Preview

Movie : American History X Sociology

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1246 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Movie : American History X Sociology
#1 In a shocking opening scene, teen Danny Vinyard who is played by Edward Furlong, races to tell his older brother, neo-Nazi Derek, about the young blacks breaking into his car in front of the house, whereupon Derek gets his gun and with no forethought shoots the youths in their tracks and he forces the other man to put his mouth on the curb, then brutally kills him by stomping on the back of his head, crushing his mouth against the curb. Danny watches in horror as this unfolds. The police arrest Derek as he smiles at a shocked Danny.. Derek having already been influenced by the latent racism of his bigoted firefighter father. Derek is driven to action when his father is shot and killed while fighting a fire in a suspected Compton drug den. Eventually Derek becomes second-in-command of a neo-Nazi street gang, The D.O.C. (Disciples of Christ), and entices young whites to join. Tried and convicted, Derek is sent away for three years in prison, where he acquires a different outlook as he contrasts white-power prisoners with black Lamont, his prison laundry co-worker and eventual pal. Flashbacks, told in reverse chronology and represented by black-and-white throughout the film which is opposed to the present-day events represented in color, Meanwhile, Danny, with a shaved head and a rebellious attitude, seems destined to follow in his big brother's footsteps. After Danny writes a favorable review of Hitler's Mein Kampf, black high-school principal Sweeney puts Danny
#1
in his private "American History X" course and assigns him to do a paper about his older brother, who was a former student of Sweeney's. This serves to introduce flashbacks, with the film backtracking to illustrate Danny's account of Derek's life prior to the night of the shooting. Monochrome sequences of Derek leading a Venice, California gang are intercut with color footage of the mature Derek ending his past neo-Nazi associations and attempting to detour Danny away from the group led by white

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In the film Erin Brockovich, several different social theories can be related to the storyline of the film. Although different, theories from Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber can all adequately describe what happens in the film. The film is about a small law firm that takes on an extremely powerful organization, PG & E (Pacific Gas & Electric), on the account that they were knowingly polluting Hinkley, California’s water supply and harming the citizens. From Karl Marx, the film can be explained through his base-superstructure model of society, with PG & E serving as the powerful base, and the rest of society in Hinkley, CA serving as the superstructure. From Emile Durkheim, this movie can be portrayed through his evolutionary theory, through the way that Erin and the rest of Hinkley, CA progresses from a mechanical to organic society, and as a result their idea on law progresses from repressive to restitutive law. Thirdly, the film can be represented through Max Weber’s theory on rationality, in the way that PG & E expresses its domination over the rest of society.…

    • 2212 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rumble Fish Synopsis

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Together they discuss and recall their adventures and crazy childhood. It starts off with Rusty playing pool at Benny's when he hears that Biff Wilcox, a tuff gangster wants to kill him because he swore at Biff's girlfriend. Rusty acts real cool about it and pretends not to care. He goes to Patty's house, his girlfriend, and she pleads him not to fight anymore and he's just like this is the last one, but she doesn't believe him anyway. After that he goes to the parking lot where the fight is taking place. He sees his friends there and he also sees Biff's friends there. He counts the people and makes sure no one brought any weapons just like his brother, the motorcycle boy taught him to do just before a fight. They start cussing each other out and then the fight starts, while everyone else watches. Biff pulls out a blade and this makes the fight unfair. But still Rusty manages to take him down and knocks the crap out of him. While Biff is on the floor Motorcycle Boy walks in the middle of the fight and gets pissed of at his little brother. While Rusty is distracted Biff gets up and cuts Rusty on his side above his hips. Motorcycle boy gets angry by seeing this so he breaks Biff's wrist and leaves him lying there. All of Biff's friends abandon him when Motorcycle Boy arrives, as he is sort of the legend of the town because he used to be the leader of the former gang of the neighbourhood called…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boondock Saints

