Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Rivera: American History X


American History X is a film which presents to the audience a very disturbing view of the effect hate groups in America. The film is about a man who forms a white supremacy group in his neighborhood, and his younger brother who follows in his footsteps. Ultimately the older brother, Derek learns the error of his ways, and tries to help his younger brother, Danny, see the same light. Throughout the film the audience is exposed to intense scenes of racist acts including dialogue, violence, imagery, and propaganda. There is one scene in the film, I believe, that encompasses every intent the film is meant to portray.
The film is not shown in chronological order, segmented with black and white flashbacks told through Derek's perspective. It is interesting to note that Derek is associated with a white-supremacy group who hate blacks, and all of his flashbacks are in black and white. This use of color shows two things: the first of which is that the division between the two colors was in his past, that is why this color scheme is only used in flashbacks. The second intent is to how Derek viewed the world at that time in his life; We often refer to this color scheme as "black and white" but in reality, there are varying hues of gray, which is the predominant color. This represents that although Derek believes the world to be as simple as a separation of black and white, he is ignorant to the gray areas of the world. The scene I am speaking about involves Derek as well as a group of other racists attacking a Korean-owned convenience store and assaulting the employees. The individuals attack the black cashier and lay her on the counter covering her in food while stating overly-racial and disgusting remarks. This scene to me encompasses everything the film is trying to portray.For the most part of the scene, the camera is at a very intimate level, making the assault very uncomfortable for the audience, but adding to the feeling of dominance the audience expects the white supremacist to be feeling. It is in black and white, and there is a group of white men encircling a black woman, whom they are assaulting. The men are certainly the dominant in the frame, leaving the black woman as the contrast. The arrangement of the men symbolically represents a state of power and superiority over the woman, who lays there defenseless.
This film does a great job of delivering to the audience a message about the importance of recognizing the issues and difficulties hate-related crimes can bring. The sense of comradeship the white-supremacist feel is an enticing and dangerous aspect of the film. However, I feel as though the film is quite exaggerated, and therefore, quite unrealistic. For starters, the article we read states that most hate groups rarely commit any major crimes against other races, and even went as far as to say that a majority of members do nothing more than read the literature. In doing so, I feel as though it unintentionally feeds into the same stereotypes the film tries to portray as dangerous. As the article states, the black and white characters in the film are text-book cut-outs of their stereotypical basis. Not all white-supremacists are rednecks, and not all blacks speak in slang, are always aggressive, and are uneducated. The film seems to feel that in order to show the affect hate can have on a group, it must first represent the "ideal" characters to fit the stereotypes to place in the film.

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