American History X
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.99 You Save: $5.99 (46%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $3.94 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of American History X
Movie Review: American History X
Summary: 5 Stars
Gripping! Edward Norton and Edward Furlong are incredible actors. The movie is an eye opener about hatred, intolerance, and environmental effects on our behavior. The events in the story could be true to life makes it scary. Compelling story. Movie Review: American History X - Public perception of a masterpiece in retrospect
Summary: 5 Stars
Vintage years for film seem to come in bunches - the late forties - the late nineties - being primary examples. In the thick - when the critics become the most confused - spoiled by the surfeit, we, the movie going masses seem to troop along. Such a year for film was 1998-1999. Most of us have had our differences with the judgments of The Academy of Arts and Sciences (if you're not smiling by now - don't read further). But none of the Academy's many shameful blunders compare to what went down on Oscar night 1998. Let me remind you. The nominees for best picture: Shakespeare In Love (winner), Elizabeth, Life is Beautiful (Best Foreign Language Film winner), Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line. O.K. I'll ask: Would any of you today, in your right mind, claim that any of these films (every one of them set in Europe, by the way), with the possible exception of Saving Private Ryan, held a candle to that enduring masterpiece, in the opinion of so many here, and elsewhere, one of the greatest and most important and moving films ever made, American History X?
Over time, the vox populi imparts justice of sorts. These days, when I inquire of my 20-something students if any of them have seen Shakespeare In Love, maybe a hand goes up. Perhaps, this handily-crafted piece of fluff (with its cavalier sense of history) made all the more delicious by the mellifluous, long-waisted presence of La Paltrow, goddess of the late dot com boom in the blush of young beauty, deserved a better fate. Perhaps not. Perhaps, the spectacle of Gwynnie dancing with Daddy (like Candy) at her Oscar coronation helped prepare T.V. audiences for the nepotistic profligacy of the coming Bush inauguration. Perhaps, nothing could have prepared them.
The response to American History X is, of course, quite different. A decade later, an entirely new generation of viewers again experiences the intensity and passion of this magisterial cinematic statement and responds in kind. My point is: there's no substitute for a film which has something crucial say and says it as well as it could be said.
We all know how much inconsequential junk is passed of as cinema every year. Like the audience, the film industry must eat to stay alive. Clich?s, humorless as ever, abound. Ask Bruce Willis to say something on film. That's why I'm upset. When a great script gets made into a masterpiece, in Hollywood no less, even the best tend to shun or worse, pan it. Or misunderstand it. This film is about a lot more than misguided white racist supremacy. Please. And Derek's rhetoric is not that logically powerful or convincing to be obsessed over, as many critics have, at the expense of all the many more important things this film says.
Take the greatest screenwriting mentors: Robert McKee and Syd Field. McKee's masterpiece, Story, may be best book ever written on dramatic writing (roll over Aristotle), or writing narrative, period. Sine qua non for attempting to write for the cinema. What is the favorite script of these genius pedagogues? Chinatown. No doubt a great script - the textbook exemplar. And - in many senses a great film - made at a pivotal moment in the history of film - a moment it eulogized - the passing of film noir. Yeah. The ultimate corruption of the world, the masked and massive darkness we found our world on. The perversity of power we enshrine in our struggle for survival. But to tell you truly, American History X (to my knowledge wholly ignored by both Field and McKee in their writings and seminars) is the greater script (for all the principles it betrays) and the greater film. The proof is in the pudding: this film enunciates the essential conflict of our time, not another, or the fruit of that conflict, whichever way one wishes to see it. And I would go further. I would say, in the progressive cadences of its tragedy, in the somber measure of its gravity, this script ranks with the best of Aescylus and Sophocles. You mean Oedipus X? Yuh, that too. That grimy little block of Venice, CA takes on epic proportion by the film's end.
The night the Academy snubbed American History X has long since receded into the past. But that history which is ours, depicted here, is an event which we must claim as our own, a responsibility which none of us, as a humanity, can evade.
Movie Review: Cream of the Crop
Summary: 5 Stars
Hands down, this is an amazing movie. There is very little to find wrong with this movie.
The acting is by far the highlight of this film. While not his breakout role, this is the first movie where Norton really showed he was a star. He goes from downright scary to completely likable through the movie. More importantly, its a transition you really believe.
Furlong, who bothers me a lot, mostly it's his voice, also puts in a good performance. The rest of the cast also adds a lot to the movie. I am a fan of Ethan Suplee, and this is role is one of the reasons. Also Fairuza Balk puts in a sold performance. And Avery Brooks, always a winner, really comes through. I think Brooks puts in the second best performance, next to Norton, of the whole film. In a movie with the caliber of acting, thats saying something.
The story itself is uplifting in it's own way, but still very dark. This is definitely a drama, so anyone looking for lighter fair should steer clear. Normally I am not a fan of flashbacks, but they are handled very well. The pacing is dead on, and the viewer is not left wondering how much time is left until the movie is over.
This is a quality flick, one of my all time favorites, and a must see for any moviegoer.
Movie Review: A Lesson for Us All!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie rocked the nation when it came out. It's the film that put Edward Norton(Incredible Hulk, The 25th Hour, The Score) on the radar.
The movie is a statement about racism, family and hate. Anyone that has seen this movie, can relate in one way or another. It makes you think about what you've done, what you've said and where that hate comes from. Everyone can take something away from this film, some lesson, some meaning.
Ed Norton plays a racist, he goes to prison and when he gets out, his younger brother Edward Furlong (Terminator 2, Brainscan, Jimmy and Judy) is just like him. A racist full of unbridled hate for no good reason. Norton is healed, no longer a racist, matured and past that stage of his life, he tries to get his brother help and the movie escalates from there, twisting and turning, until the dramatic climax.
A classic, everyone should see this movie!
Movie Review: Had me hooked...
Summary: 5 Stars
I had heard of this movie and although I like Edward Norton, I was in no hurry to see it. I happen to catch it on cable one night as I was flipping through the channels, folding laundry. The laundry didn't get finished until much later. This movie was so powerful, it just sucked me right in. I loved the story, acting, writing, everything about it. I highly reccommend this to anyone who hasn't seen it.