    • 2079 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The movie starts off with two very religious Irish brothers Connor and Murphy McManus who decide God has chosen them to rid the city of Boston of sinners. They begin their calling merely by accident, when a couple of Russian mob members cause a fight in their buddy Docs bar; resulting in Connor launching a toilet off the fire escape and jumping off to save his brother Murphy. Agent Paul Smecker saw their actions clearly as self-defense and they were let off the hook. During one of their killings they encountered their buddy David Della Rocco who then accompanied them on several other missions until their final killing together where Italian mob boss Papa Joe Yakavetta killed him in front of the brothers. Agent Smecker realized that he agreed with what the brothers were doing and later decided to help them in secret. Connor and Murphy may have lost a dear friend but they gained back a father they thought they’d lost a long time ago. He had been sent to kill them, with no knowledge that they were his sons, but when he heard them say the old family prayer as they mourned Rocco he joined in and that’s when it dawned on all of them. Three months later during Papa Joes hearing the brothers and their father burst in the courtroom and announce themselves to the world with the grand finale of spilling Papa Joes blood on the courtroom floor.…

    • 2079 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Danny starts to correlate with people when he starts to go to high school. He is a extremely smart guy with the help of his best friend Calvin. In the book the author shows us how quite Danny used to be until he notices girls. She shows us this because he barely ever talks and always sits in the back of the classroom. He starts to demonstrate his emotions when he starts to like a girl named Tiffany. Tiffany's brother is a part of a gang called the Cobra's. The gang starts vandalizing different places, such as Danny's Uncle's store.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the 23rd of October, Reservoir Dogs was released in cinemas, causing his name to be on the tip of everybody’s tongue. The film follows six men - Mr Blonde, Mr Blue, Mr Brown, Mr Orange, Mr Pink and Mr White, and their attempts to reconcile the events that have transpired: a planned bank heist gone wrong. With the cops apparently being tipped off, two of the six men dead and another bleeding out, we watch as the film takes us back to show us how the heist was set up, who the characters are, and if there is indeed an undercover cop in the group (Tarantino,…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laissez Faire has always held up an ideal that if one works hard towards a goal, success…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Verrazano Bridge

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The film follows a single day the life of a rookie LAPD officer, Jake Hoyt who has to meet with the Detective Alonzo Harris, who’s is going to evaluate officer Jake to give him a spot on the narcotics division. Detective Harris has to train officer Jake for a period of 24 hours on the streets of Los Angeles. As the day goes on officer Jake and Detective Harris drive around the City looking for drug dealers. Later in the film the Detective Harris abuses a suspect and takes the drugs and doesn’t arrest the criminals. Then detective Harris puts a gun on officers Jake's head tells him to smoke the marijuana is he wants to be a Narc Officer. As the day goes by officer Jake is noticing that Detective Harris is Corrupt and that his has to watch his back if he wants to get back home to his wife and his newborn Daughter. Jake is a naïve rookie cop and has never experience the corruption of police in the streets and what really goes on with the connection between drug dealers and cops.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This documentary is written, directed and produced by Michael Moore and is about the social repercussions of capitalism as well as corporate and government issues that conflict with the basic needs of people and their families. Moore takes a liberal humanistic look at the consequences of General Motors closing down several auto plants in Flint, Michigan in the late 1980's and what can happen when a city is almost completely reliant on a single industry that shuts down or moves away. Moore also looks at the failure of Flint city officials to reverse the effects of the closures with trends like Auto World which had little effect (Moore, 1989).…

    • 1749 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    After the murders, he is sent away to jail where he tries to use the protection of the Skinheads in prison but finds out that the leader of the Skinheads in prison deals directly with minorities to sell drugs. Derek begins to disassociate with the Skinhead group and plays basketball with other races and begins to get along with others. As revenge, the Skinhead group rapes Derek and leaves him unconscious in the showers. He speaks with Dr. Sweeney, a teacher and outreach worker who he asks for help from. He gives him literature and advice and Derek begins…

    • 2357 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The Color Purple" is a very powerful film that tells the story of Celie, a poor black woman living in the old south. The film begins at her childhood and follows her up to old age. She was raped and abused by her father as a young woman and was sent to marry and equally abusive man, Albert. The various people in Celie's household may seem strange in their actions to an outsider. However, if one examines the actions of the characters, their behabiors can be explained, and sometimes justified, by the systems theory, symbolic interactionism and finally, developmental theory.…

