  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, strong drug use, extremely traumatic themes, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | I'm not. I'm lucky. I feel lucky because it's wrong, Danny. It's wrong and it was eating me up, it was going to kill me. And I kept asking myself all the time, how did I buy into this shit? It was because I was pissed off, and nothing I ever did ever took that feeling away. I killed two guys, Danny, I killed them. And it didn't make me feel any different. It just got me more lost and I'm tired of being pissed off, Danny. I'm just tired of it. | „ |
| ~ Derek Vinyard to his brother, Daniel on how him being a Neo-Nazi was wrong and how he's changed. |
| “ | If you come near Danny again, I will feed you your f-cking heart, Cameron. | „ |
| ~ Derek Vinyard threatening Cameron Alexander, one of his most famous lines. |
Derek Vinyard is the main protagonist of the 1998 crime drama film American History X.
He is a vicious Neo-Nazi and xenophobe, who after going to prison for the murder of two black men, seeks redemption and tries to stop his young brother from going down the same path as he did.
He was portrayed by Edward Norton, who also played Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear, Jack Teller in The Score, Steve Frazelli in The Italian Job, Eric Byer in The Bourne Legacy, Nova in Alita: Battle Angel and Miles Bron in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
Biography[]
Derek Vinyard was originally portrayed as a violent white supremacist and a proud supporter of a dark underbelly of American society ruled over by Neo-Nazi groups, including his own newly-founded violent gang called the Disciples of Christ (better known as "D.O.C." for short). Derek's hatred for other races climaxes in the movie's most famous scenes, in which he is woken up by his younger brother, Danny, who informs him that two black men are breaking into his truck, which his father had given to him.
Derek loads up his Ruger P94 pistol and goes downstairs, where he recognizes the two as some thugs his team had beat in a game of basketball earlier. Derek also realizes that one is armed with a gun. Derek quietly turns the doorknob and kicks the door open, shooting the armed one several times in the chest. When the other tries to run away, Derek shoots him as well. The getaway car arrives and Derek fires his gun at it as it drives off. He then releases the slide of the empty pistol (making it sound like he had reloaded) and then holds the gun to the surviving gang member's head, ordering him to put his teeth on the curb. Not wanting to die, he does so.
Derek then promptly stomps on his head, smashing his teeth and breaking his neck, killing him. Derek spits on the body before the police arrive, and he is arrested. He is soon found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and sentenced to three years in prison.
While in prison, Derek's path to redemption begins, and although he remained racist, he eventually befriended Lamont, an African-American inmate serving six years for stealing a television set and assault on a policeman he dropped it on, and he (somewhat ironically) would prove to be one of Derek's only true allies during his stay in prison. This friendship would put Derek at odds with the Aryan Brotherhood, a Neo-Nazi prison syndicate whose gang's dealings with non-white gangs has him disappointed with them and disillusioned by prison gang politics, and it resulted in him being raped as a form of punishment.
After leaving prison, Derek tried to return to normal life but found himself continually battling his past as he tried to distance himself from his violent past, including a confrontation with his brother Danny. However, after Derek explained to Danny why he had changed (including the rape), Danny starts to understand.
However, the story ends in tragedy when Danny is shot by a student named Henry (who also calls himself "Little Henry") he had been in conflict with and the film ends with Derek crying while holding his dead brother. What happens next is left to speculation.
Victims[]
- Unnamed burglar - Shot to death.
- Lawrence - Shot in the back and curb-stomped.
Quotes[]
| “ | Alright listen up, we need to open our eyes. There's over two million illegal immigrants bending down in this state tonight. This state spend three billion dollars last year on services, on people who had no right to be here in the first place. Three billion dollars. 400 million just to lock up a bunch of illegal immigrant criminals who only got in this country because the f-cking INS decided it's not worth the effort to screen for convicted felons. Who gives a sh-t? Our government doesn't give a sh-t. Our border policy is a joke. So is anybody surprised that the south of the border are laughing at us? Laughing at our laws? Every night, thousands of these parasites stream across the border like some f-ckin' piñata exploded. Don't laugh! There's nothin' funny goin' on here! This is about your life and mine! It's about decent hard working Americans falling through the cracks and getting the shaft because their government cares more about the constitutional right of a bunch of people who aren't even citizens of this country. On the Statue of Liberty it says: "Give me your tired, your hungry, your poor." Well it's Americans who are tired and hungry and poor, and I say until you take care of that, close the f-cking book! 'Cause we're losing, we're losing our right to pursue our destiny, we're losing our freedom so that a bunch of f-cking foreigners can come in here and exploit our country and this isn't something that's going on far away, this isn't something happening in places we can't do anything about it, it's happening right here, right in our neighborhood, right in that building behind you. Archie Miller ran that grocery store since we were kids here. Dave worked there, Mike worked there. He went under and now some f-cking Korean owns it who fired these guys and is making a killing 'cause he hired 40 f-cking border jumpers. I see this sh-t going on and I don't see anybody doing anything about it and it f-cking pisses me off! So look around you, this isn't our f-cking neighborhood, it's a battlefield, we're on a battlefield tonight. Make a decision. Are we gonna stand by the sidelines? Quietly standing there while our country gets raped? Are we gonna ante up and do something about it? You're goddamn right we are! | „ |
| ~ Derek Vinyard preaching to his fellow skinheads. |
Trivia[]
- Edward Norton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Derek in the film.