Freedom Writers Directed by Richard La Gravenese - Essay Example

Hilary Swank plays the role of Erin Gruwell and gives an overwhelming performance in the role. The movie initiates with the pictures of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. Against this backdrop, the transformational teacher Gruwell understands that the best way of putting an end to racial discrimination is through leading and motivating the young students.
Gruwell soon finds out that the students she was stranded with were far different from her expectations. Her class is categorized into four groups – whites, Latinos, Cambodians and blacks. She resorts to unconventional teaching approaches despite the disagreement with her departmental head Margaret Campbell (enacted by Imelda Stauton) and her colleagues. In the course of her determination and campaign, she ends up working more in school and spending less time with her husband which later becomes a source of constant complaining from his side, finally leading to their separation. She pulls up money from other part-time jobs to buy books for them instead of abiding by the conventions. She begins her campaign by teaching lessons from the Holocaust, which even involves a trip to the Museum of Tolerance.

The idea was to generate feelings of harmony irrespective of races. She arranges meetings with the survivors of the Holocaust and reads through The Diary of Anne Frank. Later she invites to the class the lady named Miep Gies (enacted by Pat Carroll) who once gave shelter to Anne Frank. Meanwhile, parallel to these lessons the boyfriend of a Cambodian student names Sindy gets killed accidentally by Eva’s boyfriend. Eva, enacted by April Lee Hernandez, decides to give false testimony and this would lead Grant Rice (enacted by Armand Jones) to be guilty. Grant was the actual target of Paco, Eva’s boyfriend. The meeting enforced Eva’s vision about life and her courage to peak the truth with Miep Gies who denies accepting any title of heroism, saying that she was doing justice by hiding Frank. This brings about the climax of the movie (after the first 90 minutes run) where Eva takes a decision, which would bring a twist to the lives of her family and friends.

Eva, therefore, considers saying the truth and gives the right testimony to the rage of several onlookers. The members of her gang initially decide to kill her but owing to their respect for their father they back off. Racial discrimination was broken as Eva takes back her decision of defending the criminal boyfriend from her race and instead does what she feels is morally right. This is evidence of the transformation, which Gruwell was able to embed amongst his students. During her classes, Erin always encourages the young students to make entries in their notebooks on a regular basis. The best part of the lessons delivered by Gruwell includes her asking the students to write their notes taken down in their diaries in the form of a book. She alters combines all these documents into a single book known as The Freedom Writers Diary. Later she was asked to stop teaching her students but Gruwell goes on to assure the superintendent of her ways of teaching. Certain distractions like Gruwell’s pearl necklace initially cause interest but later the film takes us to more sublime themes.

The movie succeeds in delivering the note of hope along with emotional and intellectual fulfillment. It also exploits the potential of the young performers adequately, especially that of Hernandez. The movie also manages to retain the touch of originality by quoting verses from students’ diaries in order to give rise to the complementary themes or stories. The movie in general has a lot to offer to the audience who lookout for something to identify themselves with rather than complete fiction. The ending though has a typical Hollywood touch where it shows that she successfully leads many students to graduate. The movie reveals a story where both the teachers and her students learn from one another. The teacher gains inspiration to do something meaningful with her profession while the students learn the righteous way of leading life.