    • 694 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    essay on A Bronx Tale

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The movie fast-forwards eight years to when Calogero is 17 and he is seen hanging out with Sonny and his crew and is given the name C. C is part of a little local gang of Italian boys from his childhood although Sonny tries to persuade him from staying away and focusing on his schoolwork instead and preaches to him about receiving a dual education from the streets and school. C soon sees a black girl named Jane in school and begins to like her despite what his family and friends would say. He walks her back to her neighborhood but stops on the outskirts knowing he would not be allowed in. He asks her out on a date and she agrees to go. At the same time, C’s gang beats up a group of black cyclists but C does not take part in it. Sonny allows C to use his car to pick Jane up but when he arrives she has her brother with her and says that C was one of the boys who beat him up. C says a racial slur and Jane and Willie drive off. C returns with the car and his father admonishes him before he storms out of the apartment. Sonny confronts C and accuses him of planting a bomb in the car in an attempted assassination, but realizes C is telling the truth…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The opening scene of the movie shows three African American teenagers breaking the windows of a car. Derek, runs out of his house and shoots two out of the three males without an ounce of guilt. Derek’s younger brother Daniel is a witness to both the murders. Three years have passed and Daniel is now a seventeen-year old student at Venice Beach high. His brother is now being released after three years in prison, and Daniel has seemed to follow in his Derek’s racist ways. After writing a book report on a Hitler inspired novel, his principal demands Daniel takes a course along his side, a course titled American History X.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    American History X is a story about two brothers, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) and Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong), who struggle to overcome racial barriers when they are faced with the tragic death of their father. Derek, becomes a Neo-Nazi enthusiast after his fire fighter father parishes in a fire set by black gang members. In a vulnerable place in his life, Derek falls into the hands of Cameron Alexander. Alexander is the leader of a Baptist church looking to brainwash the youth into white supremacy ways of life. Derek quickly gets incarcerated after, killing two black men trying to steal his truck. They story then progresses with Danny whose now a high school student following in his brothers footsteps. While Derek is incarcerated, he makes friends with his African American cellmate named Lamont. This newly formed friendship causes him to question his views. When Derek is released from prison he becomes instantly worried about Danny following in his path. He reaches out to an old teacher of his, Mr. Sweeney, who is currently Danny’s teacher. Sweeney tells Derek he is worried about Danny becoming close with Cameron Alexander. Derek quickly try’s to intervene, warning Danny of Alexander’s real intentions and the repercussions of living that lifestyle. By this point it’s too late and although Derek’s current intentions are whole hearted, his past ones haunt him. Danny ends up being gunned down by a black gang member in the school bathroom. American history X is a dark drama, which passes along the strong message of equality.…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    also seemed like it was in layers, and how Cameron was the collective ocean and was using the young, disconnected youth skinheads to build himself up. The next scene is one of the most intense of the whole film, Derek is woken up by his brother Danny to find out that three "niggers" are breaking into his car. Derek runs outside with a gun and kills one right outside his front door, he ends up just shooting the one breaking into his car and chasing after the one driving away. In this scene Derek is only wearing his white boxers and…

    • 2190 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    American History X

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Derek Vinyard is paroled after being in prison for three years. The reason for prisoning is because of the murder of two thieves, who tried to steal his truck. Through a flash-back, his brother Daniel “Danny” had, we learned about Derek’s life. Derek was a leader of skinheads in L.A. and their white Nazi gang violently terrorized the opposite races. Derek’s actions had a very big influence on his younger brother, Daniel, who looked up to him and tried to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Derek’s time in prison opened his eyes and made him realize that in every race there can be good and bad. He somehow got enlightened and saw another road in his life. He just had to convince Danny, that there is another way to live, and another way to look at things. That way he wouldn’t end up as he did, just because of all his hatred and ignorance. Derek’s father got killed by a minority while he was in duty, which is why Derek’s vision started to blur and he believed everything he got told from his dad. At the end, Derek’s message was clear, and it finally reached Danny.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays