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23
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80
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xx
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
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73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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28
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63
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86
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35
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48
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30
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53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
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28
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88
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71
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67
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28
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73
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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56
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86
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70
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49
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80
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28
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50
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50
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58
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72
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89
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52
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66
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
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94
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29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
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83
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61
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42
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70
It Might Get Loud
46
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19
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41
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41
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66
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80
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83
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59
More Than a Game
67
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34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
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48
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73
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66
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47
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34
Other Man, The
xx
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54
Paper Heart
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68
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68
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44
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35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
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65
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76
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69
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79
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40
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61
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77
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xx
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46
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39
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89
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50
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55
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61
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83
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66
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66
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70
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67
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69
We Live in Public
64
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64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
American History X

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 113 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: David McKenna
Directed by: Tony Kaye
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 30, 1998
DVD: April 16, 1999
Running Time: 117 minutes, BW / Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for graphic brutal violence including rape, pervasive language, strong sexuality and nudity
Starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Avery Brooks, Stacy Keach, and Elliott Gould
A groundbreaking controversial drama about the tragic consequences of racism in a family. (New Line Cinema)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel
A shockingly powerful screed against racism that also manages to be so well performed and directed that it is entertaining as well. [30 October 1998, Friday, p.A]
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Feels as true as a documentary, as painful as a blow to the heart.
TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon
What makes this film so powerful is that its unanswered questions force the audience to examine hate and its consequences making American History X one lesson you can't miss.
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
This is the sort of incendiary role a lot of actors would kill for, yet the shock of Norton's performance isn't its showboat flamboyance. It's that he makes this sadistic junior sociopath rueful and intelligent.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
American History X is a crash course on how to make a message movie that resonates with crackling power.
Film.com Gemma Files
A true achievement -- no matter who eventually wants to take, or deny, credit for its creation.
Film.com Norman Green
Despite a cheap, Hollywood ending and despite Kaye's kooky campaign, X is a killer.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A series of well-drawn sketches and powerful scenes, in search of an organizing principle.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Craig Marine
Such an ambitious, well-acted film that it's easy to overlook its flaws as relatively minor.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Unflinching in its depiction of racism, anti-Semitism, violence and jailhouse politics.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
While this movie is sometimes overbaked, it is the first major studio release in a while to engross wall-to-wall.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Trenchant and visceral, American History X may not be perfect, but it's a darn sight better than good.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The movie can't explain as much as it wants to about what makes (and unmakes) a skinhead, but it carries us a fair distance.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
It's Norton who makes the film such an enlightening experience, and he's mesmerizing.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
It's a testament to Norton's utter immersion in the role that he can even halfway connect the dots between this fundamentally sweet, brainy kid and the magnetic, white trash monster who'll haunt our minds long after the movie's liberal pieties fade into static.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
Norton's performance, which is every bit as varied as his Oscar-nominated work in Primal Fear, once more demonstrates that he's one of the most remarkable chameleons working in film.
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
A violent, sober cautionary tale, strictly middle-of-the-road when it comes to its much-ballyhooed politics and grimly obvious in its telling.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Excellent in flashes, unintentionally absurd and lead-footed at other moments, the movie stumbles under the weight of its own grandiose intentions.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Joshua Klein
There may be much to like about his movie, but it's all been done before to more challenging degrees of moral ambiguity. That's a pretty fatal flaw.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Director Tony Kaye may be reaching for opera, but screenwriter David McKenna has set his sights distinctly lower.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
This material is charged enough without piling on the melodrama and the lip-smacking violence. The movie too often sacrifices reportage for razzle-dazzle.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
It's hard to know whom to blame for the film's choppiness, its mixture of rage and sentimentality, the stridency of some of the acting.
Read Full Review >New York Post Rod Dreher
The picture is smothered by solemn right-mindedness, and hobbled by scripter David McKenna's simplistic, knee-jerk liberal take on suburban white racism.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
For all its surface verisimilitude and for all its focus on a problem that couldn't be more current, this film can't manage to feel more than sporadically real.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
As a visit to a world and a way of life most of us will never experience, American History X is vivid, and it feels honest. At the very least, it's not typical.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Norton's high-energy acting is the only element that saves the picture from being a total loss.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 113 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
caporegime gave it an8:
A film well done. A must seen!
adam l gave it a10:
Unbelievable film. great acting performance by ed norton and genius directing by tony kaye, although he didn't feel he was able to make it exactly how he wanted it in the final editing. The movie gives a great message, and shows how some perfectly valid right wing ideas can go completely misconstrued.
David B. gave it a10:
Some of the best acting I have ever seen.
C. K. gave it a10:
One of the greatest movies ever made. Norton's performance was inspiring.
Katty G. gave it a10:
The most powerful movie I have ever seen. Its truly is a wonderful film. And the outstanding acting by Edward Norton! Loved it!
T J gave it a10:
One of the most brilliant films of a generation.
Mike C. gave it a10:
Stunningly moving flim with an immense performance from edward norton, a crushing, moving ending after a movie ridden with thought provoking and captivating story lines and scenes.
