![]() So, Gruwell modified her syllabus to educate her students on the history of racial feuds in the world. ![]() She compared the racist remark to Nazi propaganda and was surprised to learn that only one of her students knew of the Holocaust. Gruwell’s desire to effect change sparked after she found several students ridiculing their classmate’s race. I was basically this new teacher given the students that nobody else wanted.” It happened to the kids I ended up teaching because I had all the kids who were busted, kids who had learning disabilities and kids had trouble with the law. “What I found, because I was brand new and I didn’t live in the city, was that there was a lot of intrinsic separation and masked racism. Erin talked to PBS SoCal about her group of students: She taught a diverse group of students, many of whom came from supportive families and a few who’d endured sexual abuse, domestic violence, and homelessness. The problem in the dialogue was not in its simplicity, but in its monotony.Erin Gruwell arrived at Woodrow Wilson High School in 1994 as a student-teacher. Classroom scenes need to be amped up and given a boost of pizzazz – or even just better dialogue. With a two hour running time, “Freedom Writers” really feels much longer. The ugly: The film is one of the most slowly moving movies of this year. If “Freedom Writers” is a truly great film, the same intensity showed by racism would have been carried through the film by other driving forces. The first third of the movie is full of racial tension and, although the tension’s eventually lost, the intensity dies with it. Also, the intensity of the film wavered throughout. Although these scenes helped with character development, there could have been some added scenes that developed characters more thoroughly while sticking to the central theme a little better. The bad: The main place where “Freedom Writers” went wrong was by having scenes that did not contribute to the overall message of the film. While some came across as over-the-top, many were really touching and made the experience worthwhile. One of the best parts of “Freedom Writers” is the number of emotional scenes. She seemed like she was, unfortunately, acting the part.Īs the movie progressed though, more specifically at the start of her first monologue, there was a change in both her attitude as an actor, her character as a teacher, and the audience’s reaction to the film. Hilary Swank, playing the part of a teacher named Erin Gruwell, managed to do just that in “Freedom Writers.” As the movie started, she seemed too fake in her portrayal of a real-life person. The good: While first impressions are always the best, sometimes actors can overcome a weak beginning to a film by creating a strong middle and end. Let’s use the “Sergio Leone” method of evaluation. It is a true message that the film sometimes overlooks in order to add senseless scenes to help create “emotion.” While not everything in “Freedom Writers” is perfect, the emotions and overall acting are done, for the most part, superbly. The basic concept behind “Freedom Writers” is that even underprivileged inner-city youth deserve the same opportunities that suburban white kids do. “Freedom Writers” does for the 2000’s what “Stand and Deliver” did for the 1980’s except with less fun, not as many life lessons, and more drama. “Freedom Writers” Directed by Richard LaGravenese Rated PG-13 Grade: B.
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