Freedom Writers

Sharon Yun
“Freedom Writers” Movie Review

Let me just start off by saying this movie, out of the countless movies I have seen, is the first one to almost give me happy tears. Director Richard La Gravenese is one of my favorite directors (“Water for Elephants”2011). “Freedom Writers” made me love him more. I am not a fan of long movies and I was shocked when after, I found out that the movie was over two hours. Many drama movies are slow paced and boring but I think “Freedom Writers” a movie of this genre is the first one where I never zoned out through the whole movie. This heartwarming story of a young teacher who made a great change in many students’ lives is absolutely worth your time and money.
“Freedom Writers takes place in the ghetto of Long Beach, LA. A young teacher, Erin Gruwell gets her first job at Wilson High School where all the students she is teaching are the “at risk” students. Ms. Gruwell gets worried about her students because they are getting associated with gang life. She wants her students to read books at their grade level but the department head does not allow that because she thinks the students will ruin and lose the books. One night Eva, one of the students and her friend, Sindy are at the convenience store they usually go to. A boy named Grant gets in an argument with the store owner and Eva’s boyfriend shoots and kills Sindy’s boyfriend when he was intending to shoot Grant. Eva has to testify at court as witness, but she is thinking of lying to cover him up. Ms. Gruwell slowly gains the student's trust and buys them composition books where they can write whatever they want.   Many of the students write about unfortunate events they have been through such as abuse, seeing friends die, and being evicted. During a class discussion, Ms. Gruwell finds out that her students don't even know about the Holocaust. She then gets two part time jobs (her husband is not very pleased) to pay for books, including The Diary of Anne Frank, and a...