American History X Film Analysis

In the film American History X directed by Tony Kaye, he tell the story of morden day narzi’s (Neo Narzi). Tony uses many film techniques to portray the life of Derek Vinyard and his brother Danny Vinyard. In this movie Derek goes to prison and the experience changed his view on black people. The purpose of the first scene was to show how dark and twisted Derek’s past was. For example the kurb stomp scene, where Derek brutally murders a black man. The purpose of the second scene was to show how the Derek as a character has evolved from a black hating, white supremacists to a kind loving brother.

In the movie Tony Kaye uses many camera techniques effectively to show the characters emotion, thought and to create tension. The scene starts with a mid shot Danny in his room looking at memorabilia of his …show more content…
Danny then has a flashback which is in black and white of the night where three black guys try to steal Dereks truck. This Flashback was in black and white to show that it was in the past and that it was not a happy flashback. During this flashback Tony also uses the close up shot used very effectively in the scene where Derek is making the black guy put him mouth on the kerb. By using this shot Tony Kaye was able to show the audience the emotion of the black guy. In the close up of the mans face we can see that he is clearly scared because Derek has a gun to his head and that he has his mouth on the kerb. We also see a worried look on the man’s face as he doesn’t know what is going to happen. This close up gives the audience the feeling of uncertainty which creates tension and it also gives feeling that something bad is about to happen.This also makes the audience disgusted and ashamed because of how another human being can stoop so low as to murder a man by means of blunt force trauma. Tony used slow motion in this scene to