Freedom Writers
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 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Richard LaGravenese |
| Produced by | Danny DeVito Michael Shamberg Stacey Sher |
| Written by | Richard LaGravenese, based on The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell and her class. |
| Starring | Hilary Swank Patrick Dempsey Scott Glenn Imelda Staunton |
| Music by | Mark Isham, will.i.am, RZA |
| Cinematography | Jim Denault |
| Editing by | David Moritz |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | January 5, 2007 |
| Running time | 122 mins. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
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| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Freedom Writers is a 2007 American film starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey. It is based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell. The title is a play on both the terms of "Freedom Riders", the black and white civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961, and Freedom Fighters, as in somebody who fights for freedom.
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[edit] Plot
The opens with footage of the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and introduces Eva (April Lee Hernández), a Latina whose father was wrongly arrested for a drive-by shooting. She is initiated in a gang, and only goes to Wilson High School because her parole officer threatened her with boot camp. The Long Beach high school and its area are the place of a gang war, where hatred and racism abound. Meanwhile, naive first-time teacher Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) gets a job teaching freshman English at Wilson High School. Her first day at school is a shock to her, as she sees a fight almost break out in her classroom and a full scale gang battle at the school. Her students do not obey her and continously talk back to her
One night, Eva and a Cambodian refugee, Sindy (Jaclyn Ngan), find themselves in the same convenience store. Another student, Grant Rice (Armand Jones), is frustrated at losing an arcade game and demands a refund from the owner. When he storms out, Eva's boyfriend attempts a driveby shooting on him, accidentally killing Sindy's boyfriend. As Eva is a witness, she must testify at court; she intends to protect her own kind in her testimony.
At school, Gruwell intercepts a racist drawing of one of her students, and uses it to teach them about the Holocaust. She gradually begins to earn their trust, and buys them composition books to record a diary, in which they talk about their experiences being abused, seeing the friends die, and being evicted. Determined to reform her students, she takes two part-time jobs to pay for more books and spends more time at school, to the disappointment of her husband, Scott (Patrick Dempsey). Her students start to behave with respect and learn more, and a transformation is especially seen in one of her students, Marcus (Jason Finn). She invites several Holocaust survivors to talk with her class about their experiences, and takes them on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Meanwhile, her unorthodox teaching methods are scorned by her colleagues and department chair Margaret Campbell (Imelda Staunton). The next year comes, and Gruwell teaches her class again for sophomore year.
In class, when reading The Diary of a Young Girl, or Anne Frank's diary, they decide to invite Miep Gies over to talk to them. After fundraising the money to send her over, she tells them her experiences hiding Anne Frank. When Marcus tells her that she is his hero, she denies it, claiming she was merely doing the right thing. Her denial causes Eva to rethink lying during her testimony. When she testifies, she finally breaks down and tells the truth. Meanwhile, Gruwell gives her students a project to write their diary in the form of a book. She compiles the projects into a book and names it The Freedom Writer Diaries, after the Freedom Riders. Her husband divorces her, and Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. She fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to allow her to teach her kids' junior and senior year. The film ends with a note that Gruwell successfully brought many of her students to graduation and college.
[edit] Soundtrack
- See also: Freedom Writers (soundtrack)
Common has lent his talents to the soundtrack with "A Dream" (featuring will.i.am). The song was produced by Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am. The soundtrack also includes the Tupac Shakur song "Keep Ya Head Up".
Instrumental sections of Sia's "Breathe Me" accompany the film's television trailer.
[edit] Rating
This film was given a final rating of PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for violent content, some thematic material, and language.
[edit] Cast
- Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell
- Scott Glenn as Steve Gruwell
- Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey
- Imelda Staunton as Margaret Campbell
- April Lee Hernández as Eva Benitez
- Mario as Andre Bryant
- Kristin Herrera as Gloria
- Jaclyn Ngan as Sindy
- Sergio Montalvo as Alejandro
- Jason Finn as Marcus
- Deance Wyatt as Jamal
- Vanetta Smith as Brandy
- Gabriel Chavarria as Tito
- Hunter Parrish as Ben
- Antonio García as Miguel
- Giovonnie Samuels as Victoria
- John Benjamin Hickey as Brian Gelford
- Robert Wisdom as Dr. Carl Cohn
- Pat Carroll as Miep Gies
- Will Morales as Paco
- Oj Simpson as Pablo
[edit] Trivia
- A slight reference is made to the Showtime series Weeds when Hilary Swank asks the students, "Who knows where to get drugs" and Hunter Parrish, who is a regular on the show, steps on the line.
- The idea for the film came from journalist Tracey Durning, who made a documentary about Erin Gruwell for the ABC News program Primetime Live. Durning served as co-executive producer of the film.
[edit] See also
- One Eight Seven
- Dangerous Minds
- The Diary of Anne Frank
- Stand and Deliver
- Lean on Me
- The Principal
- Shackles
- Weeds
- The Ron Clark Story
[edit] External links
- Freedom Writers - Official Website
- Freedom Writers at the Internet Movie Database
- Freedom Writers Production Notes
- eFilmCritic.com interview with educator Erin Gruwell and real-life Freedom Writer Maria Reyes on "Freedom Writers"
- 69% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
- CelebrityWonder.com - Freedom Writers Trailers And Reviews
- 'Cinematical' interview with Erin Gruwell, Jason Finn, and Maria Reyes
- New York Times review of film
- Learning for a Cause, a Canadian educational organization of similar nature. Learning for a Cause has published a number of books written collectively in the classroom.
