MovieChat Forums > American History X (1998) Discussion > Unrealistic violent scene (who would do ...

Unrealistic violent scene (who would do that?)


The 'teeth'-scene is completely unrealistic.

Think about it; if you were the black man, being threatened by a skinny white neo-nazi - whether he has a gun or not, he's so close anyway, gun is a ranged weapon, not melee -, then told to put your mouth against the curb..

.. WOULD you do it?

There's no way ANYONE would. The alternatives to 'having your teeth smashed into your skull by a curb' are:

1) Fighting it out, struggling, at least TRYING to do something about it
2) Aggressively fighting back and possibly winning (as I said, gun is not a melee weapon, and the guy is almost naked, you would have a big chance of winning the fight)
3) Taking a bullet into your skull and dying relatively painlessly and quickly (by comparison anyway)
4) Running away and risking taking a bullet somewhere in your body, depending on the crazy gun-wielder's aim, among many other things - perhaps you can zig-zag and avoid the bullet altogether, and if you keep ducking and finding cover, perhaps you'll only be grazed or it will hit your leg or something, OR it would hit your head or heart and you'd die immediately, which is a big relief and release anyway..

There are SO many, SO MANY better options than 'obeying without question and putting your teeth against curb', WHO would actually do that?

Why would anyone, ANYONE obey this crazy neo-nazí? Why? What would be gained by it? Would it be somehow a better destiny to have your teeth mashed into your skull in broken pieces than to take a bullet to the head? Shoot me, beat me up, do whatever, but I am friggin' _NOT_ voluntarily subjecting myself to _THAT_.

Who would, and why?

This scene makes NO sense. Look at the situation, the black man has like 867 opportunities to wrestle the gun away from the neo-nazí, and he doesn't do anything. All it would take is one aggressive sudden movement that the neo-nazí can't prepare for or know is coming, and he'd be out for the count or something, or at least you'd get his gun, or you'd be able to kick the gun away, or you'd be able to slap him and he'd drop the gun or or or or..

I mean, realistically, there's ZERO chance the events would unfold the way depicted in the movie.

I don't think ANY of moviechat or even old IMDb readers would subject themselves to that, most people, knowing what's to come, would rather just say 'F that' and try to FIGHT - even a kid in a fantas movie said, if we're gonna die anyway, I'd rather die fighting. If THAT is gonna happen anyway, there's nothing to lose by fighting back as hard as you can - perhaps you can make it NOT happen that way. But just letting it happen is so stupid, a bullet in the brain is 1000000000 times preferable to that teeth-thing.

This is just a shock value thing, no one would ever obey that crazy half-naked idiot in that situation, no matter what kind of gun he's waving around. A gun that's not a melee weapon, so you can possibly wrestle it away from him. Even if you can't, what have you lost? I'd rather take 10 bullets in the stomack than a teeth-curb-kick like that.

Wouldn't you?

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That was a disgusting scene whipped up to get people to see what was a garbage movie.

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*GREAT MOVIE.

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garbage movie

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I DISAGREE.🙂

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Implied by your liking it, but you're wrong. it's just you, and a group of semi-Trumpian weirdos. ;-)

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FALSE.

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You're right, it's just you. ;-D

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THAT IS ALSO FALSE.

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Nah

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You're wrong, I love this movie and I'm about as far from a Trumper as you can possibly get!

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Self-reporting is useless, you could be a schizophrenic.

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Great movie!

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I believe you missed the mark here. American History X brought the concept of curb stomping to the masses. If someone had asked you what curb stomping was before this film I would wager that you, nor most would’ve landed on biting a curb and having your head stomped on.
I do not believe that individual knew what was going to happen. Something dubious to say the least, sure, but not what transpired.
Would I have obeyed that command, absolutely not, I would have fought but if history has informed us of anything, naivety, stupidity, obliviousness, submissiveness..... come in all shapes and sizes.

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I thought he was already clipped by a gunshot so he couldn't have fought off that much - but I agree in that he also shouldn't have been 100% compliant either. But Ed did have the gun.

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I think you make a fair point. It's a brutal scene, probably, as you said, just to give shock value. It's not particularly realistic that anyone would do this...

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The guy was shot at and injured, so fighting back seemed hopeless. So he was shot at, his buddy had been murdered, and the man who did all that was threatening him with the gun and barking orders to do what he said. I mean, easy to say what you would have done in hindsight, but if you're frightened for your life and think there is a slim chance you might not be killed if you do what he says....(maybe he thinks it's for intimidation, that he'll just be tortured or it will buy him some time?) you're probably going to do it, versus figuring he'll just point blank shoot you if you don't.

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