American History X

So, Mrs. Hall has all but given up on school work. Wait. Let me rephrase that. She HAS given up on school work. Just take this one test for example. It was a huge test with three different components that we've been studying all combined into one. Well, they took it the day I got back from NYC. So, I wrote her a letter explaining why I shoudln't have to take the test. Lo and behold it worked. My mom tells me that I shouldn't get used to doing that type of thing (it's the second time I've done it this year, and I did it last year for Thomas') Apparently college professors don't accept whining and begging in place of assignments. However, this teacher does. As, have many of mine throughout my HS career. It makes me wonder about highschool teachers. It really does. So, I am getting to a point here. We were supposed to debate today for our final, but Hall decided to scrap it. Instead, we are watching a movie. "American History X." Whoa, is all I have to say.
So Mrs. Hall says it's rated R. I don't watch R rated movies, normally, or anything that's vulgar, extremely violent, tasteless, blah, blah, blah. However, I have made exceptions when it comes to historical educaitonal movies that are R because the real life of it was R too. I feel that it is important for me and everyone to really be aware of history, like the Holocaust as portrayed in Schindler's List. That movie was extremely hard to watch, but I feel that if I refuse to watch it because it's too violent, than I am in a sense refusing to even learn what happened, while these people actually lived it. It's almost a disrespectful arrogance. They can go through Hell because of ignorance, and I, also in igorance, refuse to even subject mysef to watching it. Now, I only hold this opinion of the movie is done tastefully and there is indeed something to be learned, and it is historically accurate. I don't want to sit and watch trash. Who does? So, this was my thinking going into American History X.
The opening scene of the movie is a raw, raunchy sex scene. Nudity, everything. Gross. So, so far, not off to a good start. And then, I am suddenly bombarded with the F-Bomb in seriously every other sentence. I'm not kidding. F-in this, F-in that, Mother F-in followed by cuss cuss cuss cuss cuss. I mean, seriously. Sure, they probably did talk like that. You could use my own argument that it happens in real life. However, there comes a point when it hits an extreme, and I think I heard more profanity in that half hour that I watched than the whole year at the high school. I'm serious. I can usually stand hearing it, because I just don't pay attention to it, but today it was pounding me in the face and I was cringing under the blows.
American History X is a movie about the Neo Nazis in Venice Beach, CA. Interesting story and setting, I'm sure, but it's really hard for me to get past the Hollywoodness. If it was a documentary, it would be different. But it's Edward Norton who is getting paid millions of dollars to have nude sex and use every cuss word known to man in a matter of minutes. Plus, I don't feel it is neccessary to subject myself to everything bad that happens in the world simply because it really happned. I mean, it isn't that the beauty of not having had it happnen to you? You don't have to go through it? While there are many things I think it is important to learn about, if I were to think that about everything, i would be one depressed indivdual. I don't want to subject myself to all the evils of the world. And that's the cool thing about having a choice.
To some, my viewpoints on this are probably ignorant, like I believe many are when they can't watch things about the Holocaust. However, i see this movie in a whole other ball game. Sorry to all the cynics out there, but this one is really hard to watch for me. American History X: No thank you.