Goofs for
American History X (1998)

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• Continuity: When the police officer is pulling Derek off the ground after the shooting, he has his right arm over Derek's chest. In the next shot, he has his left arm, and then in the next shot his right arm again. (This is the second flashback to this incident, occurring about 1 hour into the film.)
  
  
• Boom mic visible: When the head of the History department is telling Danny that he has to do a report on his brother, the reflection of the boom mic is clearly visible in the glass window of a cabinet behind the History head's head.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Camera operator reflected in the coffeehouse window.
  
  

• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the two brothers are sitting in the bedroom, when the younger brother gets up off the bed, you hear him talking to his older brother but his lips are clearly not moving.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Shadow of camera visible on Seth when he and Derek walk together during Malcolm's party.
  
  
• Continuity: When Danny is hanging around the basketball courts, his backpack slides off his shoulder onto the ground. In the next shot, it is back on his shoulder.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening scene Derek fires more than 20 shots without reloading from a gun that could hold no more than 15 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Danny is printing his essay, the ink-jet printer makes a dot-matrix sound.
  
  
• Continuity: While Sweeney is at the prison infirmary, he is playing with his beard in the close-ups, but not in the wider shots.
  
  
• Continuity: Derek has his top button buttoned when the doors open to exit is cell. Once out of the cell, the button is unbuttoned.
  
  
• Continuity: Position of Bob Sweeny's hands during conversation with Derek after the attack in the shower.
  
  
• Continuity: When Murray leaves Dr. Sweeney's office, the clock in the lobby shows 8:10. In the next shot, the clock shows 8:20.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The shadow of the handheld camera falls several on the basketball players.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When we see a close-up of Danny's hands while he is typing his final draft, he never hits the space bar.
  
  
• Continuity: The first time when Derek was stacking the sheets, he threw a stack of sheets onto the shelf behind him, where they lay all disorganized. In the next few seconds, the sheets that had been thrown keep changing positions, and the piles of sheets on the table change positions between shots.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: When the kid is having a meeting with the principal, the mic is reflected in the picture behind the principal's head.
  
  
• Continuity: During the riot at the mini-mart, someone throws a cash-register through an office window. In the shot before the throw, the glass is reinforced. When the register goes through the window, it is not.
  
  
• Continuity: Derek forces the victim to bite the curb before smashing his head. After this incident, you can see the victim in an all together different position in the background as Derek walks away.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Derek tells Cameron he and his brother are out, the reflection of the cameraman is clearly visible.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When its the black vs. white basketball game, Derek makes a shot and then Seth says, "Should've passed it to me I was wide open." What he says doesn't match what his lips said.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Murray is eating at the Vineyards and says, "Its an expression of rage by people who feel neglected...etc" Derek drops his fork on the plate, but in the next shot he is holding it again.
  
  
• Continuity: During the basketball game, a member of the crowd is present and then is not there between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the beginning of the film, when Derek runs out of the house and finishes shooting at the black thief stealing his father's truck, in slow motion he turns around facing the camera, with the gun still in the same hand he was using to fire it. Later on in the movie, when this scene is replayed from a different shot, he turns around and puts the gun in his other hand.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the end of the film, when Derek and Danny are outside of the school, there is a man in the background with a green handkerchief on his head sitting. As shots alternate, he is standing speaking with a group of people, and then sitting alone again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Danny is pulling his Nazi memorabilia out from his wooden box a knife appears on the bed that was never pulled out of the box.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: While the group is walking to the supermarket after Derek’s speech, you can see a shadow of the Steadicam on the road.
  
  
• Continuity: When the family is fighting around the dinner table and it gets so bad that everybody is standing and yelling at each other, Derek's mom pulls on his shirt, opening up several snaps or buttons. When the scene is ending, Derek opens up his shirt by pulling it open quickly, but all of the buttons or snaps are closed again for this effect.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the news interview following Daniel Vinyard's father's death, it is stated that he was an LA County Firefighter. In the flashback scene with his father at the breakfast table, you can clearly see that Dennis Vinyard has an eagle on the badge. The Los Angeles County Fire Department has a bear on the badge. The Los Angeles Fire Department has an eagle.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first flashback where Derek has fired at the car and is returning to the guy he shot, he leans down with the pistol in his hand, as if to pistol-whip the guy. In the second flashback, it shows the same scene with Derek approaching but this time, when he gets to the guy, he just drags him into the street.
  
  
• Continuity: As Derek and Danny are leaving the coffee shop, you can see Daniel hands are empty when he tells Sweeney he'll have the paper ready, however a moment later, Danny has a bag and a drink in his hands.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: After Danny is shot, we see his essay "fly" out from his hand and to the right of his body. When Derek goes into the bathroom there's a close-up of the paper on the same side of his body, but after we see Dr. Sweeney and then go back to Derek and Danny, the essay moves to the left of Danny's body.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Danny is shot he drops his "American History X" essay, but a few shots later he's lying on the ground holding it. When Derek enters, it's back on the floor again.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: In the closing scene in the bathroom, when the camera looks up from the floor at Derek holding his brother, some kind of equipment can be seen disappearing off the top right corner of the screen.
  
  

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