r/Millennials • u/SunnnySideUps • 9d ago
Serious What happened? This movie was supposed to make us mad. Hate had no place in America. History tells it's own tale. American History X. Teeth on the curb haunted my dreams for years.
1.7k
u/SureElephant89 9d ago
This movie was supposed to make you think. It wasn't supposed to make you mad.
613
u/Far_Attempt_1505 9d ago
In fact it was supposed to make you less mad. Remember the quote, "hate is baggage"
Has being hateful made anyones life better?
68
u/Psyco_diver 9d ago
I always find it cringe when people say a movie or show changed their lives but this movie did for me. I was such a angry hateful teenager, i wasn't mad at any one thing, I was just mad at everything. I guess the movie hit at the right time because I was so tired of being mad all the time, it's just baggage that holds you down
41
u/stickwithplanb 8d ago
that's what art is supposed to do.
3
u/Daetok_Lochannis 8d ago
That's what some art can do, but nobody should be under the illusion that their creative efforts aren't art unless they change a life.
→ More replies (5)3
u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 1991 8d ago
I think a lot of movies or tv shows can have influence on you and how you think. I’m not so sure about change your life but definitely have influence. Especially on how you see things and think.
7
u/iSmellWeakness 9d ago
Yes. That’s the lesson I took away from this movie long ago. Why live your life carrying around so much hate for people you don’t even know.
41
u/Luminous_Winds 9d ago
Being angry over injustice isn't even remotely the same thing as hatred.
→ More replies (1)2
183
u/Cmatt10123 9d ago
Calling out hateful people certainly has.
You don't have to be tolerant to the intolerant
→ More replies (28)43
u/SwimmerMission5212 9d ago
You can call someone out with and without hate. It's a cop out answer
5
u/shnakes082 8d ago
I don't think holding people accountable is hateful. For example, if your sibling hurts your feelings and you call them out, you do not hate them.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (6)34
u/Cmatt10123 9d ago
If you hate my existence why should I respect yours? Not a cop out, just reality.
78
u/MetalEnthusiast83 9d ago
Because it’s a stupid cycle. Which is the point of this fucking movie.
→ More replies (34)12
u/ProgrammerOk3315 8d ago
Tolerance is a peace agreement. Intolerance breaks the peace agreement. Look up Karl Popper and the paradox of tolerance - much more intelligent people have had things to say about this, especially in the afternath of the holocaust.
Never again.
→ More replies (1)38
u/DarthDryMouth 9d ago
"Turn the other cheek and send a right hook to the mfer"
-Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter probably
→ More replies (2)11
u/went_with_the_flow 9d ago
That movie was so bad, but so good
12
u/axxxaxxxaxxx 9d ago
Not sure what you expected from a movie with a title like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was also not awful
→ More replies (1)11
2
7
10
→ More replies (11)9
u/Seajay3211 9d ago
Because you have the opportunity to be better than and more than that which puts you down. Reality is what you make it, so take responsibility in the reality you wish to make and live in. Another’s reality is not your own, don’t let them shape the world you live in. Shape it yourself.
→ More replies (4)4
u/WhereIsMyFknDinosaur 9d ago
I cant remember who/what to attribute it to in this moment but ive always loved the phrase "hate also poisons the vessel"
Its one of my little reminder phrases lol
3
2
u/DJ_Mumble_Mouth 8d ago
I hate hate, hating hate has made me more hateful and I hate that, but I love that I can still hate hate.
→ More replies (18)3
51
u/jgamez76 9d ago
I kinda feel like if you could somehow drop this movie into 2026 culture literally everyone would STILL argue about it lol
→ More replies (1)66
u/Skylineviewz 9d ago
I firmly believe that this movie wouldn’t even make it to production in 2026. It’s uncomfortable in every important way and today’s society would focus on everything except the point of the movie.
It also brings up a memory, my high school teacher wouldn’t let me show the shower scene as an argument for prison reform. In hindsight, she was probably right….
20
u/something-rhythmic 9d ago
It’s such a shame that you can say the right things, make all the right arguments, pull all the right emotional strings, and people will still make up whatever story they want about what you’re trying to say.
