Hacker Cinema
American History X
1998 · Film · 119 min
Directed by Tony Kaye
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.
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The Bible predicts both our sinful nature and the Devil will inspire those in power to promote more sin (evil) to influence the populace. The populace will also demand it more, have more appetite, as they get more corrupt. Those are testable predictions easily confirmed by watching older and recent movies.
Here’s the patterns. For each sin, they start with either none of it (taboo) or tiny amounts. They gradually increase what sins they display, how often they do it, how vivid the depictions are, how extreme the depictions are, and how many sins are combined into one act or scene. They move most from something shocking to tolerated to cool. They gradually move them from R-rated toward shows or books for kids that encourage them to act that way.
As you read examples, ask two things: What inside of the majority of people drives them to enjoy more of this content? If these trends continue, what kind of people do they produce or behaviors do they reinforce?
Profanity. They used non-curse words, then some curse words, then more, and non-stop cursing. They especially like to use God’s or Jesus Christ’s name as a curse words.
Violence. It occurred in limited ways with non-graphic depictions. Then, they increased the gore, the amounts, the creativity the bad guys used, the rape, the torture, the dismemberment.
Revenge or killing culture. Movies often featured forms of justice with some revenge killing. While Christ is about forgiveness and restoration where possible, recent movies heavily promote solving problems by killing everyone involved or even peripherally connected. Then, more brutal ways of getting payback.
Idolatry. They’ve increasingly put long expositions of characters with polytheistic or person as god type of theologies. They reward subjectivism which drives many problems today. Hollywood also nearly universally censors the Gospel of Jesus Christ despite expositing everything else and a huge demand (1 billion customers) for Jesus.
Nudity/sex (people are objects). They started by increasing nudity: clothes, bathing suits, butts, breasts, frontal shots, and full nudity. Then, more porn like shots. Sex scenes increased: implied, visual with them covered, more nudity, longer scenes, and eventually like porn. They normalized sex with multiple partners and adultery, too, with likeable characters doing these things.
LGBT. They pushed from top-down to normalize an uncommon, unnatural behavior in people’s minds. They progression: sneaking characters in, making them openly say their attributes, couples, romance, sex. Now, the award criteria incentivizes them to always push LGBT characters in a way that makes them look better than others which encourages that behavior if people want special treatment. Kids in schools are already pretending for extra attention.
Damaging philosophies. I’ll restate this since it’s important. The movies heavily push subjectivism, evolution (we’re animals), multiverse, nothing really matters in the long run, pleasure chasing, exploitation, and expositions of racist philosophies (eg American History X). Righteousness and Jesus aren’t allowed. Many of the worst things we’ve read in the news are tied to the philosophies that get tons of screen time while the cure for that is censored.
So, yes, movies have grown more violent and sinful over the years. Each Biblical prediction, especially each sin, has been happening. It is by design. The effects are highly damaging since garbage in equals garbage out. People need to repent, vote with their wallets against sinful suppliers, and fill their minds with everything good and honorable instead.
American History X was pretty jarring for me. Fight Club too. More subtly: Primer, Upstream Color, White Oleander, The Virgin Suicides - those 4 films gave me a lot to think about as a young man.
Or Balks[0]:
BALK RULES! IMPORTANT! 1. You can’t just be up there and just doin’ a balk like that.
1a. A balk is when you
1b. Okay well listen. A balk is when you balk the
1c. Let me start over
1c-a. The pitcher is not allowed to do a motion to the, uh, batter, that prohibits the batter from doing, you know, just trying to hit the ball. You can’t do that.
1c-b. Once the pitcher is in the stretch, he can’t be over here and say to the runner, like, “I’m gonna get ya! I’m gonna tag you out! You better watch your butt!” and then just be like he didn’t even do that.
1c-b(1). Like, if you’re about to pitch and then don’t pitch, you have to still pitch. You cannot not pitch. Does that make any sense?
1c-b(2). You gotta be, throwing motion of the ball, and then, until you just throw it.
1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have the ball up here, like this, but then there’s the balk you gotta think about.
1c-b(2)-b. Fairuza Balk hasn’t been in any movies in forever. I hope she wasn’t typecast as that racist lady in American History X.
