I look at this movie as an outsider; I have no idea about any details of the production or behind the scenes. So my review is really based on pure experiences I got watching this movie.
Writing/Story:
There are intriguing elements;
- like the themes of racism based on white and gippsy ethnicities here in Europe.
- A likeable police officer comes in town who practicly becomes a head of a Skinhead group in the end through some immoral actions.
- A main protagonist sacrifices his hopefuly more positive future for his brother and father's sake.
So basicly the fundamentals were being well put on the table.
However they were lackingly or terribly executed; The whole youngling gang at the begining doing irrationally idiotic things, and all the important story elements and decisions are built around these oversimplisticly written actions. So yeah, one story short: Oversimplified storytelling
- Where is this story takes place, and is it a distopian world or a place that wants to act like it is the reality? I am not familiar with the world of this movie, which territorially should be somewhere around Budapest, but I just can't buy it.
The main issue I have is that the conflict between the races aren't well articulated. It seems overly simplified, and makes us asking weird questions like: Why are only the RADICAL whites do criminal acts in this movie? Which gippsies are doing criminal things, which don't and vica versa to whites? If the bald prodagonists base their judgement on race, why isn't this difference between races outlined at all? Are the actions based on racism or just political strategies? etc. So, maybe what's the issue here is the topics are brought up, but sometimes they just don't connect organicaly to each other. Story elements are drawn but they just end up left behind in the end.
Music:
Low Quality, it's like taken from a Soap Opera TV Show. This is not the first time that a europian production really tries to copy the whole Hollywoodish Action-like music language, but it just ends up being so terribly lame that they should have just kept most of the scenes without any soundtrack.
Acting:
It was mostly good, a bit dandified at places. Imre Csuja's simphaty towards the young gang was unmotivated/not understandable. Even though I like Viktor Klem, he is the one who is accountable for the dandified acting. Vidnyánszky is great, he is more talented than most of the crew.
Overall:
American History X put down more ballsy and still haunting discussions about similar topics which holds up today. This movie, after 15 years or so can't add any refreshing points to this theme, actually, it's just lesser in every aspect.
