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American History X Full Length Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2020-07-09 05:10:18
Imported:
2021-04
⚑ Flagged

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American History X Full Length Reaction.mp4

Comments

Anonymous

Oh man. So much to unpack with this movie. Really enjoyed your reaction here. For a variety of reasons this movie brings forth a lot of emotions and thoughts, and I guess I'll share them here. I have a bunch of text about my thoughts on what the movie shows - especially in the first half. After that I give some of my more personal thoughts about it. --- About the movie This is really two stories piggybacking off of each other. It's a movie about how white supremacism and racism disseminates through society, and how that affects minorities. But it's also about how a single person's hate impacts their family and loved ones. My estimation is that roughly half the movie is dedicated to each topic, though they're of course tightly linked. You talked brilliantly about the second half, about the personal ramifications of hate, so I won't be talking that as much. The first part of the movie deals with the racism and white supremacism directly. It shows Derek committing hate crimes and spreading his message of hate. It also shows him being level-headed and well-spoken -- until he isn't. In some ways I find that this first part is by far the one most relevant. I want to particularly focus on the dinner scene because it's an almost perfect microcosm of this movie. What's interesting is that the arguments made by Derek are, almost word-for-word, the arguments you'll find today in more-or-less mainstream discourse. You don't have to dig far to find someone bringing up FBI statistics on black-on-black crime as their argument about racial discrimination - exactly as Derek did. Not only does the dinner scene contain a lot of the same arguments that is still being made today, it also shows why they have penetrated from skinhead culture to more mainstream discourse. At the party Graham (or whatever the lead racist's name is) talks about how they "moved online" and "started working together". That the character is saying this in a movie from 1998 shows that the writers knew what they were writing about. And this is the part of my small essay that will be the most controversial. The online culture at the time was filled with a libertarian-style thinking of "let everyone talk, no matter how despicable, and the truth will win out". A very noble and honorable. But also, turns out humans don't work like that. Because online culture was also largely filled with young, impressionable boys - not unlike Danny - that didn't realize the well-spoken (or well-written) comments was left by these skinhead types looking to recruit and influence. Take the dinner scene again. Cut out the ending where Derek looses his self-control, and make it in writing where you can't see his tattoos. There's a guy speaking about "facts" and (misleading, or outright wrong) statistics in a calm and collected manner, surely he must be right on some level? And I'm of course not saying every conservative online is secretly a white supremacist trying to indoctrinate people. But there is a non-negligible population online that have bought into the rhetoric, if not the underlying ideology. Not by being told "we hate black people, come join us", but by well-spoken and well-mannered people slowly misleading them through clever use of rhetorical tricks. Looking into it is actually quite fascinating. The YouTube-series "The Alt-Right Playbook" goes into details with the modern incarnations of this discourse. I highly recommend it. --- My experiences: Phew, a bit of a long one. This wasn't the first time watching the movie, but it's the first time since I was 14. Back then I watched it in my English class. I of course understood what it was showing me on an intellectual level. The hate, the pain, and the destructive nature of it all. But I'm a white kid from the suburbs who went to effectively an all-white school. I'm from Denmark, and we do have less diversity here in general, but that's still quite uncommon here. As I started getting older I also got more interested in politics, and understanding the historical context that ripples to this day. Which of course includes the hate and pain. But it was still purely intellectual. I could say "oh god, how awful" all I wanted, but I never properly, viscerally, understood it. Then, a couple of years ago, I met this amazing girl. She's still my girlfriend to this day. She happens to be a black immigrant. The looks we've received, the treatment I've seen her get, and the even worse instances she's told me about... It's fucking rough. Only when it was shown to me so plainly, did I realize how bad some people have it in society as a function of their skin color. Only then did it become more than a mental exercise in sympathy. --- Closing thoughts: You had a few instances of "I don't want to get too political" or "Hope this isn't too political, but...". I admire that sentiment, but I don't think you should worry too much about that. Not to say you should necessarily say "go out and vote for 'x'" (nothing wrong with that either tho), but, especially when talking about movies dealing with this kind of heavy subject-matter, saying "this is why teachers should be paid more" (using an example from the reaction) is (or should be) entirely uncontroversial. And to me it simply flavors the reaction more in a very good way. Lastly, I want to say that the party scene had some hardcore punk going on. And I fucking hate that skinheads tried/try to co-opt the punk scene. Punk has from the very beginning been more progressive than the rest of society - being open to trans and gay people way before the rest of society were ready for that is just one example. Of course, the movie is just depicting reality, no hate that way. I am just always saddened by it. "Nazi Punks, Fuck Off"

Natalia

Man, I've been looking forward to this all day. What a spectacular film. Cracking open a drink and going to "join you" ---------post: I can't imagine reacting to this movie and attempting to articulate the absolute deluge of thoughts it so brilliantly provokes. I've seen it three times now and I'm still wrecked. Everything about it is so well done and so tragic... And on the cycle goes...... terribly relevant. Oh and Norton was nominated for an Academy Award for this performance (for obvious reasons), but lost to Roberto Benigni in "Life Is Beautiful" - also a magnificent movie and an astounding performance.