1c-b(2)-b(i). Oh wait, she was in The Waterboy too! That would be even worse.
1c-b(2)-b(ii). “get in mah bellah” – Adam Water, “The Waterboy.” Haha, classic…
1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. A balk is when the pitcher makes a movement that, as determined by, when you do a move involving the baseball and field of
2. Do not do a balk please.
[0]: https://justinbee.tumblr.com/post/15309101943/best-explanation-of-a-balk-ive-ever-seen/amp
> I'm an American in my 40s. I've never seen "glorification of scams" in any mainstream culture
Some very popular movies that come to mind (Some of these may not be intended to be glorifying scams, but to many unsophisticated viewers, they absolutely are):
- The Social Network
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- Uncut Gems
- The Godfather
- Scarface
- Ocean's Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen)
- Emily the Criminal
- I Care a Lot
- Nine Queens
- Punch-Drunk Love
> I've also never seen any sort of "hyper-masculization" shown in a positive light in mainstream culture
More movies!
- The Godfather (again)
- Pulp Fiction
- Fight Club
- American History X
- Gangster Squad
- Django Unchained
- Expendables
- Every Fast and Furious movie
- (Nearly?) Every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie
> it's common to see masculinity referred to as as "toxic" and equated with negative traits or externalities
I think this is (usually?) a misunderstanding. People refer to toxic masculinity, a set of problematic behaviors some men exhibit as part of attempting to appear "manly" that includes traits such as: homophobia, glorifying unhealthy habits (e.g., drinking like a man, don't cry like a woman, mental health issues depicted as "weakness", etc.) They're not referring to masculinity, itself, as being toxic.
Movies like that are often only canonized as "good" in retrospect, after there's been time for them to marinate in the wider culture and have some consensus form around their significance and general quality. Around the time of American History X, your local theater probably would have been showing Antz, Rush Hour, The Rugrats Movie, and There's Something About Mary.
Why does it seem that way to you? I have not quite noticed that.
I think when you are younger, there are movies that profoundly affect you. When you get older, and you have seen a lot of movies, its rarer to get the same kind of feelings. But that's just a part of growing up, it isn't a problem of censorship. I wonder even if, upon re-watching now, you'd think Fight Club is really the pinnacle of edginess and a profound art you attribute to it now, or if maybe you were just young when you watched it. And I also wonder if there are some great, profound works being made now that, for whatever reason, you have simply missed or felt the need not to see. Is "American History X" really leagues above "How To Blow up a Pipeline" in terms of "uncomfortable and ugly topics"? What about "Beau is Afraid"? Is that one censored by the modern zeitgeist? What about the films of Yorgos Lanthimos, Ruben Östlund, Harmony Korine, or Nicolas Winding Refn? Trying honestly, its hard for me to pinpoint what in particular you might think is censored these days. People are definitely still making good, uncomfortable movies.
Maybe I'm getting old, but what I would really prefer is that we could get some good movies, even if they touch on uncomfortable or ugly topics.
Movies like American History X, Fight Club, or What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
It seems these movies would no longer be "allowed" to be made, or perhaps the modern zeitgeist censors them away.
I just want to celebrate and encourage bona fide art and see more of it in the world.
And I would gladly pay for my family to access this higher quality art.
Now what makes you think I'm miserable? Because white advocates in movies are portrayed as irrational and violent, filled with hate for everyone that's different, like in American History X?
Have you ever considered that movies and media might be deceiving you?
Compared to Midsommar, Audition, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Antichrist, A Clockwork Orange, American History X, or The Human Centipede?
Yeah I would describe GTA as pretty tame compared to those movies some of which have broken through to the mainstream. The average horror movie is more violent and gruesome than even the worst we see from video games.
The Witcher and Mass Effect? Those are adult games with very lame sex scenes all of which are consensual. I don't see that as particularly scandalous.
Oh I would definitely love to have any recommendations you'll give me, I feel like I've seen so many movies that it's hard to find good ones now.
