No more controversial and startling ode has ever been paid to Venice Beach than the 1997 movie “American History X.” The story revolves around a former Neo-Nazi in the 1990s who has seen the wrongs of his ways and attempts to discourage his younger brother from following in his footsteps. I’ve heard of it for a long time but somehow never managed to catch the movie until late one night in California. Being Jewish myself, I was struck and disturbed by the intensity of the scenes and acting (extremely good acting by Edward Norton and Edward Furlong, plus the entire supporting cast) but what stood out to me the most was the background of Venice Beach, California.
Over the time, many major movie studios have settled in and around Burbank of Los Angeles County. Hollywood is a historical home to the studios, hunks, and starlets but ever since the 1960s, most studios have been situated outside the omnipresent Hollywood. Because of the studios’ presence, so many movies and television pilots have been made in or around Los Angeles that it is literally impossible to count them all to an exact number. However, this movie is both visually and artistically set in Venice, California – meaning that the setting has been directly written into the script. All through the movie, the flavor of Venice and Los Angeles is constantly photographed and visually commented upon. The beach, boardwalk, affluent suburbs, schools and official administrative buildings (such as Los Angeles Police Department), and poverty-stricken area are all included in the cinematic photography and they are all real locations in Venice. The cinematography is so visual and loving of Venice that you’d almost think that the city is a written character.
I remembered one time when I was walking down the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend and he pointed at a basketball court. He commented to me that the movie “American History X” was filmed right there. I hadn’t watched the movie at that time, but my curiosity was piqued at how they could use such a public and well-known place in a movie… especially a movie with fictional story. After viewing the movie, I wondered how much of the movie’s story has basis in reality and how much of it is great screenwriting. The movie’s controversial topics don’t stop at the presence of Neo-Nazis in recent times – racial tensions, affirmative action, illegal immigrants, crime and poverty, gang violence, and prison treatment are all directly faced.
Well, I did a little research and here’s what I found out: the colorful and eclectic beach community is best known for its boardwalk and its counter-culture friendliness. It was founded as a resort city in 1905 by an entrepreneuring tobacco millionaire who had hoped to build a resort town on two miles stretch of beachfront property, modeled after Italy’s Venice. Canals, boardwalks, and piers were built. A popular tourist attraction from the very beginning, the population of Venice quickly expanded to the point where it joined the greater Los Angeles County in 1925. The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page on Venice:
“The city of Los Angeles had neglected Venice so long that it had become the "Slum by the Sea" by the 1950s. With the exception of new police and fire stations in 1930, the city spent little on improvements since annexation. The city did not pave Trolleyway (Pacific Avenue) until 1954 when county and state funds became available. Cheap rents for run-down bungalow housing attracted predominantly European immigrants (including a substantial number of Jewish refugees from Hitler's death camps), and young counter-cultural artists, poets and writers. The Beat Generation hung out at the Gas House on Ocean Front Walk and at Venice West Cafe on Dudley where they held poetry readings and smoked marijuana. Police raids were frequent as they tried to rid the community of "undesirables."”
Later on, as the area became more poverty-stricken and the divide between the wealthy and the poor became more apparent in Los Angeles County, Venice and Oakwood neighborhood (in local Venice) gave rise to gangs. Venice became such a breeding ground for gangs and gangsters. According to Wikipedia, to this day Culver City Boyz, Latino Venice 13, and Venice Shoreline Crips gangs are still active in Venice.
“It’s kind of sad in a way,” says Luis J. Rodriguez, author of the autobiographical Always Running: LA Vida Loca – Gang Days in L.A. “Chicanos have contributed a lot to these neighborhoods. For the most part, white people with money, they love their history, and they make sure everyone knows about it. But Chicanos don’t have the same resources to put that history down.” – Dennis Romero, “Gangster’s Paradise”
Racial tensions have always been high in Los Angeles County, the sometimes-explosive melting pot of different cultures and ethnicies. It would come as no surprise that a mention is made, but not much is known of a Venice gang called Venice White Boys – this could be an all-white gang that probably held racist views against other gangs of minorities, knowing that gangs tended to stay culturally and ethnically separate. A racist white gang on Venice? Maybe “American History X’s” Neo-Nazis on the Venice boardwalk does have some part in reality. The boardwalk is also known for its acceptance of counter-culture and social deviants, so Neo-Nazis might be comfortable there with their skinhead, heavy-metal, tattooed appearance. A lot of the most emotionally charged moments in the movie are actually reactions/commentary upon real-life events of Los Angeles in 1990s, such as the Rodney King incident. So, “American History X” is a fictional story but a lot of it does have actual basis in reality during the 1990s.
What of Venice today, though? The area has been undergoing extensive gentrification and clean-up, mainly due to the higher values of the property. Wealthier people have been coming in previously dilapidated neighborhoods of Venice and buying property. Many gangs, including Venice White Boys have either shrunk or completely disappeared. Today, due to increased police activity and the pushing of homies into inner city because of affordable housing, Venice Beach retains its eclectic multiculturalism and counter-culture friendliness but is now overrun by yuppies rather than gangsters.
“(Ruiz) points at a large, gleaming property across the street: ‘That used to be a black church. Now they made it into a white house.’” – Dennis Romero, “Gangster’s Paradise”
We’re left with the oddly picturesque beauty of Venice beach in the saturated sunset, its palm trees swaying to the breeze from the open ocean and the vibrant people of Venice populating the boardwalk. To best illustrate the optimistic stand of Venice’s melting pot tensions and history, I’ve chosen to close out this entry with the final lines of “American History X.”
