American history X focuses on the life of neo Nazi Derek Vinyard, whose life is now being turned around since an enlightenment whilst serving a prison sentence for manslaughter, Now out of prison and wanting a better life for himself, he now concentrates on getting his younger brother Danny out of the toxic environment.
The trailer starts off with an establishing shot
of a large building, vandalised with graffiti, There is a black and white filtered edit over the screen, we also hear the non diegetic sound of a conversation between mother and son, hearing "mom I told you not to visit me", then fading to a close up of a prison visitation room, with the mother and son revealed, showing that the son isn't proud to be there and doesn't want his mother seeing him in prison.
We see various fading images of the man's life before he got sentenced, due to the black and white filter separating the past from the present. The past shows the male to be an associate and somewhat leader of a Nazi movement, showing him pointing at a large swastika tattoo he has on his chest and hearing the diegetic utterance "this means not welcome". Then seeing Derek finally be surrounded by policeman after hear him shoot someone, and smugly putting his hands behind his head.
In colour we then see Derek as a new person with grown out hair and trying to cover his swastika tattoo with his hand, inferring to the audience that he regrets his past choices and no longer feels the way he did, and wants to get out of his past life. Then seeing his younger brother,Danny,after getting out of prison, with a shaven head and an offensive racist tattoo, he see's that his past ways have had a negative influence on him.
We then see that through Derek's attempts to try and get danny out of the white supremacy cult, he is up against a larger group of neo nazis due to a close up shot of a girl diegetically stating that "we are ten times bigger than we were", showing that it's going to be difficult to prevent danny's transformation into what he once was. As we see a long shot of the threatening looking volatile gang who are surrounded by fire, and holding up american flags making them appear to look like an army.
We then see a close up shot of danny tell his older brother Derek that "They're after you man", showing that the Neo Nazi cult isn't prepared to let Derek leave, making it appear to the receiving audience that Derek played an important role within the cult when he wasn't in prison and before he converted to a peaceful and less threatening life. Finally as the non diegetic soundtracks pace begins to increase in tempo, we see a large bald headed man push through the crowd of nazis, looking menacing as he holds a gun up, whilst hearing the voice of a non diegetic speaker say "shoot him!', Then suddenly cutting to a close up of Derek also holding a gun up also, showing that Derek's life is in danger through this lifestyle and this i why Derek wants his younger brother out of this dangerous environment. We then suddenly hear a gunshot as the screen cuts to black.
After this we hear a non diegetic soundtrack with sadder tones and conventions, as a montage of Derek and his family are shown at upsetting and happier times, where we finally hear Derek tell Danny that he is his best friend and he loves him. Showing the audience that family is a vital value within this film.
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