American History X Opening Scene Analysis

The film American History X directed by Tony Kaye is about a man named Derek and how is involvement with the skinhead gang has affected his family. The first scene that I am looking at is the curb stomp scene, in this scene Derek curb stomps a black guy when he tried to steal his truck. The purpose of this scene is to show how bad Derek has gone and how Danny feels about it. This scene is significant because it is when Derek sees how Danny feels about what he has just done and is the start of change. The second scene is the shower scene where Derek is having a shower and is thinking about how things used to be before he joined the skinheads, this scene is significant because it is the start of a new life for Derek and his family. The techniques that I am going to explore are music and editing.

A scene in American History X that uses effective music to emphasise what the audience feels is the curb stomp scene. At the start of the scene

In this scene Derek is having a shower and he has his head forward with his hands raised to his head and remembering a flashback of how he and Danny were playing on the beach together and they were really happy and how Derek has ruined all of it. The music during this scene is string wind and piano playing softly with a slow sad feeling. The music gives the audience a sad feeling and a feeling of regret because things used to be good in there family, during the flashback everything is in really warm colours and Everyone is smiling and laughing. Kaye has done this to make the audience feel for Derek's family because they look really happy during the flashback and to make the audience think that Derek is going to change to how things used to be and he would do anything to get that back. This kind of music has not been heard before because up until his scene it has been about all of the bad things that Derek has