Freedom Writers

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Freedom Writers

88% Liked It
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Freedom Writers

April Lee Hernandez, Dre Bowie, Hilary Swank, Hunter Parrish, Imelda Staunton

A dedicated California teacher finds a way to unify her disadvantaged, racially divided students and to improve their grasp of academics, partly by having them keep journals about their violent, troub...( read more  read more... )led lives.

Id: 4680893

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Freedom Writers Recent Reviews
  • organgrinder136
    December 12, 2009
    organgrinder136
    similar to coach carter but not quite as good. can't help loving hilary swank though. there's something about it that doesn't really connect with the audience... it skirts over things... and some scenes seem a little too good to be true. i know it's based around a true story but ...( read more)there must be some dramatic inserts!
  • binky013
    August 17, 2009
    binky013
    Wow . . .

    So, she has FOUR sections of English . . . Ah, so what happened to the other three? . . .

    But I really do digress. Hollywood, you know how it goes.

    It's always a conundrum for me, keeping in mind that a particular movie is "based on true events." While I'm w

    ...( read more)atching one of these, I always have to double-check my reaction sequence while moving through the Hollywood-ed write-up of the "true."

    This one . . . I don't even know quite where to start -- so, I'll start here:

    The-inspiring-teacher movie is a genre that has a long and deep history, and this I do know:

    Unless you've actually faced a classroom of students, it might be hard to calibrate your BS detector for stories like this. Fortunately however, for better or for worse, most of us have actually been students in a class taught by some kind of teacher, so there is a pretty good residual BS detection inbred in all of us former and/or current students, in all of us who've ever been taught by the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

    No movie I've seen in the-inspiring-teacher category has ever put me through such an emotional roller-coaster. I couldn't help but wonder about Hollywood storytelling vs. lived experience throughout this very well-played, highly emotional movie.

    In the end, despite any qualms I might have as a former teacher thinking about the real world of lived experience in the classroom, I still do have an enormous reservoir of optimism about what can be accomplished in the classroom to help everyone, regardless of their circumstances, come to a better place.

    No matter how you might feel about the scripting at times, everybody please keep in mind that this is actually a sketch of a true, real-life story. I have to admit that I shed many tears all the way through.

    If this isn't the best inspiring-teacher movie ever made, it's definitely right up there. A must-see if you still do believe that the world can always be a better place.

    As an aside: Poor Imelda Staunton. At this rate she will surely become a victim of type-casting.
  • SilentWarProductions2009
    January 20, 2009
    SilentWarProductions2009
    Directed by: Richard LaGravenese.
    Starring: Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, April Lee Hernandez.

    << "I sat there until the police came. But when they come, all they see is a dead body, a gun, and a nigger. They took me ...( read more)to juvenile hall. First night was the scariest. Inmates banging on the walls, throwing up gang signs, yelling out who they were and where they from. I cried my first night. I never let anybody know that. I spent the next few years in and out of cells. Every day I worry, when will I be free?" >>

    I'll admit it, I never really had an urge to see this, the marketing, the plot, it all sounded all too familiar and clichéd and seemed like a 'Dangerous Minds' for the new millennium...and I'll be honest...yes, its familiar, no doubt about that, but what can you expect, from such a known idea, to say that has already been set in stone as 'familiar'? Freedom Writers take cliché and raises questions you would never expect to see raised, it never disrespects, it never discriminates, it raises worldwide questions about all races, religions and lives and answers them with true heart and sincerity and took me by surprise.

    The story follows a young newcomer at teaching who takes that role in an inner-city school, divided by race. She has no previous experience in teaching and soon sees the terrible violence and division in the classroom. Out of sheer heart, she applies herself to these kids and finds a way to communicate to these kids and teaches them about tolerance, about respect outside of 'their own' and about applying themselves in everything they do.

    Wow...I never thought I'd give a high rating to this, but there's reason. I won't go into a deep and never-ending debate about 'white women teaching colored people about respect?' (if the teacher was colored, would that change the view of the film?), instead, I'll review the film.

    What hit me hard was the aim and how director/writer Richard LaGravenese tackled the films questions. Of course, the props go to the real 'Freedom Writers' and Erin Gruwell for their truth, but with Richard LaGravenese's taut direction and solid structure, questions are raised without force and each character is given humanity and a story to tell and no one is left behind...and with real heart and sincerity at the core of the film, it creates emotion naturally and never resorts to another sort of 'cliché' by acting sentimental to get the audience to go teary eyed, they poured down my face naturally.

