Though I believe the intent of the movie American History X is to show that Fascism/Nazism should not be tolerated, there are a few scenes which show WHY people are attracted to it. The main reason is that it gives people a sense of power, and it's widely known that whenever people are given power, they love to run with it. A scene that shows how Fascism/Nazism could be attractive to young people in particular is when Derek and his friends play basketball against a group of black men and the winners get to take over the courts. Though the "whites" start to struggle, Derek eventually comes in, takes his shirt off displaying his enormous swastika tattoo, and simply just looks like a strong leader. He speaks eloquently, turns out to be a great basketball player and he leads his team to victory. Young teens are taught that being the leader of an organization is a great, strong thing to do, and Derek has the characteristics of a strong leader. Though he leads an evil organization, in this scene particularly, it looks like he's doing something good. What makes this scene even more attractive is that Danny, who is a young teen, is inspired by his older brother's actions. We know this because the scene is one of Danny's memories, and as he is describing what happened on the court that day he talks about how great of a place Venice Beach used to be before all the black gangs took over and it became a violent place. This scene makes Derek not only look like a hero to Danny, but to the entire community.
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Good point about power. The young people in this movie have very little going for them.
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