In the emotional vein of the movies discussed above:
Nightcrawler is very very good and very unusual. Prisoners is very good though more ordinary in its plot and characters and I found that I forgot about it after a while and didn't realize I'd seen it until I was rewatching it... It's not especially tense but it's well written. Drive is an incredible noir thriller. Goodfellas is another one that has unforgettable moments that will force you to just clench your fists, even if in the end the story left me feeling a bit empty. I should probably throw out American History X too, which is a different sort of movie but still has that feeling of "oh my God did that just happen?"
Meh, the thread is dead so I just wanted to say thanks. I am kinda passionate about certain things like liberty. I'm actually pretty moderate, just verbose.
I'm not scared. They don't scare me. They put on a tough face. I've been in places like Somalia. I've stomped all across South America. I've been all across Latin America. I've done South Africa, most of the Middle East, much of Asia, etc...
American White Nationalists marching in parades scare me exactly none. 14 year old American children copying their older brothers on Voat saddens me, not scares me. It doesn't make me very angry. Not anymore. I'm pretty desensitized to it. It mostly just makes me sad.
Seriously...
Think about it... Put yourself in a White Nationalist shoes. You don't even have any real good movies to watch. Even documentaries end with Hitler always getting his ass kicked. In every movie, you're pretty much the asshole. You're, at best, redeemed before dying or going to prison for life.
Man, a White Nationalist can't even really enjoy American History X.
I make fun of them for reading Mein Kampf. "Oh, you expect it to somehow turn out different this time?" I point out the horrible flaws in their race war logic, about how they are horrible out numbered, unpopular, and simply lack the technical expertise or the logistics to achieve even a remote victory in any meaningful numbers.
I make fun of their horrible use of statistics, inaccurate understanding of science and history, and teach them to speak better English. After all, if you're going to convert people to you're side, you're going to have to speak better English. They really aren't very crafty and it's actually kind of amusing that people think they are a serious threat to the fabric of the country.
But, I digress... I just wanted to let you know that there's no bravery. I'm not scared because there's no reason to be scared. I've really invited a few of them to my home. They have my address and a standing invitation. I'd let them visit but not like hold a Nazi rally at my house. The few I have invited are a few that I believe are able to change.
I wasn't doing anything better with my time.
Great question. Here are some answer and again, this what works FOR ME.
inbox/collection: everytime I think of something i add it to my tool's inbox (omnifocus), so if we are talking and you mention a book or movie, i would hit a shortcut (or on my phone) and enter "watch american history x" done...
process: once a day, I would go through my inbox and categroize stuff... takes very little time... so the movie might go into my "movies to watch" project. implement signup page might go into my "App x project" etc... I usually add context as well so "call Joe about insurance" will have a "phone" context
review: this was the MOST important step in my process. I review my projects once a week on friday and make sure i don't forget anything. I have a recurring task to remind me to do a weekly review. This step was essentially the biggest improvement I did in my process. Omnifocus makes it easy because I can set when i want to review each process... so my "books to read" project is reviewed once a month but my "launch taskorami" project is once a week, etc...
Answers:
- I add some habits like workout every other day, or pray/meditate in the am, but i don't go crazy and add "brush teeth", "wipe butt", etc... - projects = something with multiple tasks or longer duration e.g. "baby proof house" with tasks like research cabinet proofing, outlet proofing, padding for table corners, buy gates for stairs, door handle proofing, CO sensor, etc... but sometime i don't turn things into a project so "replace sink", i will probably just add multiple tasks instead of a project like "find plumber", "buy sink" and so on. - the large projects get reviewed during my weekly review so i get to skim through the tasks and priortize accordingly. - for half-backed ideas i have several "reference projects" such as "movies to watch" "startup ideas" "places to visit" "open source ideas" "things to checkout" "blog posts ideas" and I usually set these projects to be reviewed once a month or even more.
The key is, it's a pretty flexible system, you just need to find what works for you. and like i said, you can use pen and paper a thousand other online tools - my favorite is omnifocus
Tool: I use omnifocus and I love it but the one thing I hate about omnifocus is that it is mac and iphone only which is the reason i built taskorami.com - it's in private beta but I haven't really worked on it for a while - been busy with baby twins. You can check it out and use the invitation code "vip" to signup (private link: https://taskorami.firebaseapp.com/a/) . It's built on ember and firebase and has a responsive/mobile site but no native apps.