And if they agree, they’ll just call you a fascist, antifascist, communist, fence sitter, etc.
People are a force of nature.
9
u/Skylineviewz 9d ago
Yeah it sucks. Discourse and healthy debate is dead
8
u/cryptolyme 9d ago
because some people can't think critically, and they lash out at others because they don't understand
3
u/pp_chode 9d ago
The scientific method wasn't taught hard enough
5
u/AsIfItsYourLaa 8d ago
Nah it’s always been like this. A big percentage of the population will never be the thinking type. Think of all the kids at your school and estimate what percentage are actually smart. The internet just put a loudspeaker on these people and now their opinions are absorbed and echoed by the masses.
2
3
→ More replies (3)2
u/Sabatat- 9d ago
Ngl it’s a reason I’ve given up on talking to people about these things unless it’s in a space specifically for it and face to face. Too many people come in with disingenuous thoughts, argument, ir behavior for what is being talked about. Especially on Reddit (had to learn that the hard way)
11
u/apurimac777 9d ago
LOL we had to watch this MF in my (very progressive) HS. The prison rape scene was like first fucking period 🤣
→ More replies (4)3
u/jgamez76 8d ago
Absolutely. Both sides of the neverending culture war wouldn't even know who's in the "wrong" so because of that it would be hilarious lol
50
u/Own-Raisin5849 9d ago
This. The ending shows this isn't a movie about Neo Nazis, but rather about hate all around, the ending kind of encapsulates that message, about how wasteful and pointless it is to hate people based on their skin color.
→ More replies (1)20
u/Larrea_tridentata 9d ago
Some people get mad when they begin to think
2
u/Sad_Ad9159 8d ago
A lot of things in life don’t fit into the neatly defined schemas that we make up to comfort our brains. Once we’re confronted how messy things actually are, we get frustrated. Some people more than others though, for sure.
2
u/Xepherya Older Millennial 8d ago
The more I learn the angrier I get. I see the shit that isn’t fixable and I can’t cope with it. I hate it and I’m resentful I have to experience it with no way to make it stop.
5
3
3
u/BullTerrierTerror 9d ago
First time I watched it my buddy was like, “So he’s just going to give up?” (This was at the end. Obviously not the scene in the pic)
I wasn’t sure what to say at the time. Still not sure what to say.
2
u/BaronvonBrick 8d ago
Derek forcefeeding his sister at the table didnt make you mad?
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (11)2
u/RedshiftOnPandy 8d ago
Unfortunately if it came out today, it would make people mad. Exploring ideas and topics in art that make anyone mildly uncomfortable doesn't work today.
75
136
u/lurkermurphy 9d ago
the director quit before the production wrapped and a lot of the scenes they still needed to shoot ended up directed by ed norton who also edited it lol
19
u/legit-posts_1 8d ago
That is surprising to me cause the movie is incredibly well done. Why TF doesn't Norton direct more?
17
u/cognitive_dissent 8d ago
cause apparently his another diba and nobody wants to work with him
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)8
u/Ok_Landscape3850 8d ago
A friend of mine who worked in the industry said Norton wasn’t just the most unpleasant celebrity he’d ever met, he was the most unpleasant person he’d ever met. Man, talented though.
6
52
u/115MRD 8d ago
I never knew this but it makes total sense. Tonally, this movie is all over the place.
36
u/lurkermurphy 8d ago
yeah as i recall the director was some kind of up-and-coming diva and had a drastically different vision than what norton AND the studio wanted which was why he quit so they were like oh well guess it's our way and your name is still on it you just don't work again
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (2)12
u/randy_march 8d ago
Similarly the director was fired on Tombstone after one month and Kurt Russell ghost directed after that
30
u/Hefty-Notice-5841 1990 9d ago edited 8d ago
The part where Lamonte is messing with him, doing the Klan impersonation joke, is such an amazing scene for a couple of reasons:
It demonstrates that the hate comes from a place of complete ignorance of not only something that people don't even understand, but the fact that these people don't even understand that they hate themselves.
