's RealTime difficulties with some black kids at his school. Then [[hottip:Ironic Echo: we learn that it mirrors the basketball game that preceded the attempted robbery that sent Derek to prison]].
* MotiveRant: Derek's angry rant to a reporter after his father's death is shown as his first step into the racist waters. Although we later discover that Derek's father was an [[FreudianExcuse armchair racist]], Derek himself had up to that point resisted racism and admired his black teacher.
* MrFanservice: A jacked Edward Norton spends an awful lot of time with his shirt off.
* MuggingTheMonster: Turns out it's a very bad idea to steal an angry skinhead's car.
** Worse still, it was the truck that his father, whose murder by black drug dealers ignited his hatred, had left him.
* NotSoDifferent: The Neo-Nazis and the black gangbangers. In particular, Danny and Henry. See FridgeBrilliance.
** Noticing that this is true of himself and his MagicalNegro prison confederate is part of what deprograms Derek.
** Sweeney also says this is why he understands Derek so well.
* ParentWithNewParamour: Type 3. Oh so much. It doesn't help that he's Jewish, and dating the mother of a skinhead leader.
* ThePatriarch: The father has shades of the villainous patriarch. After he dies, Derek steps up and becomes a straight up villainous patriarch.
* ThePeepingTom: Seth drives to the Vinyard home as soon as Derek gets out of prison. He has a camera. One of the first things Seth does is zoom in on Davina's crotch.
* PetTheDog: Derek and Danny both repeatedly demonstrate that they're sweet and loving with their family.
* PrisonRape: It happens to Derek in prison. At the hands of the Aryan Brotherhood, which he was a member of. Ironically, he first burned his bridges with them because they weren't ''racist enough'' for him.
* PromotionToParent: Derek steps up after his father dies. The dinner scene even has him sitting at the head of the table.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Not for who you'd expect, though.
* RedemptionFailure: Some alternative endings have [[spoiler:Danny's murder]] cause Derek to revert back to his old, racist ways.
* RousingSpeech: Derek gives a rousing and convincing speech about illegal Mexican immigrants, before the [[MoralEventHorizon attack on the grocery store]].
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Derek to Cameron.
* SecondFaceSmoke: Danny blows smoke in Henry's face.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler:Danny learns not to be racist only to be killed by a black kid he made fun of earlier.]]
* {{Shower of Angst}}: Derek in the prison shower. Guess what happens to him after...?
* {{UsefulNotes/Skinheads}}
* StepfordSmiler: Doris. Davina's much more willing to call her brother out.
* StereotypeFlip: The black inmates not taking their revenge on Derek, after the Aryan Brotherhood has dumped him.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: [[InvokedTrope Intentional.]] The film doesn't shy away from giving racist characters the chance to make their cases, often revealing the kernels of intelligent arguments made in defense of racist ideologies. In these situations, it's the ''other characters'' who actually play the strawman to the racist's arguments, failing to put up much of a defense for racial tolerance. This was the cause of some controversy among critics, but the filmmakers felt that they had to accurately portray the ideological conflict, even the elements of it that would be unpopular, for the movie to be effective.
** During the "Rodney King flashback", Derek argues that the riot was "opportunism at it worst," that the rioters were just "finding any excuse they can get to loot stores", that Rodney King's actions were criminal, and that police and firemen do not receive the respect they deserve from the community for their dangerous work. The others at dinner just half-heartedly defend the rioters by making [[FreudianExcuse Freudian excuses]] and playing [[TheVictimCard the victim card]] for them. Even Derek's college-educated sister can't do any better than to break GodwinsLaw, and gets agitated when she can't counter Derek's claim that Darryl Gates was simply a scapegoat the government and the media blamed on in order to calm down the rioters, and that the riot wouldn't have happened if Willie L. Williams was the chief.
** Derek and Danny's father Dennis appears in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_b0-mMtp8Y a flashback]] and reveals himself to be an armchair racist, providing a latent reason for Derek's FreudianExcuse in becoming a skinhead shortly thereafter. Along the way, however, Dennis actually makes intelligent points criticizing the philosophy behind affirmative action and the way new books are replacing established classics in the canon to increase racial diversity.
* SpitefulSpit: After curb stomping one of the guys who broke into his truck, Derek spits on his corpse.
