I prefer the first half of the movie..

I agree, the first half brought up a lot of valid issues, all of which are still relevant today. It's a shame this movie couldn't find a middle ground and extract Norton's views from his volatile behavior.

But then the movie does away with ALL of that, not just his Neo-nazism, but his views too. This movie cops out of all the issues he brought up by associating it with his extremely hateful behavior, and instead decides to preach about "stop the hate, spread the love". I don't condone his actions, but everything he said was right. He was right to feel the way he did, and I understand why he acted the way he did, even though his actions were deplorable and almost hypocritical, since he seemed to criticize that kind of behavior.

And then the ending happened, and the movie almost seemed like it was going to address that maybe Edward Norton was right, to some degree (I even heard that the original ending was gonna have him join the skinhead nazi gang again, or at least something more ambiguous like shave his head, but Norton didn't want that). With that in mind, it seemed like this movie was onto something after all, but Hollywood wouldn't have it, instead let's keep preaching to love everyone, and sweep all the real issues under the rug. Yeah, loving people is good and all, but, still doesn't change the fact that our country's screwed up.

I might make my own post about this later, but for now, we both agree the first half was better, before getting all preachy and patronizing. That's why I give it a 7/10. Good movie, great acting, and great writing in the first half, but the cheesy Hollywood-y cop-out second half brought it down.

When the whole world tells you to move, you plant yourself like a tree and say "No, you move"