This line from American History X has to be the most poweriful in movie history
- Thread starter Slipknot666
- Start date
Personally speaking as someone who was kind of extremist at a young age, the following is the one that spoke to me the most:
"Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it".
"Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it".
That's not the point of the line at all, it's an indictment of the environment in the US prison system. Norton isn't fucked because he's white and black people will just kill him in prison for no reason, he's fucked because he turned his back on the white supremacists and that was his only support/protection in prison.
Lamont is telling him that now he is going to know what it feels like to have the world (at least the world inside the prison) against you, like black people experience every day in a white supremacist nation like the US.
OP
OP
The one you mentioned is much better, especially since it's delivered by the amazing Captain Sisko.
Is this the one where that old lady, a holocaust survivor, tells a neo-nazi who was going on about how if he was a Jewish guy during the holocaust he would have fought back that "Its easy to imagine yourself a hero if you've never been tested."?
This line should be retired and any new script with it should be burned.
I like the part where he dunks in that pickup game and the NBA Jam announcer yells "SLAMMALAMMADINGDONG!"
This is not how I read that line, he said "not me", I think it is about the fact that white people will be in the minority threre.
That scenes in the prison also played into that.
Also, if that was indeed intended to say that life for a white person in jail is a good approximation to what life is to a black person in the US in general than I think it's a message I agree with even less, but not sure that how I read it.
Having seen the movie dozens of times, this is correct.
That scene with the black inmate is one of, if not the very first conversation they have. Before they became friends and Derek started acting out on his Aryan buddies.
Do you know what happens to a Nazi when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else.
Great movie but that really isn't a powerful line.
This is a powerful line.
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The first time I saw that on my Microsoft PlayStation I knew it was a classic
I am telling you how I read the line, of course it's not what you said, I think it's pretty clear we're reading that scene differently, and that's fine.
I'm not a huge fan of the film in general, so it's very much likely we're coming to that line with a very different perspective.
Evil and oppression is not a trait inherent to white people.
Power and privilege bring out the worst in everyone.
That is your pick for most powerful line?
Isn't even the most powerful line in the movie
Yikes!!
In that particular movie I believe the line you're looking for was the one that went something like ...."Hate is baggage. Life is too short to be angry."
Or
when the cop asks Derek if anything he has done has made his life better in any way and if any of his time spent as a nazi had value....and he cried and said no.
Isn't even the most powerful line in the movie
Yikes!!
In that particular movie I believe the line you're looking for was the one that went something like ...."Hate is baggage. Life is too short to be angry."
Or
when the cop asks Derek if anything he has done has made his life better in any way and if any of his time spent as a nazi had value....and he cried and said no.
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