Mad About Movies -Winter 2014.1: American History X

[DavidC]

"Your anger is shutting down the brain god gave you."

The main character in American History X is trapped by an ideology of anger and hatred. The great struggle of the drama is his fight to escape that ideology -- to see beyond its boundaries -- and then to fight for his brother to escape it.

It's easy for us to see that his ideas are twisted and wrong and lead to destructive actions and terrible consequences. One of the flaws of the movie, in fact, is that it is so easy for us to see the error of his ways.

However, it is not always so easy to recognize narrow thinking.

Have you ever had a bad idea that caused you difficulty in your life? How did you escape from it?

[Austin]

Being defeated by the result of university's application, I choose to abnegate myself. Without learning anything in my "not idea" university, I finally graduated with the appalling GPA. It was a mercy that I hadn't addicted to drugs, gambling etc... One day, I suddenly realized that I can't keep living my life like this. With my family's reckless abandon, I decided to restart my student career abroad. Living more remarkable and meaningful are now the two faith which always come up on my mind.

[1992masa]

When I was a high school student, my family was becoming poor because of the divorce.
My life was not so easy at that time, and I didn't my mother to worry and care about me, so
I tried to study hard and hard. After studying, I got second place in the school at exams.
Eventually I could get reward which can get discount school fee. The only thing I tried to escape
from difficulty is just keep trying to be serious and hard.

[kimo1985]

i had many bad idea in my life however people have different way to control there anger, but if i want to speak for myself i would say that my way to control my bad idea and anger is going to a frined who i really trust, ask him for an advice and take my time thinking about it, and finally make a decision .

[Yoonki0127]

When I watch the conversation about anger in jail between the main character and the principal.
I thought that I used to have had same feeling.
In every case, anger cannot make a situation better even if it is legitimate, usually, it comes from irrational thinking.
Nevertheless, when some bad things happening, it is difficult not to have a anger.
From a moment, I tried not to have a anger. not blame other people, not have a negative idea.
It is really difficult.

[Amy1735]

Generally speaking, I had experienced the twisted and wrong decisions several times since I was in university, especially with friends. It was hard for me to say no or reject friends even though I was too busy to hang out with them. In this way, I always ended up to be really exhausted. Sometimes, I even felt being excluded if I didn't go out with them. However, after I started to work, I finally realized that everyone should have their right to speak out for themselves even though others might not willing to hear that, but in this way, I felt more satisfied and self-controllable with my own schedule, because eventually the real friendship is not just about good times, also the bad times which I should have noticed at the first beginning.

[HashimSH95]

Peer pressure was something that effected me a lot in high school. I would see my friends doing things and so i thought why not simply do what they are doing there is nothing wrong with it. Everyone is doing it. Like smoking for example. My friends would smoke after school and at first i wouldnt but then when i would join them in their spot where they smoke i would end up smoking with them. I guess something just snapped in me that i shouldnt do what i dont like to do. So i didnt like to smoke so i stopped joining them after school, talk for a bit yes but not smoke. Of course i was still friends with them i just no longer did what i didint like even if they were doing it. I Thank God, was able to control myself eventually.

[Esra1234]

Back days sometimes I had the idea of "treat people as the same they treat you" especially in negative way, but as days pass I realized that it is totally wrong attitude because it made a paradoxical personality with grudges. So I tried to fix it more than escape from and it is perfectly done because now I believe that a person with his good manners can affect bad people thinking even if they did not admit it.

[Francisco1975]

The only things anger can bring is blindness and bad results. But the bad idea I had in my life was to think that I should trust everyone. As a result I had many disappointments and became upset for many times. But I did't use these episodes of disappointment to get revenge or something like that. It helped me to learn how to make right choices and even to give people a chance to show they can be trustful. Bad things happen in our lives to teach us how to deal with future situations. Unfortunatelly human beings can't learn only through good things.