American History X

Cast View all

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

Crew View all

Director	Tony Kaye
Writer	David McKenna
Producer	Bill Carraro, Michael De Luca, Jon Hess, David McKenna, John Morrissey, Kearie Peak, Steve Tisch, Lawrence Turman, Brian Witten
Musician	Anne Dudley
Photography	Tony Kaye

Trailer

Edition details

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Notes

WSR Narrative Review

Story Synopsis:
American History X is a powerful and engrossing drama that explores the insidious way that racial hatred can root itself, and thrive, in our neighborhoods. Best Actor-nominated Edward Norton stars as a neo-Nazi skinhead who murders two black teenagers who break into his car. After his release from prison, he attempts to straighten out his younger brother (Edward Furlong) and keep him from making the same mistakes that nearly destroyed himself and their family.

DVD Picture:
The black and white scenes represent flashbacks and take up about half the film. These scenes exhibit a superb grayscale with sharp and detailed images, excellent contrast and shadow delineation, no doubt due to the fine detailing of the anamorphically-enhanced, dual-layered DVD. In the colored scenes, fleshtones occasionally appear slightly orange, but with otherwise excellent clarity. The DVD is superb in all aspects of image quality and is exceptional in capturing the uncompromising reality of the subject matter. The aspect ratio is 1.85:1 on the anamorphic and letterbox DVD.

Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital 5.1 discrete soundtrack is excellent though fidelity is a bit amiss. Dialogue is closely miked and, at times, has a muffled quality. The music score is powerful with an expansive soundstage. When the discrete soundfield is fully engaged, spatial envelopment is well defined with split surrounds. Bass extension is deep, but boomy at times, and the .1 LFE channel engages during gunshots.

DVD/LD Comparative Review:

The black and white scenes represent flashbacks and take up about half the film. On the LaserDisc, these scenes exhibit a superb grayscale with sharp and detailed images, excellent contrast and shadow delineation, but the anamorphically-enhanced, dual-layered DVD is more finely detailed with higher resolution. In the colored scenes, fleshtones appear slightly orange and smeared on the LaserDisc, while the DVD, viewed in component video, is subtle with better clarity. The DVD is superb in all aspects of image quality and is exceptional in capturing the uncompromising reality of the subject matter. The aspect ratio is 1.85:1 on the LaserDisc, anamorphic and letterbox DVD.

Both the Dolby® Digital 5.1 discrete soundtrack on DVD and LaserDisc and the matrix PCM LaserDisc soundtrack are excellent though fidelity is a bit amiss. Dialogue is closely miked and, at times, has a muffled quality. The music score is powerful with an expansive soundstage that is spread wider in the discrete version. Surround envelopment is superior on the matrix PCM version, but when the discrete soundfield is fully engaged spatial envelopment is better defined with split surrounds. Bass extension is deep, but boomy at times, and the .1 LFE channel engages during gunshots.

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Superb Music Score Recording Quality
Superb Cinematography
Reference Quality

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