"Freedom Writers", a movie produced by Paramount and released on January 5, 2007, was one of the best films I have seen in a long time. It challenges a lot of what we know to be a true family, and makes us think upon the preconceived ideas we have centered around race. The actors and producers did a wonderfully accurate portrayal of racial issues existing within American and Canadian school systems alike.
The movie is based on the true accounts of the teacher Erin Gruwell, who moves from the safety of her residence in Newport Beach, to the crime-filled streets of Long Beach, California. It revolves around her recollection of the events that occurred with the first two years of her teaching at the school, and the recorded journals of the students in her English 9-10 class.
The film follows the life of a reform school teacher and the challenges that she faces as she struggles to teach and build a connection with the students in the class. The first day she arrives there, she is filled with optimism about teaching the integration class. This is due the fact that her father was involved in many activist programs, and she was brought-up being told that everyone could do good when given the chance. The vice principal warns her of the great challenges she has ahead of her and that it will not be an easy task. Though she remains confident, there is a hint of uncertainty in the air when she enters the class. Fights brake out amongst the students and there social clicks, everyone divides themselves in accordance to their race. Her positivity soon fades to stress and dispair as reality sinks-in.
During one of her English classes, she has a melt-down infront of the students when one of them draws a racist portrait of an African American student and passes it around the class behind the teachers back. This then sparks an uproar that throws them into a discussion about the Nazi party of Germany and then the Holocaust. When the teacher is finished speaking, everyone is silent until one of the students quietly raises his hand and asks the teacher what the Holocaust was. This gives the teacher the idea of teaching them about the events of World War Two through reading the "The Diary of Anne Frank", and by latter taking them to a museum on the Holocaust.
One of the favorite parts in the movie is when she divides the classroom in half by placing a strip of duct-tape across the floor. She tells the students that they are going to play a little game called "the line game." She begins asking them simple trivial question like who bought the latest "Snoop Dog" CD, and asking them to step on the line if the question applies to them. With each succeeding question, they become more and more personal.
She asked them if anyone has ever lost a friend to gang violence; all of them step on the line. She continues by asking if anyone has ever lost two friends do to gang violence; only a few students step off the line, the rest of them stay. She works her way up through the numbers from three to four or more friends being lost to gang violence. She watches silently as ten or so students remain on the line. Then she tells the students to offer their respect and honor those lost companions by saying the names of them out loud. The classroom is filled with the sound of all the lives taken away from them due to gang violence. All the students become emotional as they realise just how similar they really are to each other, and for that moment, race only becomes the overlying scenes, not something that divides them but unites them all.
This movie is not like any other movie I have seen before. It has a deeper meaning to it that states something far greater than other movie can seem to describe. It makes us reconsider what we believe to be a family, as the students break their barriers and build a closer scence of trust for one another.
The quality of the film is very well done. The only thing I found to be confusing in the film were the voice-overs. They seemed to work contradictory to the scenes at different points of the film. Sometimes it was hard to find-out who was doing the "thinking out loud" as it clichéd with what the student was doing at the time. The one that really stood-out to me was the one that was done with Ben (one of the students) towards the first half of the movie. It is hard to tell if it is him that is doing the talking, as his movements don't seem to match what he is saying. In other words, he didn't seem that he was thinking too hard about anything from a visual point of view. Most of the scenes where voice-overs had been implemented did seem to do a fairly good job of conveying the character's inner thoughts, but for the select few that it didn't, it almost makes you want to question if they were ever needed in the first place.
All in all, I really enjoyed watching this movie and would highly recommend it to anyone that has ever had to deal with issues of race eghther at school or in their home community. It would be a good movie for teachers to give to their students to watch as a class, as long as it is approved by the school's administrator as the type of language used and words spoken in this film are questionable, depending on what age group you are showing it to. If the book is anything like the movie, which in most situations they usually are, then I would suggest picking-up a copy of the book before you watch the movie (for those of you that like to read) if not, then the movie shouldn't be all that hard to follow anyway. So, on a scale of one to ten, I would rate this film at around a "nine point one" because it is a truly inspirational film. So, what are you waiting for? Go see it now!