    The acting adds another level of intensity to the film, each actor tackles there character with power and many unknowns surprise, it's not just Hilary Swank with her great energy and dedication to the role, or Imelda Staunton showing herself as a hard hitter in every role including this one, it's the rest. You have April Lee Hernandez, in her first feature role, who shows charisma and guts to give it her all, Mario, an R'n'B singer, who you would never think could act any better then his music (personal opinion), he shows a lot of potential by adding more than a face to the role, there are so many in that one classroom who have so much potential as actors, that with another 10 years of right choices, they could be the next generation of top actors.

    I know many of you will not see this and I can see why. As formulaic and clichéd as it may be, it is overpowered by heart and respect. It is also surprising at how brilliantly made it is and how the common questions raised in the film have added meaning and range. I am pleased to say that it is a masterpiece in its own right. The film will continue to be overlooked, thanks the marketing and the plot, but I am telling you now that if you see it in DVD stores, don't pass it, do yourself a favor and pick it up, you shouldn't be disappointed.

    86/100

    << "My brother taught me what the life is for a young black man. Pimp, deal, whatever. Learn what colors to wear. Gang banners. You can sell to one corner, but you can't sell another. Learn to be quiet. The wrong word can get you popped." >>
  • mrpopcorn
    September 25, 2008
    mrpopcorn
    Erin Gruwell: "You know what this is? This is a Fuck You to me and everyone in this class. I don't want excuses. I know what you're up against. We're all of us up against something. So you better make up your mind, because until you have the balls to look me straight in the ey...( read more)e and tell me this is all you deserve, I am not letting you fail. Even if that means coming to your house every night until you finish the work. I see who you are. Do you understand me? I can see you. And you are not failing."

    Assigned the thankless task of teaching freshman English at a gang-infested Long Beach, CA high school, a 23-year-old teacher resorts to unconventional means of breaking through to her hardened students in director Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of Erin Gruwell's best-seller The Freedom Writer's Diaries: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. Her students had been written off, and her chances of succeeding scoffed at, but Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) wasn't about to go down without a fight. Long Beach is a place where a new war is waged with each passing day, and when the hardened students who walk those dangerous hallways sense an outsider attempting to understand their plight, their cynical resentment threatens to keep a deadly cycle in motion. Despite the initially hostile reaction she receives in the classroom, Gruwell uses the writings of Anne Frank and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo to teach her students not only the basis of the English language, but compassion and tolerance as well. Later, when the time comes to tell their own tales in a project specially designed to explore the daily violence that the majority of students have grown numb to, the barriers that had once stood so strong gradually begin to crumble. When the only chance for survival is to befriend the person who was once your mortal enemy, the world is opened to a whole new realm of possibilities.

    I am not usually one to be impressed by movies about race because the topic seems to be talked and talked and talked to death these days. However I found Freedom Writers to be extremely moving and a great movie all around. One of those movies while where you are watching it you wouldn't mind if it lasted 6 hrs instead of just 2. I would tell anyone and everyone its a good movie, worth your money for sure. It had good acting and a great plot line to boot. Not only was there some serious moments that really sucked you in, but there was also a bit of humor here or there to keep the movie from becoming too somber. I would highly suggest to anyone and everyone that this is a movie that is completely worth your time and money.

    4/5
  • cowmageddon
    July 23, 2008
    cowmageddon
    Every time I see a movie like this I wonder to my self, Would I rather be the teacher to inspire or the student who gets inspired? Other than that I learned that minorites hate each other just as much as any white racial group.
  • tiggerpoohroberts
    December 14, 2009
    tiggerpoohroberts
    I love this movie,because it shows us what all of kids were going in their life and really makes us think about our lifes
  • 339z
    December 12, 2009
    339z
    well umn just seen this movie 4 the 1st time n think that this is a good movie 2 watch...its got a good cast of actors/actressess throughout this movie...i think that patrick dempsey, pat carroll, larry cahn, hunter parrish, imelda staunton, jennifer camacho, april lee hernandez,...( read more) dre bowie, hilary swank play good roles/parts throughout this movie...i think that the director of this drama/re-make had done a good job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie...i think that this is a really powerful drama movie 2 watch with a good cast thorughout this movie
  • daryiagrant
    December 8, 2009
    daryiagrant
    very touching i don't understand y races was split up like dat
  • navinpai
    December 6, 2009
    navinpai
    A nice true story that shows how history is used to bring together people of a school which has been split on racial lines, and the attempts of a teacher who helps them understand that the world is much bigger than they imagine, all the while losing grip of her own relationship w...( read more)ith her husband!!

    The story is great, but I felt it could have been a little more in depth (even if the movie was longer, I wouldn't have minded!!)

    Still I'd recommend you watch it!!
  • kayle6671
    December 1, 2009
    kayle6671
    I can watch this movie over and over, this is one powerful movie and I have facilitated our departments JPD & APD for our movie forum classes, I learn something new each time I teach our diversity classes. Great movie highly recommended for everyone.
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