How others will see it. American History X scored with both critics and fans. Norton, earlier known for playing a button-down lawyer in The People Vs. Larry Flynt, was surprisingly convincing in a completely different character. What people want from a dramatic movie, American History X gave them. A message, that racial hatred is wrong. Better yet, the film had lots of one-on-one confrontations.
How I felt about it. People love those. The testerone-filled opening sex and slaughter, which establishes the pattern of past black and white scenes and present color scenes. Then, the basketball court turf war, which compels the audience to cheer for our then-racist hero, Derek. There's the dinner scene, where Derek goes over the top because his mother (Beverly D'Angelo) naively brought home a Jewish man (Elliot Gould) to meet the family. Although he takes it out on his sister (Jennifer Lien), nearly choking her with a piece of meat.
The theme of confrontation, violent and non-violent, continues throughout. Derek is sexually assaulted for hanging out with blacks. Derek not only tells his mentor Cameron (Stacy Keach) he's quitting, he physically assaults him. This, after he is reformed. The problem with this scene is that Derek had plenty of time in prison to consider how he would separate himself and Danny from the skinhead movement.
Pulling the plug with flourish isn't the way, and Derek should be smart enough to know that. Instead, you should stall for time. Tell Cameron, the punk girl (Fairuza Balk), big and stupid Seth (Ethan Suplee), etc., that you want to keep a low profile because you believe you are under police surveillance. Then, once you have placated the skinhead leaders, you find the time to talk to the still wide-eyed Danny, and give him similar advice in breaking off tactfully with the gang.
Seth will show up at the front door, and maybe the hard-core punk girlfriend, too. The act here is that you're not feeling well, and, oh, gosh, with my headache I'd better stay home tonight. And watch the Home Shopping Network. You can watch it too if you'd like. Have other plans? Oh, well, see you around.
But Derek is never as smart as he thinks he is. Before, during, and after prison, he can't avoid the confrontations. That should lead to his fatal undoing, but since this is a movie, brutality arrives in a plot twist that also provides 'appropriate' closure for the film. The violence goes on, and no one man can stop it. This is actually a defeatist ending, and perhaps if Americans didn't enjoy film violence so much, they would reject both the ending and movie's common sense moral. Mind your own business to keep out of trouble.