Homework for 2BE: American History X opinion homework
Answer the following questions in min. 150 words.
1 Does the film teach you anything? Or is it just pure entertainment?
2 Did you like the film? Why?
3 Why is Derek angry?
4 What does he learn in prison?
5 Why is the film black and white sometimes?
6 Any more comments welcome.
Deadline March 08, 2020. Post your comments as comments.
Comments
The film "American History X" tells the story about racism and aggression.
The main charakter were Derek and his younger brother Dann. Derek's father was firefighter. He was shot by black bandit. After this, Derek became a Nazi. There was a lot of aggression and hatred in his life. He became the group commonder. The group attacked shops etc. Finally, Derek committed a murder. He went to prison for this act. At the beginning of his stay in prison, he was hanging out with the Nazis. Over time, he noticed different things and he made friends with a black man. Thanks to him, he changed his look at socienty and life. He understood that the color of the skin doesn't mean about the person and understood his mistakes. After three years Derek was released from prison. He became carring for his family. He wanted to help his brother who followed him, but at the end Dann was killed by black boy. The film sometimes was black and white, because that was bad Derek's past.
This film taught me that even the worst man can be change, but unfortunately not all mistakes from the past can be repaired.
I liked "American History X" very much and it made me curious.
Julia Nowak, 2e
The film is based on feelings. Of course beginning show us only negative emotions, but when we are reaching down in movie we could also see a lot of vulnerability, despair and a little change in humans soul.
That movie show us tough history of Derek whose was a skinhead and brutally killed two black people who tried steal his truck. He got out of the prison and he was trying to persuade his young brother Danny to make a new start, because Derek was the Danny’s authority. Derek had been explaining him how the prison turn imagining round… but I won’t betray Danny’s reaction. :P
The movie was quite big experience for youth like I am. I’d never thinking how extremism could change someone’s life because I never saw the elephant. We are living in world where intersperse good and evil and we should overcame a deficit – one of the evil’s sources.
In my opinion the film teaches us that it is not worth being supremacis because these people were dumbfounded by one person who told them only negatives about black people and did not tell them the whole truth. Neo-Nazis did not even notice that they were doing wrong, they stopped perceiving black people as people, but as a curse.
It's hard to say if I liked it, it sure was addictive for me, but sad and showed a lot of drastic scenes, which allowed me to realize a few things and learn more about the Nazis.
I think Derek is a good man, he just got lost a bit. Because of the emotions associated with his father's death, he wanted to take revenge, and Cameron took advantage of it and wound it up more and allowed him to enter the neo-Nazis movement. He was young, so he didn't know the world either.
When Derek gets to prison he has to work with a black Lamont. At first, he only deals with white neo-Nazis who engage in drug trafficking with Mexicans, which Derek doesn't like.
By spending time with Lamont, he makes friends with him (which slowly changes his attitude towards black people). Derek is brutally raped by neo-Nazis, this humiliation prevents him from continuing to hang out with them, and he begins to mate with people from Lamont. Derek stops being a neo-Nazi and even befriends Lamont strongly and is grateful to him.
Black and white scenes in the film are memories and reflections, mainly by Derek. These scenes also create horror and make the viewer pay more attention to the film.
But also do not forget about the headmaster of the high school, who played an important role in Derek's life and he helped him in difficult times in prison, the director also wanted to help Danny, so he gave him this homework. Wiktoria Ludwisiak 2B
The film is good lesson of tolerance and shows results of hatred and racism. In my opinion the film is very interesting because it shows the problem in a captiviting way. At the begining Derek is angry at everybody who isn't white. But in prison he changes his views and later he is angry that his brother follows his bad example. In prison he meets a black man who helps him, besides white guys showing the same view-points harm him. The film is sometimes black and white to show Derek's process of transformation. To sum up the film tells us that intolerance is getting us nowhere, and we should respect one another.
IGOR ZAWLIK 2E
I like this movie because it's important for people who want to try to understand racist. This film showed me how dangerous behavior such people can be.
Derek in prison learned tolerance to other black peole. Ge realized that what he had done before wasn't . He understand that black people are normal like him or his family.
The movie sometimes becomes balck and white because it show the past which wasn't necessarily colorful for the main character. The black and white format separates the dark past from Derek's good change.
This movie is important and needed for all people. Shows realiteis of life black people and the problem of racism in the United States.
Maria Gryga 2E
NK/2E
Adam Grala
The main character is Derek,who was a racist and he believed that all national minorities for example black people or people of Jewish origin, they should be eliminated from the USA. Derek underwent a big makeover in prison.
Derek came back home as a completely different person.
Derek learned a humility in prison.
The black mate ( with he worked) caused that Derek to see a normal people in them.
Black and white scenes may show Derek's thinking. Once-Derek thought "straight", now Derek is thinking "widely and colorfully". Derek have more opened-minded, who don't look only himself.
Derek was angry, because he looked at people the prism of origin only. Derek didn't look on their value, that they can be a good people, who work honestly.
I like this film. This film carries a very important message that we always should look wide on diffrent things,we can't have single-minded.
The film made a great impression on me, in final scene I thought that I will cry soon. However, this film didn't teach me so much, because I always think that I am tolerant person. In my opinion you have approach everything in life with empathy and an open mind and this film confirmed my belief.
However, this movie made me realize how important a parent's authority for a child.
Derek's brother never met his father, he treated Derek as a father and he learned everything from Derek. Derek gave him a bad example of behaviour. Derek's brother looked authority in Derek. In this movie it was show how Derek's father once said a badly about national minorities and Derek as a young and influenial man took dad's words very seriously.
Zuzanna Sz,klasa 2 B
The film presents the problem of racism and intolerance that prevailed in America at that time. All this contributed to the image of American society, with its prejudices, stereotypes and all views on the problems of ethnic minorities.
I think it is definitely a movie worth recommending. The story presented in it can certainly be touched and make you think about the validity of hatred and prejudice against racial differences.
Ania Adamkiewicz 2b
The movie certainly wasn’t easy. Sometimes it required a deeper reflection, especially when scenes with murders shown. The film presents what racism leads to and what skinheads are capable of. It made me understand how awful people have been in recent years, although this is also a problem encountered today. Derek, the main character, made a negative impression on me at first. His behavior towards black people was gross, but when he got out of prison I noticed a change in him. Only staying there made him realize that what he was doing was not good for him and especially for others. He decided to change for his family. The movie sometimes was black and white but then scenes from the past were shown. At first it was a bit complicated for me but later everything was completely explained.
Maybe choosing this movie when we want to rest our minds wouldn’t be the best idea, but it teaches important values in every human life.
Amelia Gaik 2b