FREEDOM WRITERS
Erin Gruwell is an idealistic high school English teacher in Long Beach, California. Racial tensions are at a fever pitch after the riots that followed the arrest and beating of Rodney King.
Erin tells her students about the factors that led the Nazis to scapegoat Jews for problems. When she realizes these youngsters are clueless about the Holocaust, she introduces them to Anne Frank’s writing and invites Holocaust survivors to share their stories with the students.
The students write their own stories, published in a 1999 book titled The Freedom Writers Diary. How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. The title is a play on words that refers to the student Freedom Riders of 1961, who defied Jim Crow laws by riding buses in the South.
Two of the teachers (played by John Benjamin Hickey and Imelda Staunton) seem almost too bad to be true. At first Hilary Swank seems overly gushy in her portrayal of Erin Gruwell, but her character development is consistent and believable.
The high point comes when the students raise funds for Miep Gies (who plays herself) to come from Holland to speak about how she hid Anne Frank and her family during World War II. Inspiring and encouraging account of one teacher’s persevering foray into public education and the changes she initiated problem language and gang violence.
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