Freedom Writers: Two Views

The Right Thing to Do
by Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters Film and TV Editor

A prim young woman with a pearl necklace sits near the edge of her chair, so excited by her new employment that she scarcely hears her supervisor’s admonitions. She needs to focus on her students’ vocabulary lessons, sniffs Miss Campbell (Imelda Staunton), adding that The Odyssey would be “too difficult” for them. Many of them ride the bus for 90 minutes to get to school, so they’re too tired and distracted to get homework done. And maybe she shouldn’t wear the pearls to class.

Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) smiles. She recalls her father, a civil rights activist during the 1960s, meaning that she believes, like he used to, that “at-risk” students only need a chance. “I think the real fighting should happen in the classroom,” she beams. And don’t even doubt her sincerity: “I’m a really good student,” Erin insists, touching the pearls her mother gave her. Margaret leans her head back, eyebrows arched in disbelief. The girl won’t last a day.

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“Freedom” of Voice
by Esther Iverem, SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

I know what you’re thinking.

You saw those trailers for “Freedom Writers” and sucked your teeth, dismissing the film as another White-savior-in-the-hood rehash that you could do without.

But I am happy—and surprised—to report that this is a very good movie, an extremely poignant tale about something very real in our lives—educating teenagers who are growing up in an urban gang culture that mangles or snuffs out their lives.

Based on a true story, the film recounts the experiences of a rookie English teacher, Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank), at a high school in Long Beach, Ca. during the 1990’s. Forced to integrate to achieve racial integration, the school is fractured into racial camps—Blacks, Latinos, Asians and a few remaining Whites who have not abandoned the public school system. The school also employs a number of Whites who resent what they consider the downfall of a once high-performing school because of the influx of poor people of color.

Most importantly, “Freedom Writers” also chronicles the lives of the students who come from these various school camps, referred to by one student as “little Cambodia, the ghetto, Wonder Bread-land and South of the Border.” Because their stories are presented in a quality way, without broad clichés, in their own voices and punctuated with the hip hop music of the era, this film honors the humanity and history of the students in a way that many so-called “urban” dramas do not.

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