The Reviews

dvdtown.com reviews american history x --by John J. Puccio: One can readily see why Edward Norton received an Academy Award nomination for his role as a young neo-Nazi skinhead in "American History X.His performance is riveting, gutsy, crackling with pent-up tensions, yet singularly compassionate, too.

American History X by Shawn Fitzgerald: Norton gives Derek layers of intelligence, pain, rage, redemption and humility. It is definitely a role he could have gone over the top with. but restraint is Norton's ace in the hole, and he plays it beautifully. He is given solid support from Furlong, who is starting to show some real promise as an actor.

by David Brudnoy: "American History X," which has a subtextual story of who got to edit the movie we're seeing - the director of record has taken to fulminating about what we've got, though it's quite worthy as is - reminds us that bad ideas don't necessarily go away when the prime repository of the ideas (Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia) collapse. Bad ideas have lives of their own, and in fairness to this particular bad idea, white racism, the movie doesn't hesitate to let its advocates make their case with some persuasiveness.We learn about how the bright young Derek had become a rabid neo-Nazi, how the demographics of Venice Beach, California, had changed and the influx of blacks and Hispanics intimidated and infuriated whites, how the conflict had been egged on by the manipulative businessman and how, most importantly, Derek had found his metier as a rabble-rousing stump speaker. [ Work or activity for which a person is particularly suited; one's specialty. See Synonyms at forte. French, from Old French mestier, from Vulgar Latin *misterium, from Latin ministerium; see ministry ]
But there's more, and when Derek is released from prison he gives the second flashback story, his conversion, in prison, if not quite into a spokesman for the United Negro College Fund then at least into a racial moderate. Can he get his adoring kid bro Danny to see the error of his ways? This is the poignant final section of the movie, which has Derek reborn, Danny in the process of intellectual rebirth and yet the situation remaining poisonous. "American History X" is choppy and often overbearing. It is also smashing.

by Harvey S. Karten: "American History X" deals on the nefarious activiites of a gang of such haters known as skinheads, focusing intensely on Derek (Edward Norton), a confirmed neo-Nazi, and the powerful impact he has on the thought and behavior of his kid brother Danny (Edward Furlong). Because the two young men are exceptionally bright and articulate, they are all the more dangerous and ultimately self-destructive.