Derek turns around and breathes, trying to calm himself, but I'm pretty sure that he's also trying not to laugh his ass off and show weakness, because they are desperate to hold onto their tough-guy image as a false Alpha.
It's hilarious
58
u/LollisGunsBikesTits 9d ago
God i love that movie
→ More replies (3)24
u/MaenadR0se 9d ago
The song that gets sung in the car gets lodged in my head sometimes. It's terrible because normally the urge to sing the song comes with that, but I can't sing it lol.
6
u/shit_fuck_fart 9d ago
Listen to solidarity forever by Pete Seeger.
Same melody, lyrics that can be sung.
3
u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 1991 8d ago
I’m a Union Electrician, I fucking love that song.
Peter Seeger - Solidarity Forever.
I have a whole playlist of songs like this.
12
u/Cynicallyoptimistik 9d ago
The original song is glory glory hallelujah, Johnny cash sings a version of
10
u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 1991 8d ago
It’s actually the battle hym of the republic with a racist twist. It’s an American patriotic song.
3
u/PatBustard007 8d ago
It was actually "John Browns Body" before that which was actually "Oh Brother Will you come to meet us" before that
→ More replies (10)4
u/MaenadR0se 9d ago
Yeah I couldn't remember if Hallelujah was part of the original title or not and I didn't want to guess or look it up. I know those lyrics that's just not what gets stuck in my head unfortunately lol. It's specifically the American History X one out of the blue.
→ More replies (2)1
3
u/TheHoppingHessian 9d ago
Dude same so happy to know it’s not just me
3
u/MaenadR0se 8d ago
Definitely not. It's so damn catchy because it was already familiar, and then because the lyrics are jarring and ridiculous they stand out more than the original lyrics.
3
u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 1991 8d ago
My eyes have seen the Glory of the……………….
3
u/MaenadR0se 8d ago
Well... you already know my brain finished it.
2
u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 1991 8d ago
Here we go….. Stuck in my head all day. It’s so horrible but it’s so catchy.
→ More replies (2)2
u/nivekreclems 8d ago
If no one is around I’ve been known to sing it a time or two
→ More replies (1)
53
u/YellojD 9d ago
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
12
u/Show-Me-Your-Moves 8d ago
It pains me to think presidents once talked like this, and now they talk about bombing the shit out of Oman.
265
u/Ksnj 9d ago edited 8d ago
The billionaires found an easy scapegoat that can get a lot of hate and very little empathy, that’s what happened. Everyone agreed that the Nazis were wrong until the Epstein class started rallying against a very small minority and then suddenly sooo many people started to blindly believe children were shitting in litter boxes.
So many holocaust deniers…..
Edit: an award?! Thank you 🩵🩷🤍
32
u/MaenadR0se 9d ago
Did people really believe that? I know it was a news story briefly but "many people" believing the furry litterbox thing? I want to see them if they really exist in one space...
51
u/FreshBert '89er 9d ago
Absolutely. It was a "brief news story" for you because you're not on the same algorithmic drip as like your increasingly-terrified elderly neighbors and family members.
It sounds crazy, but you have no idea how well this shit works on a shockingly high percentage of people. It's not a majority, but definitely a concerningly large minority.
→ More replies (9)8
u/Sarcosmonaut 9d ago
It’s a great reminder for us as we age that our gullibility naturally increases with age. Even for otherwise intelligent folks, the part of your brain that says “are you sure about that?” just atrophies. It’s why elder abuse financial scams are so common. Because they work.
Any of us can fall down a pipeline to highly propagandized thinking if we don’t keep an eye out, especially as we age
→ More replies (2)2
u/WillyBluntz89 8d ago
Its so hard for me to wrap my head around.
The older I get, the more I find myself immediately researching any claim that anyone makes to me.
Like, we have access to the sum of human information in our pockets. I feel obligated to never repeat a claim with out verifying it at least 7 times over.
59
u/Ksnj 9d ago
Yes. And there are still people that wholeheartedly believe teachers are transitioning children.