* TattooedCrook: Everyone in prison.
* TitleDrop
-->'''Sweeney''': The name of this course will be American History... X.
* ThoseWackyNazis: The DOC, a racist skinhead gang headed by Derek.
* TwistEnding: After heavy implication that the skinheads are plotting to exact revenge on Derek, [[spoiler:Danny is shot by the ChekhovsGunman]].
* UpToEleven: After his father's death, Derek takes the man's racism UpToEleven, from "it's n****r bullshit" to "my father's dead because n****rs are evil" and becoming a [[DarkMessiah neo-Nazi Messiah]].
* VillainProtagonist: Derek, in the first half of the movie.
* {{Wag The Director}}: Tony Kaye was removed from the project after shooting completed and Edward Norton delivered the final cut of the film. He's been accused of vainly giving himself more screentime, while others seem to believe that he merely stepped in to rescue the film from the scrap heap.
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: At the beginning of the film, Danny snags a tiny paper flag from a secretary's pencil jar and uses it as a toothpick. Probably meant to invoke skinhead protestations of patriotism during the confrontation with Sweeney that follows.
** The flashback video showing Derek's response to his father's death features an American flag waving in the background.
** Also [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead Tattooing A Swastika On Your Chest]].
* WhatTheHellHero: After the party, Danny confronts Derek.
** Lamont also calls him out for dissing the neo-Nazis in public. He shouldn't be scared of the neo-Nazis, but of the brothers.
* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: A deleted scene features this.
* YouAreFat: Pretty much how everyone responds to Seth.
* YouKilledMyFather: Derek's father was killed by a black man, and this is how he comes to view all blacks. Right before Derek murders the car-jacker, he screams out: "You ever shoot at firemen?! You ever shoot at my father?!"
----
EdwardNorton and EdwardFurlong star as brothers Derek and Danny Vinyard: both promising students who are both drawn into involvement with a Neo-Nazi gang in California's multicultural Venice Beach area. The charismatic Derek is the leader of a racist gang and a hero to his young brother, until his trip to prison radically alters his previously held convictions. Derek is spurred to prevent Danny from going down the same path he did.
The film is framed as starting near the end, with Danny writing a paper about the events that led to Derek being sent to prison. The film covers the transition from hatred to the gradual realization of the pointlessness of resentment, as well as the nature of racism.
----
!!The film has examples of:
* AbhorrentAdmirer: Derek's sister notices Seth trying to upskirt her with his camera and... rearranges herself.
* 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 boning the crap out of his girlfriend at the time.
* AffablyEvil: Cameron Alexander is friendly, polite and seems to have real affection for the kids under his rule, seeing himself as a father figure to many of Them. This makes him even worse as it shows just how much power he has on these impressionable, misunderstood kids.
* AlliterativeFamily: Dennis and Doris Vinyard name their children Derek, Davina, and Danny.
* AngryBlackMan: Sweeney says he was an angry young man.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: ''"Has anything you've done made your life better?"''
* TheAtoner: Derek at first was a violent and racist {{Jerkass}}, but he tries to save his little brother from the same fate once he gets out of prison.
* AxCrazy: Derek's girlfriend Stacey is always visibly excited, manic even, by violence.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Avery Brooks as Dr. Robert Sweeney, who is willing to fight for the Vinyard brothers, in whom he sees echoes of his younger self.
* BaldOfEvil: The skinheads. Could be considered an InvokedTrope.
* BattleDiscretionShot: The scene where Cameron and a compatriot are attacked by some random black guys. A deleted scene shows them hassling an interracial couple then being chased down. The final cut has it happening entirely off-screen.
* BeingEvilSucks
* BerserkButton: "I'm not fat! I'm '''husky'''!"
** Derek has one when Cameron tries to lie and say he has done hard time (he spent a few four months in prison before making a plea deal to save his own ass) and Cameron has one when Derek calls him a chicken hawk and calls him out on his hypocrisy.
* BigBrotherMentor: For better or worse.
* BigBrotherWorship: Played with.
** Danny plays this perfectly straight. Derek is his idol and Danny will follow in Derek's footsteps. Period. When Derek goes neo-Nazi, Danny goes neo-Nazi. When Derek comes home and says, "No. This is not the way.", Danny gives it up and eschews Nazism in all its forms.
