IMDb > Freedom Writers (2007)
Freedom Writers
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Freedom Writers (2007) More at IMDbPro »

Photos (see all 75 | slideshow) Videos (see all 19 NEW)
Freedom Writers (2007) -- A young teacher (Swank) inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.
Freedom Writers (2007) -- Clip: Tupac
Freedom Writers (2007) -- Interview: Hilary Swank "On Erin Gruwell"
Freedom Writers (2007) -- A young teacher (Swank) inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.
Freedom Writers (2007) -- A young teacher (Swank) inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.

Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   16,025 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 6% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers (WGA):
Richard LaGravenese (screenplay)
Freedom Writers (book) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for Freedom Writers on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
5 January 2007 (USA) more
Genre:
Biography | Crime | Drama more
Tagline:
our story. our words. more
Plot:
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school. | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
User Comments:
A superior entry in a long history . . . more (188 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for violent content, some thematic material and language.
Runtime:
123 min
Country:
Germany | USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Vanetta Smith, who played the student Brandy, was on the show Endurance (TV Series) in its third season. Her team placed 5th out of 8. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: The scene where Miep Gies tells the day Anne Frank was captured was told with some factual errors. Gies never went back to her house that very day to get bribery materials. more
Quotes:
Marcus: That Miep Gies lady, the one that help hide her, I like her. I got all these other books about her from the library.
Erin Gruwell: Wow, you used your library card?
Marcus: Nah...
more
Movie Connections:
Spoofed in "MADtv: Oscar Special (#12.15)" (2007) more
Soundtrack:
Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
41 out of 54 people found the following comment useful.
A superior entry in a long history . . ., 2 January 2007
Author: John DeSando (jdesando@columbus.rr.com) from Columbus, Ohio

"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.

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Message Boards

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Imelda Staunton's character was a bitch omegapirate900
A movie identical to this one guttapimp
I NEED HELP WITH MY SONS HOMEWORK TONIGHT PLEASE HELP vipordad05
Shouldn't Ms. G NOT go with them to their junior + senior year? llama_girls
The 4 books in the borders bag demiselxl
Old actors dario-29
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