American History x [ENG]
An anonymous commentator started his review on IMDB writing “probably the best movie I’ve ever seen”. Three quarters of the audience last night was telling to the neighbour things like “horrible”, “how did they do that?”, “what Oscar?”. I have to say I’m inclined to the second way of thinking but in any case I’ll try to investigate the movie to understand the first that, all in all, has got hi own dignity. American History x is not an easy movie working on a very hard and contemporary theme and on a too common kind of violence. It’s difficult not to be involved in the story right because of the hardness and the realism of what it tells. It’s a movie based on the extraordinary Edward Norton, always convincing even when the story falls, but also on the other members of the cast (especially the magic Elliott Gould), all great. But it’s also a movie well structured, with a not banal work on b/w and color, with a very selecting chois of the frames (that will make the joy of all the semiology lovers) and with a dark tragedy cinematography (made by the director Tony Kaye himself). Well, this could be an eulogistical review. But the real problems starts, as to say, on a cultural level. Yes, because this is not a movie for the italian or the european audiences: it’s a movie that works on some important themes as racism, familiar problems, the personal problems of a man who understand he has completely failed, and I could even say this is a movie about destiny. But it has a completely american point of view and a compltely american way of thinking about this themes. And I’m not saying that the word “american” means something negative. It is rather, as written, a cultural problem: we dont’ speak about this kind of themes in this way, neither morally nor mentally. For one time I really have to speak about the great italian film of the past or about the french ones because it’s from them that we’ve learned to tell and to watch important stories on the screen. So, when an american director does this, it may happen, as in this case, that the differences in the way of thinking can be too big and become a wall between the movie and us. It’s a sin because AAAmerican History x, I think, is not so bad as it can appear in a first moment. On the contrary, if we consider that it has been directed by a fifty years old american at his first big experience, I could even define it a courageous movie. In America, of course. So now I feel as I’m starting to understand a little more that anonymous commentator on IMDB: the best movie he’s ever seen? Why not? I think this can really be a great movie for an american or maybe english eighteen years old student. And I’m not sayng that american or english eighteen years old students ar stupid. Only that sometimes, even if one is mind opened, a country’s culture becomes an impenetrable wall: we’re not used to watch social engaged movies so romanticized nad I don’t believe we’ll become used in future.
