A reformed neo-Nazi tries to stop his younger brother from going down the path he once took. The film moves back and forth between his violent past and his changed present. It's about how people are pulled into hate and how they get out. It also asks whether a changed man can escape the consequences of what he used to believe.
American History X is a 1998 crime and drama film directed by Tony Kaye. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 cinematography, 1 editing and 1 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Nickel Boys uses several of the same techniques.
Shooting the past in black and white and the present in color. You always know which time you are in, and the past feels distant, like old archive footage.
How this film uses it
Kaye, who was also the cinematographer, shoots Derek's neo-Nazi past in harsh black and white. Danny's present-day narration is in color. The black and white puts distance between you and the past without making it look pretty. Those years come across as something already judged, with nothing left to debate.
Where to see it
The opening black-and-white sequence. You see Derek's brutality in a style that already marks it as the past.
Using lighting, framing, editing and acting to make a character's slide into extremism look exciting at first. You feel the pull yourself before the film shows you the consequences.
How this film uses it
In the flashbacks, Kaye makes Derek's neo-Nazi belief properly magnetic. Edward Norton plays him as fully intelligent and physically commanding. The film earns the right to criticize the ideology because it refuses to make it look cartoonishly ugly. The horror is that it works on Derek, and for a brief moment, on you.
Where to see it
Derek's dinner table speech. This is the ideology argued at full force.
Holding the camera on violence for much longer than is comfortable, with no cut to let you look away. Most films only show a quick glimpse.
How this film uses it
Kaye shows the curb-stomp plainly. A wide shot catches the stomp itself and a close-up holds on the victim's mouth above the curb. Showing it this clearly is a moral choice. You have to take in the act as a whole, without the quick cutting that films use to make violence feel normal. The scene can't be made stylish, because it is filmed to be seen.
Where to see it
The curb scene. A wide shot of the stomp and a close-up of the victim's mouth leave the violence nowhere to hide.
Following a character reshaped by a prison or state system that retrains their beliefs and behavior, for good or ill.
How this film uses it
Prison undoes Derek's beliefs through direct experience with people. No therapy or argument is involved. A black prisoner becomes his friend, and the Brotherhood turns on him. The film argues that an ideology falls apart when it meets actual people, and that this comes at a real cost.
Where to see it
Derek's laundry room friendship with Lamont. Working side by side and joking around wears the ideology down.
Questions
American History X: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does American History X use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in American History X (1998): Black-and-White Flashback Grammar, Radicalization Aestheticization, Sustained Atrocity Duration and Institutional Reconditioning.
Who directed American History X?
Tony Kaye directed American History X, released in 1998. CineCode also covers Detachment (2011).
What films are similar to American History X?
Films that share techniques with American History X include Nickel Boys (2024), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Come and See (1985), Son of Saul (2015).
