Themes in American History X

The struggle to change.

The character of Derek is one of a Christ like figure who has to be deconstructed or die mentally so that he may rise again and so save his brother Danny.
Costume reinforces this idea with his tattoos “DOC” (Died on Cross) and the crooked cross of the Swastika to represent the Anglo Saxon Protestant as the basis of the ideology.
(Watch Scene 14 again and notice the actions and expressions of Derek.)
Throughout the film slow motion photography is also used. This is to let the ideas and events that have taken place be completely digested and analysed by the audience. By slowing the action down the audience can clearly grasp what is going on and the possible impacts.
Adding to the Christ symbolism is the recurrence of water as background shots, both natural and indeed as a form of cleansing the body and the soul as baptism is done for Christians. (Watch Scene 28.)
Derek does realise in prison that essentially the ideology is flawed and that others simply use it and him for their own means. He must now battle to destroy the mythology that has been set up around him and so prevent his brother from heading down the same path.
(Watch Scene 16 as Cameron is confronted and belittled by logic but finally force.)

Prejudice and the manipulation of others.

Essentially the film bases itself around the idea of hatred and prejudice of races against each other. Derek primarily, and to a lesser extent Danny, are manipulated in their innocence, firstly unconsciously by their father (watch Scene 27) and then Cameron (watch Scene 15). This is echoed by the minor black character who eventually takes Danny’s life in a ‘photo negative’ action that parallels Derek’s.
The problem is that the manipulation and persuasion exists in the form of logical arguments, twisted as they might be. It is easy to see how people in difficult and desperate circumstances can be manipulated.
(Watch Scene 11.)
The director also deliberately chooses to make a distinct cinematic decision to use both black and white and colour film. • Black and white was the main type of film that was used in the past and so it represents the idea of what has occurred before. All the flashbacks that the audience see giving background to the present, are in black and white. The scenes in colour are those of the present. • The use of black and white also symbolise the state of mind of Derek. When he is narrow minded and at the height of his ideology he can only see things in right or wrong, black or white. It is only now that he has gone through his catharsis that he can truly see the world, in colour.

In addition of the film stock showing the difference between the open and closed mind, so the use of costume in the form of hair adds to these ideas. All neo Nazis seem to show their ideals through their skin heads, the closely cropped hair a symbol of short or narrow mindedness. When Derek returns he has deliberately let his hair and so his mind grow. This symbolism is not lost on the boys’ mother who remarks that Danny too should grow his hair and open his mind.

“Hate is baggage”

The moral of the story is spelled out clearly by the central character of Danny. The fact that he does realise this until right before he is shot gives the audience the message that they too must realise the in-ground ideas and overcome them. (Watch Scene 26.)
By having Danny shot, the ending is both unexpected and shocking. The director builds on this by constantly showing close ups of Derek’s worried face looking over his shoulder in the walk to the diner and during the lead up to the final bathroom scene. Watch (Scene 32)
The soundtrack also adds to this moralistic ending as we hear the voiceover of Danny saying “this is what I learned”, the audience looking at his blood-splattered, baby faced body, symbolically in the toilet. It is then we hear the score that has been slowly recurring throughout the film- a choral arrangement of high heavenly, angelic voices that suggest that this is not just mindless entertainment but a story with a message and a purpose.

" We are not enemies, but friends.We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. " Abraham Lincoln