American History X Analysis
Purpose: Explore how the environment and other people influence and teach youth racism. Explore the need of people to belong to something larger than themselves and traces the reasons of involvement of people in gangs, aimed at having the responder understand the ignorance, fear and envy that begins the behaviours of racial skinheads. Graphic examination of extremism in America that can be easily applied to other societies because of the universal presence of racism and hatred, forcing audience to consider the causes of violent hatred. To show where and how such education begins.
Audience: Mainly for the adults because of the confronting portrayal consisting of graphic brutal violence, including rape, pervasive language, strong sexuality and nudity. There are messages for the responder to consider and learn from. Youth can learn to see the dangers of this lifestyle through the film.
Meanings: Predominant message: hate is learned and can be unlearned – people can change by deciding to and with support. Racism is a learned trait that feeds on ignorance, fear and envy, so that emotions of rage and hatred can dominate intelligence. It is based on finding a racial scapegoat. Bigots are made by their environment and the people who influence them. In affecting change, words are not enough, definite action must be taken. All actions have consequences and responsibilities. There is no neutrality in racist issues, either as a participating racist, or working against racism and promoting tolerance.
Context: American youth subculture, hard-core punk street gangs where racism, violence and hatred is the predominant culture and is taught to insecure youth generations through their need to belong to something larger than life. Common working-class family with an ignorant but influential father trying to teach his sons his values that stem from common attitudes of intolerance and racism.
Changing-self and techniques: American History X is a film directed by Tony Kaye which tells the story of brothers Derek and Danny amidst a working-class American family surrounded by racist tensions. The film portrays the changes in their personal values from being actively involved in racist acts of violence as part of a neo-Nazi gang to accepting responsibility for past actions and promoting a cooperative understanding between blacks and whites.
Derek undergoes several phases of personal change throughout this film. The present is shown in colour as an acknowledgement of the complexity of reality, adding to the idea that Derek is deeply involved and tangled with the neo-Nazi gang that he is trying to withdraw from. The film explores the past to show where and how racism, intolerance, bigotry and violent hatred is taught, using black and white flashbacks that are narrated by Derek’s younger brother Danny. The lack of colour reflects the narrowness of the characters in their thinking which has led them to their mono-culture, as the characters believe there is a clear division of personal loyalties and no ‘grey’ or tolerant area. It also highlights that the film is focused on the conflicts between blacks and whites. Flashbacks are not shown in chronological order, showing the importance of particular scenes that are linked and triggered by Danny’s present reality. This draws the responder into the film as they become more actively involved in having to rearrange events in their mind.
There are two key flashback scenes which show the beginning of changes in Derek. The first is at the dinner table, where Derek is discussing what his black teacher Sweeney is teaching them. His father’s attitude is portrayed clearly in dialogue “It’s everywhere I look now...Affirmative black action...Are you going to trade in great books for black books?...It’s nigger bullshit. You see that, don’t you?” Derek’s father is portrayed as an ordinary working-class family man rather than a bigot to show that racism can stem from ignorance and the need to find a social scapegoat. Shots of Derek staring attentively at his father then looking down and playing with his food show his confusion, and his final submission under his father’s demands for agreement “Yeah...I never thought about it like that.” The confusion shows that Derek is impressionable, and finally believes that social problems can be generalised to be blamed other races. The change that comes from this scene is shown in a news interview tape after Derek’s father is shot while fire-fighting in a black neighbourhood. Derek’s growing hate forces his change in that moment from a timid, grieving son to an angry young man whose anger is given an outlet by the shadowy adult neo-Nazi, Cameron.
