Movies

Freedom Writers Review

Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwall, a young teacher with a passion to educate. She chooses an inner city school (just after the 1992 LA riots) for her placement with the intention of making a difference. She is quickly challenged by her students, who hate her more than they do each other.

 

She tries several different things to reach out to them and eventually succeeds, teaching them about the Holocaust and helping her students to recognize that despite their differences (Black, Hispanic or Asian), they all face the same struggles. Along the way, she fights other educators, the school system and the students themselves.

 

The cynic in me says that this movie was ‘Dangerous Game’ all over again. A teacher comes to a school filled with troubled teens and helps them turn their difficult lives around. The students go to great lengths to succeed and the story is very uplifting. Despite this, the movie is quite good, especially considering most of the students are real inner city kids, not actors.