“So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned - my conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it. Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like. 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.'” – Last lines of “American History X”
Over the time, many major movie studios have settled in and around Burbank of Los Angeles County. Hollywood is a historical home to the studios, hunks, and starlets but ever since the 1960s, most studios have been situated outside the omnipresent Hollywood. Because of the studios’ presence, so many movies and television pilots have been made in or around Los Angeles that it is literally impossible to count them all to an exact number. However, this movie is both visually and artistically set in Venice, California – meaning that the setting has been directly written into the script. All through the movie, the flavor of Venice and Los Angeles is constantly photographed and visually commented upon. The beach, boardwalk, affluent suburbs, schools and official administrative buildings (such as Los Angeles Police Department), and poverty-stricken area are all included in the cinematic photography and they are all real locations in Venice. The cinematography is so visual and loving of Venice that you’d almost think that the city is a written character.
I remembered one time when I was walking down the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend and he pointed at a basketball court. He commented to me that the movie “American History X” was filmed right there. I hadn’t watched the movie at that time, but my curiosity was piqued at how they could use such a public and well-known place in a movie… especially a movie with fictional story. After viewing the movie, I wondered how much of the movie’s story has basis in reality and how much of it is great screenwriting. The movie’s controversial topics don’t stop at the presence of Neo-Nazis in recent times – racial tensions, affirmative action, illegal immigrants, crime and poverty, gang violence, and prison treatment are all directly faced.
Well, I did a little research and here’s what I found out: the colorful and eclectic beach community is best known for its boardwalk and its counter-culture friendliness. It was founded as a resort city in 1905 by an entrepreneuring tobacco millionaire who had hoped to build a resort town on two miles stretch of beachfront property, modeled after Italy’s Venice. Canals, boardwalks, and piers were built. A popular tourist attraction from the very beginning, the population of Venice quickly expanded to the point where it joined the greater Los Angeles County in 1925. The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page on Venice:
“The city of Los Angeles had neglected Venice so long that it had become the "Slum by the Sea" by the 1950s. With the exception of new police and fire stations in 1930, the city spent little on improvements since annexation. The city did not pave Trolleyway (Pacific Avenue) until 1954 when county and state funds became available. Cheap rents for run-down bungalow housing attracted predominantly European immigrants (including a substantial number of Jewish refugees from Hitler's death camps), and young counter-cultural artists, poets and writers. The Beat Generation hung out at the Gas House on Ocean Front Walk and at Venice West Cafe on Dudley where they held poetry readings and smoked marijuana. Police raids were frequent as they tried to rid the community of "undesirables."”
Later on, as the area became more poverty-stricken and the divide between the wealthy and the poor became more apparent in Los Angeles County, Venice and Oakwood neighborhood (in local Venice) gave rise to gangs. Venice became such a breeding ground for gangs and gangsters. According to Wikipedia, to this day Culver City Boyz, Latino Venice 13, and Venice Shoreline Crips gangs are still active in Venice.
“It’s kind of sad in a way,” says Luis J. Rodriguez, author of the autobiographical Always Running: LA Vida Loca – Gang Days in L.A. “Chicanos have contributed a lot to these neighborhoods. For the most part, white people with money, they love their history, and they make sure everyone knows about it. But Chicanos don’t have the same resources to put that history down.” – Dennis Romero, “Gangster’s Paradise”
Racial tensions have always been high in Los Angeles County, the sometimes-explosive melting pot of different cultures and ethnicies. It would come as no surprise that a mention is made, but not much is known of a Venice gang called Venice White Boys – this could be an all-white gang that probably held racist views against other gangs of minorities, knowing that gangs tended to stay culturally and ethnically separate. A racist white gang on Venice? Maybe “American History X’s” Neo-Nazis on the Venice boardwalk does have some part in reality. The boardwalk is also known for its acceptance of counter-culture and social deviants, so Neo-Nazis might be comfortable there with their skinhead, heavy-metal, tattooed appearance. A lot of the most emotionally charged moments in the movie are actually reactions/commentary upon real-life events of Los Angeles in 1990s, such as the Rodney King incident. So, “American History X” is a fictional story but a lot of it does have actual basis in reality during the 1990s.
What of Venice today, though? The area has been undergoing extensive gentrification and clean-up, mainly due to the higher values of the property. Wealthier people have been coming in previously dilapidated neighborhoods of Venice and buying property. Many gangs, including Venice White Boys have either shrunk or completely disappeared. Today, due to increased police activity and the pushing of homies into inner city because of affordable housing, Venice Beach retains its eclectic multiculturalism and counter-culture friendliness but is now overrun by yuppies rather than gangsters.
“(Ruiz) points at a large, gleaming property across the street: ‘That used to be a black church. Now they made it into a white house.’” – Dennis Romero, “Gangster’s Paradise”
We’re left with the oddly picturesque beauty of Venice beach in the saturated sunset, its palm trees swaying to the breeze from the open ocean and the vibrant people of Venice populating the boardwalk. To best illustrate the optimistic stand of Venice’s melting pot tensions and history, I’ve chosen to close out this entry with the final lines of “American History X.”
“So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned - my conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it. Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like. 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.'” – Last lines of “American History X”
Citations:
Basic Venice information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_Beach
Dennis Romero’s article: http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=362&IssueNum=22
“American History X” Quotes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120586/quotes
