Freedom Writers - film review.

Recently I watched the film “Freedom Writers” on DVD that was directed by Richard LaGravenese (released in 2007). The film starring Academy Award Winner Hilary Swank and Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey (haha sorry I couldn’t resist!), is a really great drama which deals with such real issues as racism, violence, oppression and inequality. I think the fact that the film is actually based on a book by the real freedom writers – a group of students who attended an integrated high school in Long Beach, California – and their teacher Erin Gruwell, made it very real, unique and special.

(Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell in the film.)

The basic story of this film is about a young English teacher - Erin Gruwell (Swank) - who uses unconventional teaching methods to educate a class of high school students who are divided by their racial prejudices of each other and also have no interest in gaining a proper education. The students have all dealt with a lot of issues particularly gang violence and it is only after Erin gets them to write down their innermost thoughts, fears and aspirations in their own journal (just like Anne in the 'The Diary of Anne Frank', which they are given to read in class) that they start to become more accepting of each other and also believe that they can make something of themselves.

(One of the happy scenes from the film - Swank with the rest of the young cast.)

One of the things that I really loved about this film in particular was the fact that the cast was made up of a number of relatively unknown actors which really helped to make the story more real and ultimately bring it to life. Overall “Freedom Writers” is a really great film and although you may need some tissues for a few scenes, the ending is very positive and uplifting. So if you haven’t seen it yet, I definitely recommend you check it out!

Oh and I also wanted to say that when watching this film, I thought wow I’m so lucky to have grown up in Australia, a multicultural country where everyone is accepted and viewed as equal. But when I started to think about it afterwards I began to wonder how true this really is. Are we really that accepting and tolerant of other races? When you think about the 2005 Cronulla race riots and more recently the protests against the building of a private Islamic school in Camden, it makes you question whether there actually is equality for all in our so called ‘multicultural society’. I really don’t know anymore, I used to believe there was but now I’m not so sure. What do you guys think?

(Scenes from the Cronulla race riots in 2005)