No happy ending
I didn't see this movie when it first came out, in fact I saw it for the first time about fifteen years after it was released. So I saw it on DVD. I typically don't watch a lot of movies about the neo-Nazi movement, so never got around to this one for quite a while. I still haven't seen Romper-Stomper, probably will get it on DVD at some point.
The movies starts with the two main characters Danny and Derek's loosing their father to drug dealers who shot him and happen to be black. This causes the two sons to go down the racist path with fairly extreme views.
A short time later Derek the elder brother kills some black men trying to steal his truck. He is sent to prison for voluntary manslaughter. While serving time in prison he ultimately befriends a fellow inmate whom is black and realises that the path he had chosen can only end in tragedy. This results in him becoming a changed man and renouncing his white supremacists beliefs.
After he is released from prison he finds that his younger brother is headed down the same path and does what he can to teach his the brother the flaws of this path. He manages to convince his brother to leave the neo-Nazi party where he was once also a member.
Unfortunately even after you have left a party that has hatred and violence at its core it does tend to take some time for the word to spread. A party like that tends to attract retaliation. Especially when you were right in the middle of the violence and hatred. Unfortunately Danny is ambushed the next day after arriving at school, the ambush results in Danny's death.
This film doesn't soften any of the violence in it, which means it is definitely an R rated movie as a result. It does make a statement about racial violence and how it can lead to a downward spiral that only has one place to go. It also shows that change in a person is possible. Edward Norton does an amazing job of bringing the character to life, one of his best performances.