Tuesday, 26 January 2016

'Hate is Baggage' - American History X


Hello my lovelies,

How are you all? Well I hope. I missed last weeks blog post due to making the crazy decision to go and get my nose pierced and spending that day with my best friends, then the rest of the week was filled with working so I apologise for not giving you any new reviews to read last week.
I'm still working on my long list of suggested films I've been given and due to a new project that I'm hoping to tell you all about soon, this weeks films was chosen for me to watch from this list.

Before watching American History X, I was told that it was a hard watch and that it was intense. I'd looked up a bit about the film but still didn't know exactly what to expect but wasn't thinking I'd enjoy it as much as I did, so I was surprised.


The 1998 American crime drama film directed by Tony Kaye is basically the story of two brothers and their lives as they are involved in the neo-Nazi movement. When looking things up about it prio to watching it, I saw it had been described as 'a brutal skinhead emerges from prison reformed and tries to show his neo-Nazi brother the error of his ways', and just by that sentence I was already interested in what this film had to show.

Throughout the film it switches between black&white and colour to show the difference between the past and present and I liked this. I thought it worked really well, almost as if to say the past was a bad, darker time in their lives so its not in colour but the present is better than it used to be so its brighter. It also helps to tell the story so that we are to understand why the younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), is the way he is now.



It is obviously the type of film that was made to get a reaction, and with the amount of racist, violent scenes there were moments that I didn't like what was happening but that's what its made to do so the film served its purpose well. American History X is both an interesting and surprising film. Interesting because it shows how you think some people can be so set in their ways of doing things or acting a certain way but that can always change and thankfully for the better in this film. Surprising because I didn't think I'd like it but I really got into it. Although it is nearly two hours long it held my attention and I was so gripped to the story and characters that the ending nearly made me cry.

The two actors that played the brothers Edward Norton (Derek Vineyard) and Edward Furlong (Danny Vineyard) worked brilliantly together. They seemed to bounce off of each other and have a genuine connection that could lead someone to believe that they were actually brothers. As the main characters in the film they were also my favourites. I loved seeing how Derek's actions effected Danny as he grew up alongside his older brother and then separately whilst Derek was in prison.
Although only in it for a short while at the beginning, the film also featured Elliot Gould which I liked just because he was also part of Friends to be honest.



I didn't find American History X to be a hard watch but I would agree that it is an intense film, some scenes more than others. I really liked it, it may even become a favourite. I would definitely watch it again and suggest to others to watch too, and with that I'll leave you to go and find it for yourselves.


Until next week, thanks for reading :) x  




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