Why did American History X end so unexpectedly?

My understanding of how the story in movies proceeds is that the writer builds up the expectation of the audience and then concludes it appropriately.

I did not see that in American History X. All throughout the movie, the story builds up the expectation that Edward Norton would do something about the Neo-Nazi group that he helped establish before he was sent to Chino.

However, the movie "abruptly" ends with the death of his younger brother. Although this might sound very subjective but this seemed like an improper ending to me. Of course I don't want to argue if you liked this ending or not. But I'd like to understand what this ending was supposed to tell us. Why did the movie end in such an unexpected way and how did this ending tie in with the rest of the movie's story and themes?

Best Answer

The message of American History X is quite simple: violence begets violence.

The whole film is a series of escalations based on revenge; Derek and Danny lose their father and hate consumes them. They win a basketball game against the black gang (and their turf in the process) and the gang try and steal their fathers' truck as revenge, Derek kills them over it.

But then Derek's arrest interrupts this pattern, he goes off to prison and with the help of Dr. Sweeney he realises the pattern of behaviour and does what he can to prevent it from going any further. Derek has his catharsis and becomes a different person, and tries to help Danny do the same. But the problem is the same hasn't happened to those that he's wronged; there are still people out there from the black gang who have lost friends and blame them both for it, and in the end Danny pays the price.

It is much more poignant and reflective of real life in this way, after years of fighting it's not so simple to drop everything and get the happy ending Hollywood has taught us is waiting.