American History X is a very great movie. It is about a young skinhead who is living a life he thinks is just. A life filled with hatred and crime. It all changes, though, when he is arrested for murder and sent to prison for three years. He comes out a changed man, and attempts to get his family out of that life permanently, but discovers his younger brother has taken up the cause.
The movie is told in black and white, which shows great symbolism. The movie shows a great dominant American value. Tony Kaye, the director, lays the symbolism on pretty thick. The black and white is reserved for the flashbacks, which show the older brother in his pre-enlightenment days. The lack of color is supposed to indicate, I guess, that he’s not really living like that. It’s not until he realizes that racism is wrong, that the colors of the world open up to him.
Either that, or it was just a tool to clarify for the audience what was a flashback and what was the present, but that is clearly not what it’s for. The movie shows a lot of dominant American values. Mostly, the movie shows racism and group superiority. American History X is about racism.
The movie shows a lot of group superiority. The movie depicts the “white” race as the “super” race. Later on in the movie, the older brother learns that there is no difference between white and black. he finally realizes that racism is wrong while he is in a prison.