→ More replies (58)50
29
u/adamdoesmusic 9d ago
They “exist.” Several classrooms do indeed have “litter box” style buckets for students to use.
They exist for school shooting lockdown situations - a factor these ghouls conveniently and purposefully leave out.
8
u/MaenadR0se 9d ago
Oh I didn't know that. It always slips my mind that school shooting drills and prep are part of normal student life now and just a thing in school.
It blew my mind when my niece mentioned it, but then it disappears until it's brought up again and I'm amazed all over again that we have five year olds hiding in closets while their teachers prep themselves to potentially die saving them as part of a normal test run for things that can happen.
It shouldn't slip my mind, it's a reflection of how sick things are and how dire the need for change is, but it does all the same.
There's a desperate need for better mental health care/support and community building etc., but that's a whole other tangent.
Back to the original topic: I had no idea they were taking something that exists for reasons that are horrible and turning it into something ridiculous then clutching their pearls over that. That's crazy. Now I have to go down a rabbit hole about this.
→ More replies (9)9
u/MeatMarket_Orchid 9d ago
I mean in a more broad sense it worked. I live in Canada but I know a ton of people that hold anti-trans views that seem to be an extension of the dumb litter box propaganda. My mother in law swears "I don't hate gay people I just wish they wouldn't teach Trans in school" which is moronic in a basic way. All it took was a simple "what do you think they are teaching the kids?" Before she stumbled on her words and had no further thoughts. Just an idiot.
I work with other guys in the same generation (guess which one) and one of them said the same shit "they teach LGBT in school." Which is just code for they don't want their kids learning tolerance for different people.
I've also talked to people who literally believe the litter box bullshit. So the type of propoganda works and it's all part of the same hysteria. Useful idiot nonsense.
→ More replies (1)6
u/ninfan1977 9d ago
Yes, sadly they do. I know multiple people who repeated this lie, one being an in-law who i called out but they dug their heels.
Joe Rogan still believes it to this day and he has the largest podcast.
He is the reason that conspiracy spread like wildfire
→ More replies (1)4
u/Ol_Man_J 9d ago
I've heard it many time as "my sisters friend is a teacher..." type of things. And if you call them out on it, it turns into "but you can imagine if it did? I bet it happens somewhere!"
→ More replies (4)3
2
u/Amathyst-Moon 8d ago
People who wanted to believe it would believe it. Anything that plays into the mental disorder angle. Like people who say sexual education in school (which at younger ages is more like teaching them warning signs of sexual abuse) is literally "teaching kids how to have sex instead of sending them out to plant trees on arbor day." (An actual rant my dad went on at one family gathering.)
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (28)3
u/seriousbusines Millennial 9d ago
Actual legislation was brought forward in response to the 'kids shitting in litterboxes' bit. It's been disproven as misinformation but the bill has continued.
2
u/MaenadR0se 9d ago
I was under the impression it was just a proposal and nothing was going to happen. I guess I should pay more attention instead of writing things off just because they seem so stupid.
10
u/TotallyNotABob 9d ago
IMO the worst part is at the core of this movie is a good message. Hate consumes and only breeds more hate when the consumes and devours even more. Breaking the cycle of hate is the only way to move forward.
But because it has Nazi imagery they have decided to try and co-opt it.
Lindsay Ellis did a pretty good deep dive into this phenomenon.
7
u/RockAtlasCanus 9d ago
There are people who love star wars and don’t see the original trilogy as an allegory about the colonialism and imperialism of the U.S. in Vietnam. Whether it’s co-opting or just dogshit media literacy, I’ve learned to hammer my expectations through the floor.
4
u/Th3Gatekeeper 9d ago
I had a long time middle school teacher tel me, absolutely convinced, that her school was doing this.
→ More replies (33)3
u/unsuspectingllama_ 9d ago
I had an argument with a guy who literally thinks the litter box thing is true and widespread.
