Cast : Hillary Swank
Patrick Dempsey
April L Hernandez
Genre : Drama
Director : Richard LaGravenese
Rating : 7.5/10
Patrick Dempsey
April L Hernandez
Genre : Drama
Director : Richard LaGravenese
Rating : 7.5/10
I know the other members of Shit. Inc. would probably kill me for this, but I have decided to start shitty movies, our movie review blog, with a movie that’s far from shitty. “Freedom writers”, based on a true story, is one of the few based-on-a-true-story-movies that manage to remain believable without getting insanely boring. It conveys its message with style, intensity and excitement.
The movie describes the effect of racial identities and the ensuing friction on the lives of teenagers in a poor urban neighbourhood in America. The neighbourhood public school was converted into a multi-racial school as part of a government program to diversify the classrooms. The school’s academic performance, along with its reputation, takes a big hit and the teacher’s blame it squarely on the inclusion of students from other ethnic backgrounds. However, the new English teacher steps up to convert her class from semi-literate gang members to highly motivated and responsible young adults with the courage to choose the right path. In the process, the students end up writing a book based upon their struggles.
The movie is extremely successful in capturing a teenager’s feelings of racial identity, and provides a good depiction of their possible adverse impacts. It also gives a (hopefully exaggerated) view of the racial divide in America. The importance of a teacher’s role in shaping young minds is strongly underscored, and perhaps teachers would be reminded to put a little bit more effort before giving up on students (Of course, it’s too late to help any of us but maybe some innocent minds somewhere will be saved from turning into shit). The movie has few flaws and those that are there are fairly forgivable. Some of the scenes have been overdramatized, and some characters, especially those of the other teachers in the school are oversimplified and sketchy. Also, a lot of the character sketches seem to rigidly follow established stereotypes. However, this does little to reduce the movie’s overall appeal. A must watch.
By the way, Hillary Swank does a fabulous job as the English teacher, and portrays her passion and her difficulties beautifully. Also manages to look fairly beautiful...
The movie describes the effect of racial identities and the ensuing friction on the lives of teenagers in a poor urban neighbourhood in America. The neighbourhood public school was converted into a multi-racial school as part of a government program to diversify the classrooms. The school’s academic performance, along with its reputation, takes a big hit and the teacher’s blame it squarely on the inclusion of students from other ethnic backgrounds. However, the new English teacher steps up to convert her class from semi-literate gang members to highly motivated and responsible young adults with the courage to choose the right path. In the process, the students end up writing a book based upon their struggles.
The movie is extremely successful in capturing a teenager’s feelings of racial identity, and provides a good depiction of their possible adverse impacts. It also gives a (hopefully exaggerated) view of the racial divide in America. The importance of a teacher’s role in shaping young minds is strongly underscored, and perhaps teachers would be reminded to put a little bit more effort before giving up on students (Of course, it’s too late to help any of us but maybe some innocent minds somewhere will be saved from turning into shit). The movie has few flaws and those that are there are fairly forgivable. Some of the scenes have been overdramatized, and some characters, especially those of the other teachers in the school are oversimplified and sketchy. Also, a lot of the character sketches seem to rigidly follow established stereotypes. However, this does little to reduce the movie’s overall appeal. A must watch.
By the way, Hillary Swank does a fabulous job as the English teacher, and portrays her passion and her difficulties beautifully. Also manages to look fairly beautiful...
