American History X (1998)

Name: American History X
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998-07-01
Duration: 119 min
Rating: 8.3
Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien, Ethan Suplee

Some legacies must end.

Drama

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

Release Date: July 1, 1998
Runtime: 1h 59m
Rating: 8.3/10 (12516 votes)

Director: Tony Kaye

Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien, Ethan Suplee, Fairuza Balk, Avery Brooks, Elliott Gould

Production: New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures, The Turman-Morrissey Company

prison neo-nazism rape skinhead sibling relationship swastika nazi brother fascism tragedy

IMDb

Budget: $20M
Revenue: $24M

Full Cast (50 people)

Edward Norton as Derek
Edward Furlong as Danny
Beverly D'Angelo as Doris
Jennifer Lien as Davina
Ethan Suplee as Seth
Fairuza Balk as Stacey
Avery Brooks as Sweeney
Elliott Gould as Murray
Stacy Keach as Cameron
William Russ as Dennis
Guy Torry as Lamont
Joe Cortese as Rasmussen
Jason Bose Smith as Little Henry
Antonio David Lyons as Lawrence
Alex Sol as Mitch McCormick
Keram Malicki-Sánchez as Chris
Giuseppe Andrews as Jason
Michelle Christine White as Lizzy
Jonathan Fowler Jr. as Jerome
Christopher Masterson as Daryl Dawson
Nicholas R. Oleson as Huge Aryan
Jordan Marder as Curtis
Paul Le Mat as McMahon
Thomas L. Bellissimo as Cop #2
Cherish Lee as Kammi
Sam Vlahos as Dr. Aguilar
Tara Blanchard as Ally Vinyard
Anne Lambton as Cassandra
Steve Wolford as Reporter
Richard Noyce as Desk Sergeant

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Reviews

tmdb15435519 - 9/10

Despite having a somewhat weak cast, this is an incredibly poignant drama of one man's struggle to live a new life. Probably too violent and close-to-home for some.

April 15, 2021

Andre Gonzales - 5/10

There's really no point to the movie. Just a lot of violence. That's pretty much it.

April 16, 2023

GenerationofSwine - 1/10

You could use this as a skinhead recruitment film because it failed so miserably in the message it was trying to push, and it failed miserably because they were too concerned about pushing the message that they forgot how they were framing the film. So a bunch of skinheads win a turf war basketball game, to stop the gang violence around the basketball courts, and then one of the Black people on...

December 4, 2025