Derek’s hate culminates when he murders two blacks caught stealing his car. The portrayal of these murders is chillingly brutal, the camera lingering on Derek’s tattooed swastika on his left breast to emphasise the murder as race-related. The murders are fast-paced, so that the audience can only consider them after the event. The close-up of the wounded black being forced to place his trembling mouth on the curb and the clatter of his teeth conjures an atmosphere of fear, contrasted by Derek’s explosive violence and burning hatred in his eyes. The camera pulls back at the moment of death – when the black’s skull is crushed by Derek’s boot – leaving the audience with a sick gut reaction, a feeling mirrored by the long shot of Danny’s face expressing shock as he collapses onto his knees. The murders change Derek from activist to murderer, and Danny, while disagreeing with the murders at the time, changes to try and live up to his brother’s bold actions.
Another flashback is used when Derek explains to Danny the understanding he has gained from prison after working with a fellow black inmate. In prison, Derek’s hatred as no outlet in active racism and his intelligence regains control over blind anger. This is shown as he converses with his workmate, who has been jailed for stealing a TV “That don’t make sense. You don’t get six years for stealing a TV.” He begins to question the discrimination against blacks because he realises that they are human rather than the sub-human and inferior race Cameron has taught him to believe. His gradual change is abruptly accelerated when the white gang members rape him for playing a game of basketball with blacks. An atmosphere of apprehension is conveyed in the moments before the rape as people leave the shower and the leader and a few gang members walk in, the hatred evident in their eyes. Close-ups are used to emphasise this during the rape and singular sounds are amplified to narrow the focus. Sweeney visits Derek as he recovers and gives Derek a new direction in life with the question “Has anything you’ve done made your life better?” The camera gives an angled shot of Derek as he turns away and breaks down, showing that he regrets his past and his determination to change “Just help me.”
The costuming shows Derek’s changes through his physical appearance. As a teenager, his hair is long and gives him a naive and innocent look. His shaved head is symbolic of his membership with skinhead gangs, as he lacked the blond hair of Hitler’s perfect Nazis. Derek allows his hair to regrow after his rape as a symbol of his disassociation with racial gangs. His time in prison has allowed him to accept responsibility for his problems and the way his actions have affected others. His insecurity is replaced by his desire to give his family a better life because he feels it is his responsibility. He realises that eliminating blacks will not solve social problems or make his life better and so dedicates himself to actions that will.
Derek races frantically to save his brother Danny from his fate when he is released from prison. Danny places an enormous amount of trust in Derek as his role model, believing in him even after he has a violent outburst against his own family “I trust you Derek.” Danny is recognised as Derek’s brother and constantly tries to live up to his brother’s reputation as he reveals in his essay for Sweeney which tells the story of flashbacks “People look at me and see my brother.” He lacks his own individual identity and is often confused, portrayed through the many close ups of his face and eyes with a soft, confused look. He begins to blame other races as the cause for Derek’s imprisonment and actively involves himself with Cameron. He gains a false sense of security from the gangs. Through him, the film explores the need of young, insecure people to belong to something larger than themselves. Danny believes he is doing what his brother would want him to do, and is further confused and disillusioned when Derek returns from prison and announces “I don’t want all that.”
Danny decides to again follow his brother, accepting that their involvement with the gangs has done nothing good. His change is symbolised by the removal of Nazi and white-supremist memorabilia that he has recently been shown adoring, together with his brother. They are supported by climbing, glorious music and the act of unity is shot from their backs as the both of them tear down the Nazi banner in the center of their room wall.
The final sequences portray the harsh reality, where the cycle of hate, racial bigotry and violence continues. Derek’s murder of the blacks is paid for according to the “eye for an eye” belief and Danny is shot despite their changed beliefs. The camera switches abruptly to Danny’s point of view, a large focus on a black boy’s head, the hatred in his eyes, then pulls back to show the barrel of a raised gun. It goes to the black’s view as the explosion of gunpowder is sounded simultaneously with the spray of blood, narrowing the focus of the audience to the murder. There is a chilling close-up of the black’s unchanged face, totally unaffected by the committing of a murder. This is intended to show that the brother’s decisions to change does not suddenly stop society’s cycle of hate and there is still a problem that needs to be faced and solved, by preventing the teaching of hate because, as Danny learns and concludes, “Hate is baggage.”
