Tony Kaye Reclaims 'American History X' and Reflects on Its Legacy
British Jewish filmmaker Tony Kaye, whose 1998 feature debut "American History X" became famous both for its power and the chaos around its release, has now revisited that saga in the documentary "Humpty Dumpty X." The film premiered last week at New York’s Tribeca Festival, where Kaye attended the screening and later spoke about the project and the original movie’s enduring impact.
Kaye said he is now proud of the film, despite once trying to disown it after the studio removed his final cut rights and let Edward Norton work on the edit. He recalls that he even asked to have his name replaced by "Humpty Dumpty," and that the battle spilled into public view, including an outburst at the Toronto festival and conversations with Marlon Brando. "I’m proud of the film," he said. "I gave that project everything." He also argued that the movie, which he says was shaped by extensive research with white supremacists, was made to show that "we are all the same" and that he focused it on "hatred, anger and tragedy" after removing other material from the original script.
"American History X" follows a violent neo-Nazi skinhead, played by Norton, through the admiring perspective of his younger brother, played by Edward Furlong. The story includes racist and antisemitic material, a prison term for killing two Black youths, and a later attempt at redemption that may come too late. Kaye said he spent hours with neo-Nazis to understand their thinking, and acknowledged that some extremists have misread the film as supportive of their ideology, something he rejects.
He praised Norton as the actor who became the menacing presence he wanted after months of training, and said the black-and-white flashbacks were essential to separating past from present. Kaye also defended the film’s violence as a consequence of audience investment in the characters, and said a movie must still be entertaining. The film was both a critical and box-office success, but the controversy damaged Kaye’s Hollywood career. He later made a few films, including "Detachment," and is now working on another football film, "You’ll Never Walk Alone." He said he is an obsessive supporter of Hapoel Be'er Sheva, loves Tottenham, and first worked in Israel at age 17 as a production assistant on "Billy Two Hats," shooting in Eilat and Beersheba. Asked why he wanted the documentary credit to read "Humpty Dumpty," he replied, "It was the funniest name I could think of."