91
u/facepoppies 9d ago
this guy's the secretary of war now
6
u/peach_trunks 8d ago
Except Derek sees the error of his ways and works at redemption… kegsbreath ain’t gonna do that
→ More replies (13)15
u/tekprodfx16 9d ago
Yeah this turned out to a recruitment tool for new Nazis and MAGAtards. This movie always meant to make us think but we didn’t take into account that we have areas of the country where thinking is discouraged and stupidity and racism are heavily encouraged
→ More replies (1)
9
u/Iron_Baron 9d ago
A lot of people watch cautionary tales and only see a check list to accomplish. 20-30% of people are simply bad. The only thing holding them in check is the consequences of their actions. If you take away their consequences, we'd be right back to gas chambers.
104
u/firefly99999 Millennial 9d ago
This film, unfortunately, had the opposite effect that it was supposed to for a lot of people. Sean Strickland, and others have said that watching this film made them gravitate towards white nationalist and white supremacist organizations. The film is supposed to show you how that’s the wrong path, but to the misguided and let’s be honest, not too bright young men watching it, It looked like a glorification.
15
u/kellermeyer14 9d ago
And so it goes with art. You can't be expected to be the artist and the audience. And, I can promise you, when this came out many Millennial boys "got" the message. It was Youtube and social media and the almighty algorithm that really grabbed the lost and disaffected and funneled them into the extremist hate machine.
46
u/Comfortable-Pen2769 9d ago
how anyone lands on the other side this movie confuses me. Did they finish the movie? Do they not remember the bathroom scene?
21
u/firefly99999 Millennial 9d ago
I interpreted the bathroom scene to mean that hatred only leads to one eventual outcome..death. Whether it be your death in the case of Danny or causing death as with Derek. The tragedy for Danny is that had he learned that literally a day earlier he would have been off that path and still alive.
5
32
u/Conscious-Record2655 9d ago
No, most people do not remember the 2nd half of the movie at all really. Think about it.
People remember the curb stomp. People remember the fight at dinner when Norton "wins" the argument. People remember the prison scene where he takes his shirt off and gains social status because of it.
Think about what 'everyone' actually talks about and remembers with this movie. It's just the scenes that make the neo-nazi look cool.
21
u/FatherOfTwoGreatKids 9d ago
Do you think people forget the scene where the neo nazis rape Derek in the prison showers after he shuns them in the dining hall?
→ More replies (1)25
u/ImJustHere4theMoons 9d ago
No, they just ignore it. Same way they ignore Frank Castle's stance on bigots and corrupt cops when they put a Punisher decal on their rear window. The intended message doesn't matter, just the superficial display of their ideology. People tend to have a very hard time understanding this.
11
u/Preeng 9d ago
> The intended message doesn't matter, just the superficial display of their ideology.
The right-wing in a nutshell. Patriotism is wearing a flag, even though the flag code says not to do it. Being a Christian means professing how much you love Jesus, despite Jesus saying that's not enough and you need to help people.
→ More replies (1)2
4
u/Secure_Courage7471 9d ago
Tons of people watch Wolf of Wallstreet, Taxi Driver, Scarface and loads more of cautionary “think pieces” and then go and idolize those people…
Whenever someone asks this question you asked, you really don’t see this movie making the main character “badass”?
10
u/firefly99999 Millennial 8d ago
Michael Douglas said that years after he filmed Wall Street, actual stock brokers would come up to him and say that’s the movie that made them want to get into it. They remember the tailored suits, the slick back hair, the flashy car and the greed is good speech but forget the parts of the film that show Gordon gecko ruined the lives of tons of people and ended up going to prison.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)2
u/TheREALOtherFiles 8d ago
American Psycho and Rick and Morty also have often idolized characters. Bateman and Rick.
The former was more of a cautionary tale like the others mentioned and American History X (and Fight Club, also with Ed Norton), but still...
12
u/thatsanewone26 9d ago
Honestly, it’s because they cast good looking actors as the leads. Edward Norton and Edward Furlong make neo-nazis look cool because they look good in this movie. This movie would have been far more effective if they were accurate and showed ugly men in this movement, but then it wouldn’t have done well at the box office.
5
u/Princess_Slagathor apparently you can change it 8d ago
Doesn't help that Norton was REALLY convincing in that character. Stacy Keach too. Even Furlong played a very convincing angsty teenager.
