American History X (1998)

This film was recently voted as one of the most violent films of all time by a survey sponsored by Entertainment Weekly. After seeing the film in class I am sure that everyone now understands why it was regarded as such a violent movie. The movie follows white suburban family living in California during the 80’s and 90’s. Derek played by Edward Norton gets mixed up with the wrong idea of how society should treat minorities because his father was killed by one while trying to save him. This film is not only violent, but also ground breaking in its depiction of extremist racism. Its un-politically correct story displays the utter social ignorance that infests the uneducated youth of America.

There were a lot of things going on in the world during the making of this movie which inspired its racial storyline. The Rodney King beating that was a huge debate in the late 90’s was at its peak interest. When Derek sticks up for the police officers who violently beat Mr. King, it went against the cultural norm, but it did express some issues that maybe some of the people were thinking. This was a highly publicized trial that was in the news all across our country. It shows how powerful the media can be in American culture.

Another issue shown in the film was equal opportunity employment, which gives racial minorities jobs over more qualified individuals in order to decreases the gap between whites and other races. They attacked how less qualified individuals were given the jobs based on there ethnicity. This is a very interesting debate, because the rule is biased against whites. We still see this in much of out jobs today. One of my friends was a teacher for the Omaha public school system and he could not get a promotion unless he was a minority, a woman, or a disabled person. The government gives these jobs to less qualified people to uphold a standard of mixed race in public environments.

America is also being over run by illegal aliens, which the movie touched on. Derek attacks a store with his gang just because they employed Mexicans who were here illegally. This type of violence is not the way to solve the problem. The issue still affects the way of American life. The next president of our country may be chosen because of his stance on this very subject. The state in which this movie took place, California, has the highest rate of illegal immigrants in the workforce, than anywhere else.

This movie does show different aspects of racism, violent crimes, and social ignorance that people in general try to avoid in conversation. The part where they are eating dinner and break out into an argument over these issues is something that I don’t see happening in this part of the country. These are issues that are on everyone’s minds, but most people do not take up the extremist position like the white supremacist gang in the movie. I believe those people are considered social outcasts in this country just like the rest of the racial gangs in the US.

The movie does show how tragic it is to be hateful all the time. We see that in the end of the movie, hate does not pay off. There must be a way for the American people to come to a resolution without violence, because violence breeds ignorance.