End of second blog - (&.&) [pleas tell me I spelled "clichéd" right?
I'm suposed to be good at french... how embarising (-.-)''
The movie is based on the true accounts of the teacher Erin Gruwell, who moves from the safety of her residence in Newport Beach, to the crime-filled streets of Long Beach, California. It revolves around her recollection of the events that occurred with the first two years of her teaching at the school, and the recorded journals of the students in her English 9-10 class.
The film follows the life of a reform school teacher and the challenges that she faces as she struggles to teach and build a connection with the students in the class. The first day she arrives there, she is filled with optimism about teaching the integration class. This is due the fact that her father was involved in many activist programs, and she was brought-up being told that everyone could do good when given the chance. The vice principal warns her of the great challenges she has ahead of her and that it will not be an easy task. Though she remains confident, there is a hint of uncertainty in the air when she enters the class. Fights brake out amongst the students and there social clicks, everyone divides themselves in accordance to their race. Her positivity soon fades to stress and dispair as reality sinks-in.
During one of her English classes, she has a melt-down infront of the students when one of them draws a racist portrait of an African American student and passes it around the class behind the teachers back. This then sparks an uproar that throws them into a discussion about the Nazi party of Germany and then the Holocaust. When the teacher is finished speaking, everyone is silent until one of the students quietly raises his hand and asks the teacher what the Holocaust was. This gives the teacher the idea of teaching them about the events of World War Two through reading the "The Diary of Anne Frank", and by latter taking them to a museum on the Holocaust.
One of the favorite parts in the movie is when she divides the classroom in half by placing a strip of duct-tape across the floor. She tells the students that they are going to play a little game called "the line game." She begins asking them simple trivial question like who bought the latest "Snoop Dog" CD, and asking them to step on the line if the question applies to them. With each succeeding question, they become more and more personal.
She asked them if anyone has ever lost a friend to gang violence; all of them step on the line. She continues by asking if anyone has ever lost two friends do to gang violence; only a few students step off the line, the rest of them stay. She works her way up through the numbers from three to four or more friends being lost to gang violence. She watches silently as ten or so students remain on the line. Then she tells the students to offer their respect and honor those lost companions by saying the names of them out loud. The classroom is filled with the sound of all the lives taken away from them due to gang violence. All the students become emotional as they realise just how similar they really are to each other, and for that moment, race only becomes the overlying scenes, not something that divides them but unites them all.
This movie is not like any other movie I have seen before. It has a deeper meaning to it that states something far greater than other movie can seem to describe. It makes us reconsider what we believe to be a family, as the students break their barriers and build a closer scence of trust for one another.
The quality of the film is very well done. The only thing I found to be confusing in the film were the voice-overs. They seemed to work contradictory to the scenes at different points of the film. Sometimes it was hard to find-out who was doing the "thinking out loud" as it clichéd with what the student was doing at the time. The one that really stood-out to me was the one that was done with Ben (one of the students) towards the first half of the movie. It is hard to tell if it is him that is doing the talking, as his movements don't seem to match what he is saying. In other words, he didn't seem that he was thinking too hard about anything from a visual point of view. Most of the scenes where voice-overs had been implemented did seem to do a fairly good job of conveying the character's inner thoughts, but for the select few that it didn't, it almost makes you want to question if they were ever needed in the first place.
All in all, I really enjoyed watching this movie and would highly recommend it to anyone that has ever had to deal with issues of race eghther at school or in their home community. It would be a good movie for teachers to give to their students to watch as a class, as long as it is approved by the school's administrator as the type of language used and words spoken in this film are questionable, depending on what age group you are showing it to. If the book is anything like the movie, which in most situations they usually are, then I would suggest picking-up a copy of the book before you watch the movie (for those of you that like to read) if not, then the movie shouldn't be all that hard to follow anyway. So, on a scale of one to ten, I would rate this film at around a "nine point one" because it is a truly inspirational film. So, what are you waiting for? Go see it now!
End of second blog - (&.&) [pleas tell me I spelled "clichéd" right?
I'm suposed to be good at french... how embarising (-.-)''
