I avoided watching "Freedom Writers" before because it looked like another "Dangerous Minds." Come to find out, it is another "Dangerous Minds," but slightly better. Hilary Swank is a stronger actress than Michelle Pfeiffer IMO and she integrated more pertinent and impactful learning into the students' curriculum, but it is still another "Dangerous Minds." I mean it's virtually a carbon copy of "Dangerous Minds."
Erin Gruwell (played by Hilary Swank) was a pie-eyed teacher eager to teach youths of color from disadvantaged backgrounds. She chose Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach where she'd be the English teacher for Freshmen.
Erin got more than she bargained for from the angry resentful crowd, but she stuck it out. When many teachers would have quit or mailed it in, she stayed the course to see if she could make a positive change in the pupils' lives.
My criticisms of this movie are identical to my criticisms of "Dangerous Minds." This movie was an amalgamation of other movies which did not do as well and in which the educator was a person of color. So, what you have already seen in movies such as, "To Sir, With Love," "The Marva Collins Story," "The George McKenna Story," "Lean on Me," "Stand and Deliver," and "Sister Act 2," you see in "Freedom Writers." The kids are angry, disrespectful, violent, lost, and forgotten. They are simply waiting for someone who cares and has a lot of patience and time to come rescue them. In this movie, Erin Gruwell was that person.
I talked to my wife, who is a teacher, about this movie. She and her colleagues left the theater with the same sentiment: this movie is impossible. Erin worked two additional jobs to supplement her income to purchase things for her students and she neglected everything and everyone else in her life, including her husband (played by Patrick Dempsey). Is this the model Hollywood wants to establish for a profession that's already overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated? So every teacher should give up everything else in their life for the sake of their students? And what about the teachers that teach for thirty years or more touching the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of students? Are they somehow less?
I say that because what's not given enough attention is the fact that Erin followed that class of students out of high school and never returned to teach high school again. She gave all of herself to one class of students and no others. So what about the thousands of kids like her students who came after them?
I'm not trying to denigrate Erin Gruwell's accomplishment, but I also don't want her to be overly glorified. What she did for those kids was amazing and I actually liked the movie, but I think the movie trounces over all other teachers who stay put and try to reach as many kids as they can with a more sustainable method.
