Question: What accent did Sweeney have? It sounded like he was from a foreign country but moved to America when he was young.
MikeH
8th Sep 2016
American History X (1998)
9th Apr 2015
American History X (1998)
Trivia: The ending was originally different. After the scene where Derek is crying over Danny, it cut to Henry being arrested, then his family in the kitchen mourning him and saying he was a good boy, and then Derek shaving his head again while smiling. When Edward Norton read the script, he said "I thought the movie was supposed to be anti-Nazi." So the ending was soon changed.
8th Apr 2015
American History X (1998)
Question: How did Sweeney know Derek got raped? How and why would Derek ask for his old history teacher to come visit him instead of anyone else, like his family?
Chosen answer: Someone would have told Sweeney what happened (guard, nurse etc.). Derek would have called Sweeney down because he did not want his family to know that he got raped, because it might make him look helpless and destroy his image. Sweeney was really the only person he knew that wasn't a skin-head.
Answer: It's heavily implied that Sweeney, through his gang outreach initiatives which are mentioned in the police station scene, had a relationship with Derek in which he tried to get him out of the skinhead lifestyle. With the sexual assault and betrayal from his fellow skinheads being the catalyst for his skinhead "deprogramming", he called Sweeney because he knew that he wouldn't judge him and that he could talk to him about how his feelings about skinhead life had changed.
25th Feb 2015
American History X (1998)
Question: What was the point of the ending? What message was it trying to send? We have a whole movie sending an anti-racist message, but then a black guy kills Danny for blowing smoke in his face. I'm sure this wasn't the movie's intention, but it kinda seems like we're supposed to believe Derek was originally right and shouldn't have changed.
Chosen answer: No, the message is absolutely not that Derek was originally right. The last part just shows there is evil on both sides and not only the neo-nazis need change. Danny changed, but too late to be saved from being murdered for racist reasons. Its a classic Shakespearean tragedy.
Answer: In the original unaired ending of the movie, it shows Derek staring in the mirror at his home. He takes his shirt off exposing his swastika, then you see hair falling into the sink as he shaves his head.
Anywhere to find that alternate ending?
2nd Feb 2015
American History X (1998)
Question: At the start of the film, Danny is given the paper and told he has to hand it in the next morning. At the end, Danny is at school ready to hand it in. Does that mean that aside from the black-and-white flashback scenes, the movie took place over 24 hours? It's hard to believe so much happened in such a short amount of time.
Chosen answer: Yes, apart from the flashbacks the whole movie is set over 24 hours.
2nd Feb 2015
American History X (1998)
Question: How does curb stomping someone kill them? It will obviously destroy their teeth, but it doesn't look very fatal.
Answer: The stomp is to the neck. It breaks the neck and causes death.
Chosen answer: "Curb stomping" is a form of assault in which a victim's mouth is forcefully placed on a curb after which the head stomped from behind. Depending on the force of the stomping, the practice may, indeed, cause severe injuries and sometimes death. Any time you have a person's head being crushed between a hard, immovable object and an object moving with force, it is not unreasonable to posit that death can result - either immediately from the trauma, or later due to internal injury and bleeding.
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Chosen answer: It's Avery Brooks' natural Indiana accent.
Greg Dwyer