You may have noticed that the two films about teachers teaching students that come from harsh backgrounds have one thing in common. That is because those two movies are part of the genre called Hood Films. Typically, Hood Films deal with life that involves around Hispanic or African Americans that mostly includes gang violence or bad living situations. Freedom Writers is probably up there among best Teacher movies and having a diversifying view about Hood life.
1. Erin Gruwell
My first exposure to the film was during my Eighth Grade English class when I was in middle school. I forgot the reason why the teacher put it on, but I assume it was a lazy kind of day, so we watched it. It was a sight to see when the students were talking and immediately grew quiet as they were glued in with what the film was about. Hillary Swank plays the teacher Ms. Erin Gruwell.
We first see her as being an optimistic teacher who goes into Woodrow Wilson High. She then meets the Department head Margaret. I know that the actress plays an annoying professor at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. At least she is type casted in a “Karen” teacher role. Anyways, Erin sees the high school as deeply divided. With various cliques aligning with different ethnicities.
She enters her class and isn’t that turned off when she encounters the room as being in disarray. Even the desks have deep cuts of drawings. Like with any movie, the kids don’t listen to her and joke around. She really gets a handle of how bad it is, when one of her students Eva, lets in her gang to fight a kid who walked by them.
Throughout the film, Erin goes above and beyond to change her teaching style and to really be invested with the kids. I feel that this is the definitive way of any new teacher dealing with an bad social environment, which mostly involves students wanting to instigate violence among other students. She tries to be hip with the class, not that it comes across as cringy, but it works that she’s attempting to relate to them.
Obviously, the best scene involving Erin and the class is when they pass around an offensive drawing of a classmate. She asserts herself and says that most of the stuff that they believe in is nothing since they think by force is how they get respect. Gruwell even attests that no one will remember them based on their actions. Even comparing the drawing to Nazi propaganda.
It’s from there that the film really starts. That conversation really gets the ball rolling, including the whole class not knowing what the Holocaust was. What I love is that the film is real, granted yes that it is a movie. What I mean is that, the film doesn’t shy away with what the kids go through. Or what Erin goes through in her personal life. There are moments where his husband, starts to get jealous at Erin’s successes.
The whole movie has Gruwell going up against so much that it’s a recurring motif. Such as her class ruffling the feathers on Margaret and the Honors teacher. Since they see Erin’s students as lost causes. The key thing is that she genuinely cares about them and even exposes them to new literature and going above and beyond to give them more. Since I’m slowly pivoting to the class, let’s talk about them.
2. The Students at Room 203
These students are the main highlights in the film. I honestly thought that the student Eva was going to be our only perspective to life outside school. Luckily, the students provide their brief perspectives to us as they write and narrate on what they have to deal with. I know that the book goes into more detail and I have not read that yet. The main idea about them is that they’re not that different from each other.
It’s stressed when Ms. Gruwell creates a Line Game for them to answer questions that hits home for all of them. For the kids, all the talk of turf or any form of divide is done away when they’re all dealing with the same thing. One of my favorite moments involves her reading their journals after no parent visited during parent teacher night. She reads them, and we see just how much of an unfortunate life the kids go through daily.
All that leads to Erin taking the kids to the Holocaust Museum. Most of the kids learn about it, and really put it into perspective that all the things they’re dealing with is nothing compared to what happened a century ago. Even more admirable is that they generated enough money to bring in the woman who sheltered Anne Frank. All of that from Erin teaching them about humility and to be open about what their life experiences are for their classmates. The only downside is that most of the student actors are about 20. Although, I’ll let it slide since they give in a good performance and to really sell the struggle of what they constantly go through.
3. Overall
Freedom Writers is a feelgood movie for anyone to watch. It’s rare to have an MTV Films movie be good, since the stuff they churn out mostly involves cheesy dramas and Jackass movies. The film invites teachers and potential ones to see that not all students are problem makers.
Freedom Writers gets a four out of five.
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