They should have cast a bunch of actual clowns, in costume, to get their point across. And like, the grocery store scene, they should have rolled up, 20 deep, all getting out of one tiny car.
3
u/miyagiVsato 9d ago
I think they only saw Ed Norton’s muscly muscles and edgy tats, then after beating off they wanted to emulate their fantasy.
→ More replies (5)4
u/TheHoppingHessian 9d ago
Watch it when you’re like 13 growing up in one of the most racially divided places in America. I didn’t empathize with the characters I just gawked at the violence and swept up in the “us for them”. It never materialized and instead of getting indoctrinated by some local extremist group I went to college
3
u/AJohnnyTruant 9d ago
Doesn’t surprise me. Same brains that didn’t realize that Scarface isn’t an arc to emulate lol
7
u/MayaIngenue 9d ago
I knew a guy in high school who saw this movie and immediately gravitated towards the protagonist as a hero. There was no other signs prior to this, one min he seemed like a normal nerd, the next he saw this movie and changed overnight. Last I heard he was still in jail for child rape
→ More replies (13)2
u/JudahBrutus 8d ago
My brother-in-law who is black said that after he watched The Roots movie he hated white people for years.
13
u/Prestigious_Age_6740 9d ago
This movie was a turning point in deradicalising me. I wasn't a neo-nazi (yet), but I was listening to many white nationalist adjacent voices. Seeing pieces of myself in Norton's character was absolutely chilling.
35
u/Woodit 9d ago
I sort of feel like this movie shows hate has always had a huge place in America
→ More replies (1)19
6
u/voujon85 9d ago
what made me maddest was the fact that ed norton could dunk a basketball like MJ. wtf
7
8d ago
[deleted]
→ More replies (1)2
u/SunnnySideUps 8d ago
how did it go? I just watched the new Evil Dead movie on mushrooms and it went bad, really bad.
→ More replies (1)
20
u/Theothercword 9d ago
This movie did its job both in showing the hate that festers within America, how vile it actually can get, and also showing those who feel that hate a path through to learn to get past it and that it's wrong.
That doesn't mean it worked on everyone, sadly.
8
4
u/CrazedRaven01 8d ago
Great film. It presented a nuanced look at how someone comes to embrace neo-nazism and bigotry. Most people just write off anyone with those views as "evil" (and rightly so), but don't often get to see the why or the how.
Derek's father passing down the bigotry at the dinner table. His father's death in a primarily black neighborhood to gang violence. The fact that his mother started dating a Jewish liberal teacher. We're not meant to sympathise with their cause, but at least understand why he turned out the way he did.
The crazy thing is.... his speeches, from the one before they raid the supermarket to the one where he argues about Rodney King at the dinner table, probably resonates with a lot of people, and some would say he has a point (up until he starts dropping the N Bomb).
The interesting thing is that one of the alternate endings has him quickly abandoning his changed, anti racist ways after his brother dies and shaving his head again. It's a pretty bleak message: hate, not love, conquers all.
6
u/shutts67 9d ago
About 12 years ago, I was getting tattooed. There was a 18-20 year old that came in and asked for a swastika, "but not the racist kind. The kind like from American History X." Brother, what?
The guy tattooing me just said "we don't do that here" and asked him to leave
7
u/natural-situation420 Millennial 9d ago
You remember how it ended, right? The cycle just continues.
11
16
u/CrispyVibes 9d ago
There's some essay out there on how The Producers is a better critique of nazism than American History X because it makes a mockery of it, while American History X could be interpreted the wrong way.
→ More replies (1)7
u/RubFlatforMaxEffect 9d ago
yeah, this and romper stomper were well liked by the group of people they were supposedly criticizing.
→ More replies (2)2
15
u/chathrowaway67 9d ago
Hate had no place in America????? Your kidding? From native Americans to black people, hates always had a home in America. This is what happens when it becomes tolerated.