PS: sorry for typos and bad grammar - too tired to edit :)
mainstream: American beauty, Pulp fiction, No country for old men, American History X, Saving Private Ryan, Taken, The pianist
classics: Lawrence of Arabia, The Shawshank Redemption, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terminator I & II
hipster: Knife in the water (Polanski), Come and See (Idi i smotri - best war movie I've seen), Haute Tension (french horror movie), Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting, City of God, Blue Is the Warmest Color, Goodbye Lenin, The cube
That also happened in "American History X", more or less. I'm not sure if basing foreign policy on Hollywood movies is the best idea.
In defence of this comment, apparently the book describes the drugging and raping of two ten year olds from the record shop, which is changed in the film to be a consensual encounter with girls his own age.
There are other rape scenes in the movie though. Fun fact: one of the actresses involved quit because of the difficulty of filming them.
One other movie with a rape scene: American History X.
I was intrigued to learn that Tony Kaye went virtually mad during the production and writing of American History X, arguably one of the top ten movies of the last 100 years, and was so dissatisfied with the end result that he attempted to disown the film entirely, even going so far as to try to use a pseudonym (the undying `Alan Smithee' and, later, 'Humpty Dumpty') just to keep from being tied to the movie.
I am sick of happy endings.
From entertainment point of view, this is great news, as I believe this will let everyone to be a lot more creative. Unfortunately, studios have too much power and control, and not that many directors get the final cut on their movies. As a result, there are many unhappy artists, as their works are greatly influenced, and changed by those in power. Most studios have no respect for the art work and merely look at it as a business opportunity and will change the creative work to whatever that will potentially sell more and make them more money. Therefore, this transition could be the end of all those "Hollywood endings." (Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now, Once Upon a Time in America, American History X, are just a few examples).
I have to mention though that this problem will not be even completely solved with Mark's proposition either. Rebuilding Hollywood in Silicon Valley's image will have its disadvantaged too. I believe doing so will not build Hollywood as today's image of Silicon Valley but rather an image of the Valley in the mid 90's, and the dot-com era. (I am not suggesting there will be a bubble, but its possible, and I don't think it'll ever be as bad as the tech one, since the industry is already mature and the players are very experienced, so the chances of failure are a lot less.) But in terms of the structure of the companies and the process there will be similarities. As we have seen over and over, startups that end up doing whats to the best interest of the VCs (or at least what the VCs believe is to their best interest) instead of doing what the founders would like to do (there are thousands of these stories but my favorites are Jim Clark and Silicon Graphics, and to some extend Steve Jobs and Apple, which proves this could have happened to anyone at any level!). But as there will be a lot more producers compared to the few currently available studios there will be better chances to find investors that think like you, so there will still be improvements.
Hollywood 2.0 But this transition will be a lot faster. As the technology improves and all costs of production, marketing, distribution go down, eventually a lot less capital would be needed to put together a movie, which will lessen the power of the producers and set the creative minds free. (similar to what we are experiencing in Silicon Valley today!).
I can't wait to see three different versions of the same story and movie coming out during the same year. Or the redone of older movies with similar plots but different themes and endings. I can't wait to see the personal touch of many creative people that never had a chance to offer their talents before. And maybe one day in the future I'll be sharing movies with my friends that they have previously seen or know about, but can now see it with my touch on top of it, and from my point of view. Maybe one day critics instead of pointing out what they like or don't like, they can modify the movies themselves and offer their own versions to their viewers (I might be getting really ahead of myself but I get excited when I think like this.) And instead of movie guide you'll check digg.com to see what you should watch today.
But last time anything close to this happened (but not even close to the potentials here) some great talents came out of Hollywood. We saw movies like Easy Rider, and great directors like Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas changing the way we think about movies.
Side Notes: What I mention above does not apply to all categories of movies, as many of them (such as most of TV shows, and reality shows) can be produced today for very little capital. But for the feature length movies, and mostly those that are produced for theaters, you will still need a huge capital for production.