** Davina, the elder sister, is more complex. She adores Derek in the present and thinks he's wonderful. She's willing to follow his lead and, indeed, is very nearly silent except for criticizing Derek's former and Danny's present neo-Nazi friends. [[DeliberatelyMonochrome In the past]], she was willing to go after Derek with a baseball bat (though not without some fairly heavy provocation). Clearly, she loves the man [[CharacterDevelopment her brother is now]] much more than the boy he was.
** Henry, the kid at the end who [[spoiler:murders Danny]] did it because his big brother told him to.
* 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.
* BlatantLies: "I want to talk to my brother. Seth, go wait in Danny's room. '''I'm glad to see you. I'm glad to see you, man.'''"
* 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?
* ChekhovsGunman: Henry, the black kid who Danny confronts in the school bathroom. [[spoiler:Literally.]]
* ClusterFBomb: From beginning to end, all Derek says in the rape scene are "Fuck you!"
* CoolOldGuy: Sweeney.
* CoolTeacher: Sweeney exercises remarkable influence over Derek as a great teacher, until Derek's father squelches it as "n****r bullshit". He does the same for Danny, though he's since been promoted to principal. That he and Derek have that connection is what makes his later intervention so effective.
* ComingOfAgeStory: Simultaneously that of Derek and Danny.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The murder that lands Derek in prison.
* CurbStompBattle: Literally. Possibly the TropeNamer, if not the TropeCodifier.
* DarkMessiah: Derek even looks like the page picture. He's referred to as Father Vinyard after he gets out of prison by some impressionable youths.
* DeathGlare: Derek. See the above picture.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The flashbacks.
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Danny]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: Derek kills a man for trying to steal his truck.
** Also, Derek killed a man while Lamont stole a TV. Lamont was in prison before Derek got there, he's still there when Derek leaves.
*** Three-strikes law?
* TheDogBitesBack
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The film's message is "racism is bad", but the contrast between the generally charismatic Nazis and the villainous black gangs, along with some general MisaimedFandom tendencies among certain audiences, means that the film is actually quite popular in certain white supremacist circles. Which is just plain maddening the more you think about it...
** The most (in)famous scene in the film is when Derek curb-stomps that black man from the basketball courts; ''you're not supposed to think it's cool or awesome.''
* DonutMessWithACop: Lamont stole a TV from a shop right next to a donut store. There were three cops there when he came out.
* DownerEnding
* DrugsAreBad: When Derek establishes himself not just as a bad guy (see: CurbStompBattle) but as a leader, he makes one of his followers drop and stub out a joint. "We don't do that. Have some respect." On the other hand, a lot of white supremacist groups dislike marijuana for its associations with black culture.
* EasyEvangelism: To be fair, what Derek went through is likely to make anyone do some reflective thinking.
* EmbarrassingTattoo: Derek's no longer proud of the swastika on his chest.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the face of his multiple pro-Nazi tattoos and the fact that he went to prison for the brutal murder of a black man, and the fact of his incredibly racist rant on national television, and the fact that his little brother wrote a racist screed on ''Mein Kampf'', why should we like this guy? Oh, he's spent the last ten minutes being dismissive and insulting of the big fat racist. So has his beautiful sister. Surprisingly, it works.
** CharacterDevelopment anyone?
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas
* EverybodySmokes
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The neo-Nazis all assume that prison messed with Derek's head or that he's scared of revenge for the murder he went to prison for.
* EvilOldFolks: Cameron Alexander, the creepy old fascist who is manipulating Danny into joining his gang.
* EvilMentor: Cameron Alexander, again.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Derek's hair growing back out in prison shows his change of heart and the passage of time.
* FanDisservice: The prison shower scenes.
* FatBastard: Seth, the morbidly obese and hilariously inept sidekick of Derek.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The MagicalNegro says to Derek, "Lemme tell you something, you better watch y'ass."
* FreudianExcuse: Derek's father was a kind of Archie Bunker-style blue collar racist who plants the seeds for Derek's future political views. When his father is murdered by black gang members, Derek interprets this as an indication that his father's racial politics were right all along.
* FullFrontalAssault: Justified in that it's a PrisonRape.
* GangBangers: The black street gangs in Venice Beach. In opposition to them, Derek formed a gang of white skinheads who were sick of being pushed around.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Good people are portrayed as victims of smoking (Derek's mom), evil people enjoy smoking (all dem neo-Nazis).
