Related text: American History X Comment by George Moulos: You can't analyze a film the same as a book.If you re doing film you have to do film techniques, not literary techniques.-Derek Vinyard after going to prison and learning that his prejudice stemmed from ignorance he teaches his brothers Danny vineyard that his fascism and racism was wrong and ignorant.Movie Summary:Derek Vineyard begins in the movie as a troubled young man who due to his father's racist views develops his own, to the point of leading a local Aryan Brotherhood/Neo Nazi group in beach side LA. They constantly arm wrestle with local blacks with Derek actually winning the lo ...view middle of the document...
He kills them both violently and ends up in prison. He teams up with the Aryan's in prison but becomes disillusioned when they do drug business with minority groups. He makes this point to them and he is beaten and raped as revenge. Keeping himself to himself, he is eventually befriended by a black convict who saved him from being a target of the black gangs behind bars Upon his release his major task is to rid his younger brother Danny of becoming like he used to be. He breaks from Alexanders grip but Danny is a little less inclined. Danny is a smart kid who is still lives in the shadow of his brothers' past exploits. This is probably to blame for his murder by a black kid in the school toilets. This further shows Derek the needless waste of life based on antagonistic, racist belief and as he learned in prison, the belief is often enticed by things it is supposed to detest, in this case, open business with minorities. Derek was greatly influenced by his father. In the film, shown through flashback we see Derek's father and they were sitting around eating dinner. Derek mentions Mr. Sweeney and how he was black and how Mr. Sweeney had 2 PhD's and that he had them reading black literature. Derek's dad says Oh is it Black History Month. Soon there after his dad goes off and starts talking about how the force hired two black men over a white man who scored higher than them because of Affirmative Action. From this we learn that Derek's racism stems deeply from his father, perhaps a reflection of how so many people inherit their beliefs from their parents.
