Freedom Writers (2007)

Regisseur:

Richard LaGravenese

Drehbuchautoren (WGA):

Richard LaGravenese (screenplay)
Freedom Writers (book) ...

Premierendatum:

5. Januar 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Krimi | Drama

Werbezeile:

our story. our words.

Plot:

A young teacher (Swank) inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school. |

Plot Keywords:

Racial Slur | Jail | Lawyer | Profanity | Narration

Filmpreise:

1 win & 1 nomination

Nutzerkommentare:

A superior entry in a long history . . .

Besetzung

Hilary Swank	...	Erin Gruwell
Patrick Dempsey	...	Scott Casey
Scott Glenn	...	Steve Gruwell
Imelda Staunton	...	Margaret Campbell
April L. Hernandez	...	Eva (as April Lee Hernandez)
Mario	...	Andre
Kristin Herrera	...	Gloria
Jaclyn Ngan	...	Sindy
Sergio Montalvo	...	Alejandro
Jason Finn	...	Marcus
Deance Wyatt	...	Jamal
Vanetta Smith	...	Brandy
Gabriel Chavarria	...	Tito
Hunter Parrish	...	Ben
Antonio García	...	Miguel

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violent content, some thematic material and language.

Länge:

123 Min

Produktionsland:

Deutschland | USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe (DeLuxe)

Seitenverhältnis:

1.85 : 1

Tonverfahren:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Altersfreigabe:

South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Netherlands:12 | USA:PG-13 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | Sweden:11 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Ireland:15A | UK:12A | Finland:K-11

Drehorte:

Long Beach, California, USA

Firma:

Paramount Pictures

Dies und das:

The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles is featured in the film. Gruwell takes the students on a field trip to the museum. An exterior view of the museum is shown, and there are scenes inside the museum, showing simulated entrances to gas chambers in death camps.

Pannen:

Abfolgefehler: When "Mrs G." tells the students that they wont be with her in their junior year (the first time) she is writing on the board. The writing originally is "write a first person na".......and then it goes from "...narrative" to "...na" and then just "...first person".

Dialogzitate:

Sindy: [while playing the Line Game, Erin Gruwell asks anyone who has been to jail or a juvenile hall to stand on the line] Does a refugee camp count?
Erin Gruwell: You decide.
[Sindy stands on the line]

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in 21 (2008)

Soundtrack:

Papa'z Song

A superior entry in a long history . . .

"Everyone who remembers his own educational experience remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the kingpin of the educational situation." Sidney Hook, Education for Modern Man

It would be easy to criticize Freedom Writers as just another cliché-infested classroom redemption story, more Blackboard Jungle than History Boys. But because it is based on a true story of at-risk students attending Woodrow Wilson High in Long Beach, a voluntarily integrated school, I have to avoid accusing it of being derivative and offer that it relates the essential truth about education: Most students have a voice if a teacher can find it; most students can thrive when a teacher creates a sense of family amid chaos, as Emily Gruwell did in the early '90's of Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. The diaries her students wrote inspired students around the country to do the same.

Seeing the photo of the real Gruwell with her students as the end credits roll, I can understand cynics saying this is typical Hollywood—no teacher can look like Hillary Swank! But rising above the petty carping that includes skepticism about transformation of unruly kids into real students within a year, I have to admit it happened because of the transforming power of love and words. As in Charlotte's Web, both ingredients are potent reformers of the disaffected.

Gruwell sacrifices, as cases of true love sometimes require, her personal freedom and loses her marriage for the higher good of the young people she teaches. Admittedly, her slacker husband, Scott (Patrick Dempsey), doesn't deserve such a gifted wife, and her crusty dad, Steve (a monumentally weathered Scott Glenn), has some stereotypical responses to his daughter's choices. Most of all I object to those actors as students: They are way too old to be playing 14 and 15 year olds. Surely there are gifted teens who could do the job! Overall, however, the film rings true about the magic a dedicated teacher can do with rebellious but malleable teens.

For those of us who still toil in the fields of education, Freedom Writers reminds us why we love a profession that gives us a chance to save souls in the only way we can certify outside the uncertain faith of religion. This film is a superior entry in a long history of teaching brought to its ideal form in film.