** Derek specifically criticizes Danny for smoking and gently criticizes his mother for the same.
---> '''Derek:''' She's coughing her lungs out and you're blowing this shit in her face all day?
* {{Gorn}}: The murder that sent Derek to prison and the death of [[spoiler:Danny]].
* HeelFaceTurn: Derek.
* HotMom
* {{Hypocrite}}: Turns out Cameron's vaunted prison time was just a two month stint before he rolled on some kids.
* HypocriticalHumor: Danny berates his mom for smoking, then takes a drag before stubbing out the cigarette.
* IResembleThatRemark: Derek takes exception to his sister calling him "Mister KKK". He's not part of a low rent organization like the KKK. He has ''class''. Danny's impressed.
* TheIllegal: The focus of some of Derek's rants and at least one raid.
* ImportantHaircut: Shaving it off shows that Derek has taken his father's racism UpToEleven. Inverted later on when Derek grows his hair out to demonstrate his disaffection with the neo-Nazis.
* IronicEcho: Derek sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo. Lamont sports a shaved head and a goatee/mustache combo.
* ItsAllJunk: The Nazi decorations and posters in Danny's bedroom. You can feel healing going on as Danny and Derek tear them down together.
* JawBreaker: Derek kills a man in a disturbing scene with a curb stomp.
* JerkAss: Almost all of the characters. But Derek himself counts, at first.
* KickTheDog: Derek's villain dinner, ranting about the Rodney King riots that culminates with him grabbing his sister by the hair and choking her with a handful of ham, then delivering an anti-Semitic screed chasing away his mother's boyfriend. This is also when we see the murder that landed him in prison.
** Every time Cameron shows up.
* KnightTemplar: Derek before he gets out of prison.
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: After he gets out of prison.
* TheLoad: During the basketball game, Ethan Supplee's character is just a big fat cheerleader.
* MagicalNegro: Lamont, who protected Derek from the African-American gangs in the prison he was incarcerated in. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Dr. Sweeney, whose role is to challenge Derek and Danny to grow beyond their origins, not to "save" them ''per se.''
* MaleFrontalNudity: The shower scenes.
* ManHug: After Derek gets out of prison, he and Danny. Even includes the line, "What's the matter, too big to give me a hug, tough guy?"
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Danny stops to watch a near fight at a basketball game[[hottip:**:amongst a bunch of black guys, one of whom Danny had tangled with earlier]], it seems to continue the story of Danny's RealTime difficulties with some black kids at his school. Then [[hottip:Ironic Echo: we learn that it mirrors the basketball game that preceded the attempted robbery that sent Derek to prison]].
* MotiveRant: Derek's angry rant to a reporter after his father's death is shown as his first step into the racist waters. Although we later discover that Derek's father was an [[FreudianExcuse armchair racist]], Derek himself had up to that point resisted racism and admired his black teacher.
* MrFanservice: A jacked Edward Norton spends an awful lot of time with his shirt off.
* MuggingTheMonster: Turns out it's a very bad idea to steal an angry skinhead's car.
** Worse still, it was the truck that his father, whose murder by black drug dealers ignited his hatred, had left him.
* NotSoDifferent: The Neo-Nazis and the black gangbangers. In particular, Danny and Henry. See FridgeBrilliance.
** Noticing that this is true of himself and his MagicalNegro prison confederate is part of what deprograms Derek.
** Sweeney also says this is why he understands Derek so well.
* ParentWithNewParamour: Type 3. Oh so much. It doesn't help that he's Jewish, and dating the mother of a skinhead leader.
* ThePatriarch: The father has shades of the villainous patriarch. After he dies, Derek steps up and becomes a straight up villainous patriarch.
* ThePeepingTom: Seth drives to the Vinyard home as soon as Derek gets out of prison. He has a camera. One of the first things Seth does is zoom in on Davina's crotch.
* PetTheDog: Derek and Danny both repeatedly demonstrate that they're sweet and loving with their family.
* PrisonRape: It happens to Derek in prison. At the hands of the Aryan Brotherhood, which he was a member of. Ironically, he first burned his bridges with them because they weren't ''racist enough'' for him.
