MovieChat Forums > American History X (1998) Discussion > Who actually watched this movie and beca...

Who actually watched this movie and became less “racist” at the end?


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dXxI5UN46F8&fbclid=IwAR03KE_syodEvQdx2NhIdQspGBMzVQcxIN8XxuIWL-wGXuccF2nT1_RzB74

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vU9mI4fkiDo

These two scenes negate everything that happened in the end. The entire third act is wholly unrealistic. Even if the fellow skinheads were tired of his moralizing and preaching...there’s no way they would have risked internal civil war by gang raping a high ranking guy in the movement just because he was “preachy” about their values. He had like 18 months left in his sentence...they would have bit the bullet and simply waited him out, go back to regular business once he got released. But the writers probably realized that they made Derek as too sympathetic a character and his views were making too much sense, so they needed some drastic plot technique to make him “change his ways.” To justify why he would even think of doing so.

And what did it get him in the end? That “change.” His little brother got killed by a black gangbanger. So much for his “redemption.”

There’s even a deleted scene at the end after his brothers death where Derek is staring at himself in the mirror and as the scene fades to black the sound of a buzz cutter is heard. They didn’t want that kind of ending. Too truthful and too realistic. So they went for the “Hollywood” ending.

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I always felt this one lost me at the end. It was a tail wagging the dog.

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It felt like a forced conversion on the part of Derek.

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I don't think the movie was meant to make people be less racist.

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🙄

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My sentiments exactly.

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"There’s even a deleted scene at the end after his brothers death where Derek is staring at himself in the mirror and as the scene fades to black the sound of a buzz cutter is heard."
Show us this scene, then.

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It was taken down by YouTube. It was like a rough draft scene, never polished.

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Director Tony Kaye claims it's the ending he wanted. It's unclear if that ending was actually filmed though.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160827054252/http://www.alternateending.co.uk/blog.php?post=alternate-ending-american-history-x

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Then Kaye is a MORON. I prefer the official ending we got.

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Kaye wanted a more realistic ending. The ending we got felt forced to me.

That said, many people watch movies for escapism. So I don't blame people for preferring a more hopeful ending to a realistic one.

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Kaye wanted an ending that teaches that being a neo-Nazi skinhead is a POSITIVE thing. No wonder Hollywood shot it down.

Had Kaye got the ending he wanted, it would be a poster child for such bald losers.

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Kaye wanted an ending that teaches that being a neo-Nazi skinhead is a POSITIVE thing.
I don't read that as being the intent of the original ending. I read it as an ending showing that the cycle of racism isn't so easily broken.

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Agreed or as Master Yoda said “Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering”

Derek was turned to hate by the death of his father, his pain was healed over time, but then the death of his brother opens the wound and the hate comes back.

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Given the number of white supremacists around here who love this movie, it seems the message got through just fine without the originally planned ending to drive the point home.

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Those losers think that Derek went back to being a skinhead for sure, when to be honest, the ending is ambiguous, with only the words from his dead brother's essay to sway him away from it.

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Only good people.

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Get shot in the face by gangbangers

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Spare us your experiences in seedy clubs.

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It’s a scene from the ending genius

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A happy ending, no doubt.

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Yeah if you call getting your little brother murdered...”happy.”

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White supremacists generally love this movie because they feel it low key validates their degenerate anti black, white supremacist views & i don't think they're wrong in that interpretation. His "conversion" away from Neo Nazism in prison did feel like a cover to hide this fact.

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Just means that only dumb people are racist.

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The greatest nations on earth were built by racists

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White supremacists are degenerate, immoral lowlifes to be sure but evil doesn't automatically mean dumb. White supremacist depravity wouldn't have sustained itself as long as it has if that were the case.

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There is inherent dumbness in being evil, for it yields less happiness.

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Good flick. But I laughed out loud at the idea of white supremacists in Venice Beach. Hysterical.

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And what did it get him in the end? That “change.” His little brother got killed by a black gangbanger. So much for his “redemption.”


Change or not. He was in too deep before, and he paid for it in the end by losing his little brother. Doesn’t matter whether he “changed”, his previous sins were too much and still cost him and his family in the end. It was just too late. I loved the ending of this film. I think if I remember correctly, when he’s holding onto his brother after he’s been shot, he’s crying and saying “What did I do?” It was powerful stuff!

The head shaving ending everyone talks about would have been horrible in my opinion. The original ending shows the cost of racism. Having Derek going back to be a racist skinhead at the end would have made the entire movie completely pointless.

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That black kid was going to shoot Danny no matter what. Even if he hadn’t been with the crowd that he was with. He was a gangbanger.

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he was also the younger brother of the guy derek killed you fucking idiot

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No he wasn’t. And that guy Derek killed couldn’t take losing a basketball game like a man. So he had to show up and try to steal Derek’s truck. He fucked around and found out.

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Oh that’s original. You stay up all night to think of that one?

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[deleted]

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[deleted]

Yawn your 85 IQ is boring

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your mother raised a maggot
i hope you do a movie with alec baldwin faggot

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Hey he’s your political ally not mine. And I wouldn’t work in pedowood.

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my middle finger salutes you faggot

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You finger bang your mom with it?

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unlike you i'm not white and i don't participate in incest but good try
you'll never be the man that your mother is faggot

Fuck off back under your rock and lick your wounds.

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so tell me is your ass aware that your head has moved in?

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Oof Tyrone mad lol

Maybe he’ll steal something and get roughed up for resisting. It’s the only way you guys can get any validation lol

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didn't read peckerwood

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Ok Tyrone

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it's best to ignore trolls like the OP, they are losers living in their moms basement looking for some kind of interaction. Just put him on ignore @ibarackedyomama

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