Freedom Writers: an emotionally moving film.

Freedom Writers is an emotionally moving film directed by Richard LaGravenese, it was released in theatres on January 5, 2007 and was out on DVD May 22, 2007. Some of the main characters in this movie are, Erin Gruwell, played by Hilary Swank, Scott Casey, played by Patrick Dempsey, whom you may know from Grey’s Anatomy , Steve Gruwell, played by Scott Glen, Andre, played by Mario, the singer, and Eva, played by April L Hernandez.
This movie is about a young woman named Erin Gruwell who went to a school to teach a class full of different races, who were said to be ‘delinquents,’ Erin struggled to educate them because all they were focused on was fighting with each other in class and staying alive. After Erin broke the ice, she bought all of the students a journal to record their thoughts, stories, poems, and lyrics. The children loved this idea and were writing in their journals every day. As the movie progressed, the children started to become a whole group instead of separating themselves according to race and they began to read The Diary of Anne Frank as a class, they enjoyed the novel and discovered that Anne was just like them, she also had to struggle to stay alive. At the end of the movie, the end of sophomore year came and the children publish their journals into a book, called the Freedom Writers.As the year came closer to an end, the children asked Erin if she was going to be teaching them again during junior year, the children were upset to find out she wouldn’t be, so she took her case to the department of education. The end of the film is very rewarding.
A movie that is similar to Freedom Writers is Coach Carter. This movie is about Ken Carter, played by Samuel L Jackson, a successful sporting goods store owner, who accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond, CA, where he was a champion athlete. Carter set out to change the attitude of his players and their grades. He does this by locking the gym and cancelling all practices until his wishes are met, and with no struggle, the boys bring their grades up and are able to play basketball again. This movie is similar because of the fact that an adult is trying to change or help struggling children with their own issues, and bring some discipline into their lives.
An aspect of the movie that I thought was very well done, were the scenes where the children talked about their life experiences, they really shone some light on what the kids were going through and also gave each of them some character development. A scene that I really liked was where Mrs. Gruwell was reading the journals of their life stories and encounters. I like this particular scene because it made me put myself in their shoes for a minute and realize how lucky we are to live in the community that we do.
I feel that the message this movie was trying to send is everyone is the same, no matter who they are, or where they come from. The movie delivers this message when the children realize that Anne Frank had to go through the same type of battles they went through everyday; staying alive. The movie also delivers this message when the children start to come together as one whole group, because they now know that just because they are all different race, doesn’t mean they can’t go though the same type of battles.