* PromotionToParent: Derek steps up after his father dies. The dinner scene even has him sitting at the head of the table.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Not for who you'd expect, though.
* RedemptionFailure: Some alternative endings have [[spoiler:Danny's murder]] cause Derek to revert back to his old, racist ways.
* RousingSpeech: Derek gives a rousing and convincing speech about illegal Mexican immigrants, before the [[MoralEventHorizon attack on the grocery store]].
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Derek to Cameron.
* SecondFaceSmoke: Danny blows smoke in Henry's face.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler:Danny learns not to be racist only to be killed by a black kid he made fun of earlier.]]
* {{Shower of Angst}}: Derek in the prison shower. Guess what happens to him after...?
* {{UsefulNotes/Skinheads}}
* StepfordSmiler: Doris. Davina's much more willing to call her brother out.
* StereotypeFlip: The black inmates not taking their revenge on Derek, after the Aryan Brotherhood has dumped him.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: [[InvokedTrope Intentional.]] The film doesn't shy away from giving racist characters the chance to make their cases, often revealing the kernels of intelligent arguments made in defense of racist ideologies. In these situations, it's the ''other characters'' who actually play the strawman to the racist's arguments, failing to put up much of a defense for racial tolerance. This was the cause of some controversy among critics, but the filmmakers felt that they had to accurately portray the ideological conflict, even the elements of it that would be unpopular, for the movie to be effective.
** During the "Rodney King flashback", Derek argues that the riot was "opportunism at it worst," that the rioters were just "finding any excuse they can get to loot stores", that Rodney King's actions were criminal, and that police and firemen do not receive the respect they deserve from the community for their dangerous work. The others at dinner just half-heartedly defend the rioters by making [[FreudianExcuse Freudian excuses]] and playing [[TheVictimCard the victim card]] for them. Even Derek's college-educated sister can't do any better than to break GodwinsLaw, and gets agitated when she can't counter Derek's claim that Darryl Gates was simply a scapegoat the government and the media blamed on in order to calm down the rioters, and that the riot wouldn't have happened if Willie L. Williams was the chief.
** Derek and Danny's father Dennis appears in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_b0-mMtp8Y a flashback]] and reveals himself to be an armchair racist, providing a latent reason for Derek's FreudianExcuse in becoming a skinhead shortly thereafter. Along the way, however, Dennis actually makes intelligent points criticizing the philosophy behind affirmative action and the way new books are replacing established classics in the canon to increase racial diversity.
* SpitefulSpit: After curb stomping one of the guys who broke into his truck, Derek spits on his corpse.
* TattooedCrook: Everyone in prison.
* TitleDrop
-->'''Sweeney''': The name of this course will be American History... X.
* ThoseWackyNazis: The DOC, a racist skinhead gang headed by Derek.
* TwistEnding: After heavy implication that the skinheads are plotting to exact revenge on Derek, [[spoiler:Danny is shot by the ChekhovsGunman]].
* UpToEleven: After his father's death, Derek takes the man's racism UpToEleven, from "it's n****r bullshit" to "my father's dead because n****rs are evil" and becoming a [[DarkMessiah neo-Nazi Messiah]].
* VillainProtagonist: Derek, in the first half of the movie.
* {{Wag The Director}}: Tony Kaye was removed from the project after shooting completed and Edward Norton delivered the final cut of the film. He's been accused of vainly giving himself more screentime, while others seem to believe that he merely stepped in to rescue the film from the scrap heap.
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: At the beginning of the film, Danny snags a tiny paper flag from a secretary's pencil jar and uses it as a toothpick. Probably meant to invoke skinhead protestations of patriotism during the confrontation with Sweeney that follows.
** The flashback video showing Derek's response to his father's death features an American flag waving in the background.
** Also [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead Tattooing A Swastika On Your Chest]].
* WhatTheHellHero: After the party, Danny confronts Derek.
** Lamont also calls him out for dissing the neo-Nazis in public. He shouldn't be scared of the neo-Nazis, but of the brothers.
* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: A deleted scene features this.
* YouAreFat: Pretty much how everyone responds to Seth.
* YouKilledMyFather: Derek's father was killed by a black man, and this is how he comes to view all blacks. Right before Derek murders the car-jacker, he screams out: "You ever shoot at firemen?! You ever shoot at my father?!"
----
