Freedom Writers

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Freedom Writers
Image:FWPoster.jpg
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by Richard LaGravenese
Produced by Danny DeVito
Michael Shamberg
Stacey Sher
Written by Richard LaGravenese, based on The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell and her class.
Starring Hilary Swank
Patrick Dempsey
Scott Glenn
Imelda Staunton
Music by Mark Isham, will.i.am, RZA
Cinematography Jim Denault
Editing by David Moritz
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) January 5, 2007
Running time 122 mins.
Country USA
Language English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
For other uses of "Freedom Writers", see Freedom Writers (disambiguation).

Freedom Writers is a 2007 American film starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey. It is based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell. The title is a play on both the terms of "Freedom Riders", the black and white civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961, and Freedom Fighters, as in somebody who fights for freedom.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Freedom Writers, directed by Richard LaGravenese, is inspired by a true story and the diaries of real Long Beach, California teenagers. Set in and around Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California from 1994-1998, two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank stars as English teacher Erin Gruwell. At first, the children are very unfriendly to Gruwell, but she encourages them, and lets them write a diary. All of the diary entries in the film are true and all have been written by the children.

After a few days of class, Gruwell and her students get into a debate about racism during which she compares a caricature of a black student with big lips, drawn by a Latino student, to the Nazis' caricatures of Jews with big noses. She then takes her students on a field trip to the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance to teach them about the Holocaust. An exterior view of the museum is shown, and there are scenes inside the museum, showing simulated entrances to gas chambers in Nazi death camps.

One of the books the students read is The Diary of Anne Frank, and money is raised to have Miep Gies come over to talk about the Holocaust. The roles of four Holocaust survivors, some of whom survived Auschwitz, who met with the students in a dinner hosted by Gruwell, are played by the actual Holocaust survivors themselves.

Since the school is both incapable and unwilling to pay for books and excursions, Gruwell pays a lot of the expenses herself, financed by two extra, part-time, jobs (a sales associate at a department store and a concierge at a Marriott hotel). Because of the little time she spends with her husband, he eventually divorces her.

Over the course of the movie, Gruwell finds more ways to teach her students about racism and respect. As Gruwell begins to listen to them in a way no adult or teacher has ever done, she begins to understand that these kids believe that surviving is enough — that they are not delinquents but teenagers fighting "a war of the streets" that began long before they were born. For the first time, the teens experience hope that they can show the world that their lives matter and that they have something to say.

Ms. G, as her students come to call Gruwell, hands out journals to her students so they can write about the past, present, future, good days and bad ones. Happily, she watches each student come to her desk and take one. Later on she sits down to read and is amazed at their stories and hardships. These students become freedom writers. Ms. G arranges for her students to type up their stories into a book they title, "The Freedom Writers Diary," which was published in 1999 (ISBN 978-0385494229), and again in 2007 as a special "movie tie-in" edition (ISBN 978-0767924900). The authors proceeds from the original edition of the book were donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, which was set up to pay the college fees of those Freedom Writers who went on to continue their education.

This movie is for Armand Jones (who plays Grant Rice) he was killed by Gang Members who followed him from a club to a Dennys because they wanted the chain he was wearing.

[edit] Box Office Gross

Freedom Writers grossed $36.6 million dollars in the United States. In addition, the film made approximately $6 million USD worldwide.

[edit] DVD/Rental Gross

Released: 17th April 2007

  • The DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track. Extras will include deleted scenes, a Making A Dream featurette, a Freedom Writers Family featurette, a Freedom Writers: The Story behind the Story featurette, a photo gallery, and the trailer.

[edit] Soundtrack

See also: Freedom Writers (soundtrack)

Common has lent his talents to the soundtrack with "A Dream" (featuring will.i.am). The song was produced by Black Eyed Peas founder will.i.am. The soundtrack also includes the Tupac Shakur song "Keep Ya Head Up".

Instrumental sections of Sia's "Breathe Me" accompany the film's television trailer.

[edit] Rating

This film was given a final rating of PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for violent content, some thematic material, and language.

[edit] Cast

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

es:Diarios de la calle fr:Écrire pour exister it:Freedom Writers no:Freedom Writers tr:Freedom Writers

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