American History X had a very tumultuous post-production, ending with the director leaving the film and wanting his name taken off. He has disowned the film as Edward Norton supervised editing, adding over 20 minutes of footage that director Tony Kaye detested.

Based on an early workprint, this edit aims to recut and rearrange the film using this preliminary cut for reference, and present what the director's original intention could have been had he not clashed with the studio.

This is simply a different way of looking at the film, chronologically from beginning to end. All narrations by Danny and Derek have also been removed. It’s not intended to be superior to the original.