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Freedom Writers is this generation’s answer to Dangerous Minds. The movie is updated to relate to this generation which is funny because the film is based on a true story and it took place when Dangerous Minds was first making its appearance.

The plot, as it goes with most teachers with a heart of gold stories goes, is pretty simple. No one cares about the kids. Their lives suck. The teacher connects with them and they get all smart and stuff… woohoo! Yeah, that’s the story, and you’ve probably seen it 4 or 5 times in other incarnations.

Despite the predictability of the story, the movie is unique in that it shows the failures of the teacher. It shows the things a teacher does that don’t actually work. For example, when the teacher comes in and starts talking about rap music to inner city kids and she pronounces Tupac Shakur’s name incorrectly… and all the kids give her shit about it. Realistic and funny.

My biggest gripe about the film is that it takes a ridiculous white savior approach to effecting significant change in a population of students that have been shoved to the side. Hillary Swank is painfully dedicated to her students, so much that she is almost inhuman. I couldn’t help feeling that her character was slightly obsessed and dysfunctional. Where most people might see someone taking on three jobs and destroying her own life to reach a group of kids, I see someone with psychological problems. The films answer to saving inner city kids? Be a superhero and sacrifice your own life because that is the only thing that will help losers from the ghetto… how clichéd and Eurocentric can you get?

Adding in a token white character to view the happenings of the classroom from a white perspective doesn’t help any. It is clear that the movie is aimed at white audiences and therefore fails to reach the demographic that it could help so much… namely inner city youth that don’t have Mother Teresa-like middle class white women to help them. The film isn’t about the potential of at-risk youths’ innate ability to turn their lives around but instead, it is about the need for a white catalyst to effect change in a savage population that doesn’t even realize its own plight. It is scary propaganda, and despite its attempts to avoid falling into this trap, the film is still from a perspective that demeans and belittles the lives and values of inner city culture.

The acting is great… but what do you expect when your high school movie is full of actors that are over 20 years of age. It would have been nice if they had actual teenagers playing the parts of high school kids, but it is kind of expected when your movie is about a white savior with a heart of gold who manages to civilize a group of ignorant teenagers… how could you trust actual teenagers to play the part when your movie is so focused on showing that teenagers are incapable of self-motivation, without a little help from a pasty hand?

Despite the films flaws, it is still well-meaning and it shows what one amazing person can bring about in a group of students. The emotionally charged scenes are also quite powerful… which is amazing when you realize that you are looking at Hillary Swank’s dude-face for most of the movie. Of course, well-meaning is just a euphemism for implying that something is harmful, and the movie is quite insulting to people of color everywhere. If you’re white, you’ll love it… if not, you may have some mixed feelings. Still, you have to like the positive feeling of the movie.

Final Synopsis: For a movie about at-risk youth trying to change, it relies upon an external force to effect that change. While the film is based on a true story, it is demeaning to children who live in rough areas and neighborhoods… as there isn’t a single student that wants to learn at the beginning of the movie… except for the white kid. White people should check this out and feel good about themselves… people of color should check this out and realize how the white world looks at inner city youth.

Points Lost: -1 for being to focused on the teacher’s point of view, -1 for making a movie about inner city youth from a white perspective, -1 for Hillary Swank’s dude face, -1 for the painfully and unrealistically portrayed faculty opposition that Swank’s character faces

Bonus Points: +1 for emotionally charged scenes that tug at your heartstrings quite effectively

Burning Question: If only we had more middle class white women teaching inner city youth, could we finally get rid of the achievement gap? Probably not since that is the majority of individuals teaching inner city youth in the first place.

Freedom Writers
7/10

Tags: 2007, drama, high school, high school movie, hillary swank, latest movie reviews, mario, patrick dempsey, recent, richard lagravenese, scott glenn