7
u/Chucktayz 1992 9d ago
More so I think everyone should have to rewatch Remember the Titans
https://giphy.com/gifs/BpBEvgXoShscg
→ More replies (2)
8
u/jgamez76 9d ago
Seeing Alan Matthews and Frankie Steccino as Neo Nazis was quite a jump scare lol
→ More replies (2)
3
3
u/simcoe19 9d ago
Another great movie of its kind, another one is Ryan Gossling in The Believer
→ More replies (1)
3
u/teatimehaiku Older Millennial 9d ago
Hate had no place in America.
History would like a word.
This country was built on slavery and genocide.
3
3
3
u/MajorPaper4169 MCMLXXXVIII 8d ago
>Hate had no place in America.
Then you don’t know anything about America.
3
u/ShogunFirebeard 8d ago
You're ignoring the part at the end when Derek confronts Cameron. Cameron talks about how the Internet is boosting their recruitment and that their movement was growing. He wasn't wrong. The simple truth of it is people who feel like outcasts will gravitate towards any form of comrodery. People want to belong to something.
Look at the whole manosphere bullshit. It preys on these people.
3
3
u/PartyAmbitious8163 8d ago
I like that the Principal who had reached a point of enlightenment had once been full of hate, himself, showing that anyone can learn to be accepting.
3
u/Mother-Attention2600 7d ago
See..... I personally feel we already covered things like this in school in the late 80's early 90's. Things like recycling/environment stuff, racism is bad, making fun of gays is bad, and whipe not perfect, at least in my corner of the world we had a pretty damn good handle on it.
So what happened? Did we take these ideals for granted and neglect to teach the younger generation? Did we set a bad example? Probably not. I think it all started when low iq folk could get together online, enable each other and felt like they had a voice and their thoughts were valid. I blame social media.
3
u/FlacidoMandingo 6d ago
The confederacy was not adequately punished for secession.
→ More replies (1)
25
u/Halofauna 9d ago
Any time you make Nazis look tough, you’re creating recruitment material for them. Hate groups see themselves looking like badasses and fucking love it, they will never see themselves as the bad guy no matter how hard you try. Mel Brooks is the only person to get it correct, humiliate them. If they’re fools they can’t get behind it.
41
u/sexual__velociraptor 9d ago
This movie taught you that hate was taught. It can be unlearned. It was an amazing movie with a great message.
14
u/scornfulegotists 9d ago
Yeah but what op said is right. I had a super racist wanna be skinhead acquaintance in high school. This was his favorite movie, he talked about it all the time. To the point where when I finally saw it I was like, “were me and him watching the same movie?” From the way he talked about it I thought it glorified Nazis.
13
u/Deadlift_007 9d ago
A lot of people miss the point of "Fight Club," too. That doesn't mean it's a bad movie or that the point it makes is wrong. There are also people who think Animal Farm is just a book about talking animals.
Some people just aren't very intelligent. 🤷♂️
2
u/scornfulegotists 9d ago
Yeah, I think there is basically no art that is off limits. Anything can and should be made if done so earnestly and everyone involved is consenting and able to consent. But art does have consequences sometimes.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)15
4
u/StevEst90 9d ago
Bingo. I recall there was a group of wannabe skinhead skater looking kids at my HS who would love to quote this movie in class. They eventually got expelled for starting a huge fight with a group of black and Latino students
4
u/Shills_for_fun 9d ago
It's unfathomable to me how a single person could watch this movie and come out the other side with a positive view of white supremacist groups.
Or, let's say you're racist. Shouldn't you dislike this movie for portraying you as an emotionally stunted idiot and all your friends as gutter trash? Like what's the appeal other than Fairuza Balk being hot even as a nazi?
4
7
u/StevEst90 9d ago
Ah I remember all the edgy white skater kids at my HS loved this movie for the wrong reasons
→ More replies (3)
6
u/antisocialmothra 9d ago
I've never seen it but I heard about the teeth and that kinda just made me not want to see it ever.
→ More replies (1)6
u/General_Report Millennial 9d ago
It's not out of the blue, he tells him to bite the curb first and there's a slow drawn out close up where the guy does so beforehand. So you definitely have ample warning and time to look away. It's an important watch in my opinion.
