Seeking retribution for his father's murder and burning a way to vent his rage, Derek finds himself transformed by a philosophy of hate as he turns into a charismatic leader of a local white power movement in Venice, California. . "Hooking up with a local white-power activist Cameron (Stacey Keach), he organizes a group of white kids into an organized mob who terrorize local non-white owned businesses." (Reich 1) The scariest and most convincing scenes are the ones in which we see the skinheads bonding. They"re led by Derek's brilliant speechmaking and fueled by drugs, beer, tattoos, heavy metal and the need all insecure people feel to belong to a movement greater than them. Derek center stage before his fellow gang members is protesting against America and their leniency towards the non-white societies. They felt cheated of their right to own and direct the country. These scenes illustrate the mob mentality, which is created by white power groups. Despite his .
undisputable intelligence, his incendiary actions culminate in a brutal murder and ultimately, a prison sentence.
Three years later, everyone awaits Derek's return: His mother Doris (Beverly D"Angelo) who prays for his safety; his girlfriend Stacey (Fairuza Balk) and his brother Danny who longs for his brother Derek's love and guidance yet is driven by his own increasing white supremacist hatred. Unbeknownst to Danny, Derek is a changed man. Fresh from prison, he no longer views hatred as a badge of honor. Ashamed of his past he is now in a race to save Danny and the Vinyard family from violence he brought down upon them. .
The film, written by David McKenna and directed by Tony Kaye, uses black and white to show the recent past, and color to show the 24-hour period after Derek is released from prison. Since the movie begins on the day of his release, black and white flashback scenes serve to reveal how Derek arrived in jail, and why Danny still idolizes his brother and the hate group he started.