American History X is a 1998 American drama film directed by Tony Kaye from a screenplay written by David McKenna, starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. It was distributed by New Line Cinema.
The film tells the story of two brothers, Derek Vinyard (Norton) and Daniel "Danny" Vinyard (Furlong) of Venice, Los Angeles, California. Both are intelligent and charismatic students. Their father, a firefighter, is murdered by a black drug dealer while trying to extinguish a fire in South Los Angeles, and Derek is drawn into the Neo-Nazi movement. Derek brutally kills two black gang members whom he catches breaking into the truck left to him by his father, and is sentenced to three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. The story shows how Danny is influenced by his older brother's actions and ideology and how Derek, now radically changed by his experience in incarceration, which includes violent rape by white neo-Nazi inmates, tries to prevent his brother from going down the same path as he did. The film is told in the style of nonlinear narrative.