American History X, 1998
Director
Tony KayeCast
visit the film locations
Los Angeles: Flights: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Trivia
See Venice High School as ‘Rydell High’ in Grease
Johnie’s sleek 50s ‘Googie’ style can be seen in the Coens’ The Big Lebowski and in Reservoir Dogs. It takes a central roe in apocalyptic thriller Miracle Mile
American History X location: Stopping off for a last coffee: Johnie’s, Wilshire Boulevard, midtown Los Angeles
Controversy when Ed Norton allegedly re-edited the film to increase his role, and director Tony Kaye all but disowned the film. But it's undeniably Norton's fiercely intelligent performance that makes the movie.
Derek Vinyard (Norton) finds his White Supremacist past hard to shake off and, when his younger brother Daniel (Edward Furlong) heads down the same racist path, tragedy follows.
The neighbourhood of the Vinyard family is Venice Beach, Los Angeles’ Bohemian beachfront community increasingly troubled by gang-related problems.
Daniel Vinyard’s ‘Venice Beach High’ is Venice High School, 13000 Venice Boulevard, Venice (which was seen previously in happier circumstances as 'Rydell High' in Grease).
American History X location: Tragic climax at the high school: Venice High School, Venice Boulevard, Venice Beach, Los Angeles
Oddly, for inhabitants of Venice Beach, Derek and Daniel stop off, on the way to Venice High, at Johnie's Coffee Shop, 6101 Wilshire Boulevard at Fairfax Avenue, opposite the golden cylinder of the old May and Co department store in midtown Los Angeles. Johnie's closed down in 2000 and is now, unbelievably, yet one more Los Angeles landmark in need of conservation.
This streamlined, Googie-style Fifties coffee shop, which started life as Romeo’s Times Square, is where Anthony Edwards receives news of the impending apocalypse in the underrated thriller Miracle Mile, and features in both The Big Lebowski and Reservoir Dogs.