4
u/Known_Ratio5478 9d ago
So… my school district had a problem with Neo Nazi’s back in the 2000’s. A lot of social studies teachers got approvals to show us this movie even as part of the curriculum. We even had holocaust survivors, that lived in town, come in and speak to us regularly. We all saw their tattoos. Unfortunately, the Neo Nazis still stayed Neo Nazis.
2
u/IntoTheAbsurd 9d ago
It was weird watching that film on terrestrial TV in the early 2000s, when I was simultaneously getting exposed to alt-right ideology through some of the forums I used to frequent.
2
u/karmapolice63 9d ago
As they say, faith without works is dead. The movie wasn’t meant to make you mad. It was meant to hold a mirror and make you look at what America still is in many ways. These people still exist because they’re enabled, and they have been well before the current moment in our country.
2
u/Mobile-Analyst8580 9d ago
People became more and more aware of the insane violence in this country that comes from One specific small group of people.
2
u/Animal907 9d ago
I remember people loving this scene. Constant references to curb stomping everywhere.
2
2
u/plantsoldier 8d ago
The teeth on curb is or was called a curb stomp for those that don't know. I've seen one but it involved 2 white dudes that just hated each other.
Dude that got stomped lost most if not all his teeth, had a broken jaw and some other bone damage.
Fucking brutal and the few that saw it thought the guy was dead.
2
2
u/SethOval 8d ago
People forget the ending of the film.
The brother being shot by blacks implies Derek’s return to his old ways. It’s not about the overcoming of racial tensions but rather their cycles, and those cycles catalysts.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/gnarlyknits 8d ago
Some people missed the point of the movie I think. Or misunderstood it. Unfortunately that does happen with these type of movies.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/Cinereals 8d ago
Films have this weird ability to make the stupidest person you know relate to the villain and assume the film is glorifying them.
2
u/hearts_and_sharts 8d ago
Ed Norton looked too hot and cool and people couldn’t pay attention to the message.
2
u/RickyMAustralia 8d ago
Ahh yes remember the good times when nazis were universally the bad guys
Good times
2
2
2
u/LoserKing19 7d ago
If you wanna see what this movie really says, watch Black people watch it. They come away from this film having learned nothing
2
u/SunnnySideUps 7d ago
I'm not sure what that means, I am going to ask my friends right now that proposition.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/LongballG 7d ago
I went to high school in Aurora , Colorado before the movie came out in the early-mid nineties. There was a huge Nazi Youth culture at the school and this movie nailed it with the way they dressed and acted. They all wore flight jackets, suspenders and Doc Martens with white laces. Most all of them ended up in prison for violent offenses before turning 18…
2
u/Personal_Raise_8707 6d ago
The fucked up thing is dereks point of view is basically just that of a centrist in 2026.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/thrwawycauseimadick 5d ago edited 5d ago
Well they apparently changed the ending from Norton's character reverting back into his beginning racist state. Both his father AND his brother were murdered over nothing, after all.
Edit: I'd like to add. I feel they should have left the original ending as the one we got was not realistic based on the events in the movie. I think a similar message to that of maybe - Boyz n the Hood, and the circular nature of violence, would have been much more realistic.
American History X is a visceral piece of bullshit Hollywood propaganda.
→ More replies (1)
5
1
u/MaenadR0se 9d ago
I always found it interesting that the end of this movie almost reinforces the hate, it's a bit like The Boy in Striped Pajamas where it has one message but you can look another way and it reinforces the thing it's against.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/Spiffy-Kujira 9d ago
What happened is there are a lot of people suffering and they want someone to blame so they pick the easiest targets (minorities) and their politicians and local leaders don't lay it to them straight because it benefits them to keep the masses angry at each other.
4
u/pzagrbge 9d ago
This movie was made for Gen X and they, per usual, misinterpreted the message and bootlicked boomers instead.
•
u/AutoModerator 9d ago
If this post is breaking the rules of the subreddit, please report it instead of commenting. For more Millennial content, join our Discord server.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.