OK folks now for an Okie's point of view of American History X, this should be interesting, people from the land of the Big Red aren't exactly known for their broadmindedness (God, thats a lot of letters), but then again old Joad did have the sense to leave the land of sooners and relocate here in Austin. Father Geek here has known Tom for half a year now and I have found out one very important thing about him. HE loves film, and will watch any thing any time and give it a chance to capture his dusty soul. He's film-literate and will be appearing on this site more and more in the coming months.

Tom Joad here, and I’ve recently been privy to an incredible film which I must help to spread the word on. Hallenbeck said he didn’t like it and the trailer that I saw for the film blew, but jesus god if it isn’t an awfully powerful film that packs one helluva punch. The film of which I speak is Tony Kaye’s debut feature, American History X, starring the amazingly brilliant Edward Norton, adding yet another knockout to his fight card. I know many of you will probably dog me for mimicking Harry’s style here, but this film really struck chords in me that haven’t been plucked in years.

This one really hit me on a gut level – it’s all about racial factions and the separations therein that really, really came down on me hard.

I grew up in a small town. Awfully small. There was no racial bigotry, no name-calling, no segregation. We all saw each other for just what we were: young kids out to have a fun time. My graduating class consisted of fifty people, with but one African-American, my buddy Everett Samuels. Now Everett and I had become fast friends way back when we were riding the bus to the first grade together. We both loved sports, therefore leading us to play football, wrestle, etc. once we entered junior high and high school… There was also third member added to our crew in the seventh grade, Matt Conley, and he too was interested in many of the things that we were, especially sports. Through 5th, 6th 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and the majority of our junior year, we all hung out together, and everything was great. Or so I thought. We were all on the wrestling team, and at an out of town tournament. Our coach had a ritual of feeding us just before he dropped us off at the far end of town from the gymnasium so that we could walk off our meal and get loosened up. Now these tournaments were invariably held in other small towns, each of which had a Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or something of the like, where we would all end up killing time while enjoying the climate controlled environment of man’s finest invention: air-conditioning. Everett had gone off to find the bathroom while Matt and I were in the toy aisle, checking out the latest G.I. Joes. It was this particular day that Matt decided to floor me with some unsettling information.

“Let’s lose Everett. I just don’t like him.” Matt said. I was completely caught off-guard. What was I hearing? This from a guy that Everett and I had befriended seven years ago?! I couldn’t even utter a response. I was in disbelief. I just stared at him with a blank expression on my face. “I never have liked him,” he continued, “He bugs me. Let’s just leave him here and go back to the tournament.”

“What are you talking about? What do you mean, leave him?” was all I could utter.

“I really can’t stand him, I mean, you’ve seen his house.” Hell yeah I’d seen his house, I’d only been over at his place about a MILLION times! With this, my thought process finally caught up with my ears, “What the fuck is THAT supposed to mean? Jesus, what the hell’s wrong with you?” His expression froze with it’s half-cocked smile firmly in place.

“Don’t you feel the same? I mean, he’s BLACK. I thought you felt the same way.” He offered.

“That has NOTHING to do with ANYTHING! Everett and I have been friends since we were in first grade!” I said, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing come out of your mouth!” Disgust and rage filled me and I turned my back on him, walking toward the back of the store to find Everett. Thing was, I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in the bathroom (not too strange), he wasn’t in sporting goods (now that’s odd), he wasn’t in the toy aisle (or was he?!?). I checked. Nope. No Everett. I slowly began to realize with horror what had probably happened. I rushed back to the gym but I couldn’t find him anywhere. He wasn’t in any of the locker rooms, I couldn’t find him in any of the bathrooms. What the hell? I failed to mention that this had all happened just prior to the tournament finals. Of which we were each in. Problem: Matt was a weight class below me (he pulled weight so he wouldn’t have to wrestle me-no ego here, he just didn’t want to be confrontational), and Everett was a weight class ahead of me, so odds were that I wouldn’t have a chance to talk to him until after our matches were over. Great. All we needed right then, a mind-fuck. Matt lost his match in the first period. I was up next and I happened to have a returning state champion from the year before as my opponent. I lasted until the second period before getting pinned. Everett had appeared during the course of my match and took the mat without even looking at me. He murdered his guy. Pinned him in under a minute. Afterwards, he walked right past me into the locker room. I followed. It was then and there, that I first remember really crying. REALLY crying. Before we even started talking, Everett was in tears. So was I. He had heard the first couple of lines from Matt’s mouth before bolting from the store. I tried to explain what had gone down, but I’m sure it was hard for him to believe. Hell, I still couldn’t believe it. I’ve never felt so horrible in my life. The tears flowed as we blubbered back and forth before ending with a hug. Without even doing anything wrong, I felt as though he felt I betrayed him. Somewhere inside me I felt awful that I hadn’t jumped down Matt’s throat earlier. Or maybe that Everett never got to hear me defend him, I don’t know, the whole situation just blew. During the course of our making up, I had missed the medal ceremony for my weight class. Upon exiting the locker room, tear-streaked no less, everyone immediately assumed that I was such a poor sport that I couldn’t show up to receive my second place medal. I couldn’t have given two shits. I had just dealt with my first real encounter with racism and it felt like shit. This film brought up all those memories and made my stomach twist and turn again. I hate that feeling. Shame, rage, helplessness, loss. Everett and I remained friends, but not to the degree that we once were. Matt and I were bitter opponent for the next year and half.

This film works on many levels, I went from being enthralled to horrified to incredulous while always remaining completely trapped within the tension of it all.

Ed Norton is a chameleon of an actor – he’s always completely submerged in his role. In my opinion, the best young actor working today. Edward Furlong has finally found a role to showcase his talents – we all know this guy needs a hit. Stacy Keach is outstanding as the goader, knower and teacher of all things evil and Ethan Suplee is frighteningly mortifying as one of his disciples. Prepare yourself to be put through the wringer on this one and don’t miss this film. It needs to be seen.

Joad out