Freedom Writers (Paramount/Widescreen + Full Screen DVD-Video)

 

Picture: B-/C+     Sound: B-/C+     Extras: B     Film: B+

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: This film is also on Blu-ray and you can read more about it at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5465/Freedom+Writers+(Blu-ray

 

 

The tale of school teachers and their students have been around for a long time.  In the 1950s, the red brick schoolhouse stories were replaced with the likes of Blackboard Jungle, while the 1960s brought more thoughtful personal films like To Sir, With Love and Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.  The 1970s brought a new wave of teen school comedies, but the later 1980s began reflecting the education system in trouble and teachers and/or principles who made a difference.  You would get underrated films like Stand & Deliver, somewhat controversial portraits like Lean On Me, feel-good fluff like Mr. Holland’s Opus, the brilliant comic irony of Richard Linklater’s School Of Rock and the especially horrible Dangerous Minds which would take a separate essay to explain its many failures.  Freedom Writers is easily the best such film since Brodie and is light years away from a disaster like Dangerous Minds.

 

Instead of taking the ignorant route that both films are “white female outsider teaches tough inner-city youth, turns their life around and understands rap” and missing out on this film should think again.  Whereas Minds is full of contradictions (female marine teaches undisciplined students how to excel, saving them from the system by teaching them lessons from the same system that ruined their lives to begin with and NOT any military one), this true story is about an educator named Erin Gruwell (well played by Hilary Swank) who went to her school ready to teach and finding the school in shambles.

 

If the apathy of the students is not enough of a problem, the ignorance and “lower socio-economic class of the students make them disposable” mentality of the teachers and some other officials makes the situation much, much worse.  Never ignorant and remarkably clam and thoughtful, Erin keeps tolerating garbage from all sides and the picture of how bad things really are starts to develop.  Then a racial incident happens in her room that even pushes her over the edge and she lets the classroom have it!

 

That beings a road to unprecedented success and eventually innovation that is one of the most remarkable stories in U.S. Education in decades, without ruining anything, but the film would not have been made otherwise and the film is never stupid, corny or offering of condescending solutions to any of the ugliness.  This is as much about the students as it is about Erin, which is the #1 reason this annihilates all of its predecessors over the last few decades.

 

No film has caught the situation with the accuracy, realism, honesty and depth of this one.  The great actors like the amazing Imelda Stanton in one of the thankless roles of the establishment educators threatened by Erin, her students ands her ways is great.  The teen actors are so real and vulnerable, that some ignorant people laughed at their openness in the theatrical screenings this critic attended (it is that good to see over and over again) that is ironic counterpoint showing the negative and naïve attitude that ruined so much in the first place.

 

Swank entered the film already with two Best Actress Oscars and in addition to this film, their is now no doubt in my mind that she is one of the greatest actresses alive and most people still have not figured this out yet.  Here, she gets to offer new depth and remarkable instinct in the role.  She becomes Erin, constructing and reconstructing the learning curve she goes through and then combining dignity, respect, self-respect, history and deep truth to connect with those around her as much as possible.  To play her with such heart and soul is amazing and at times, her performance is just plain brilliant!

 

But the film gets that close to all the students who have more than a few moments each and the way LaGravenese’s screenplay adaptation of the actual writings of the students brings this film to life is stunning.  This is his best film to date and a true artistic breakthrough that puts him on the A-list in a way he has never been before.  The likable Patrick Dempsey is also very good as Erin’s loving husband, who is happy to settle for not going all the way with his career until she starts to go all the way with hers and that causes problems.  Scott Glenn is also good as Erin’s terrific father.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the Widescreen DVD is much better than that of the odd 1.33 X 1 pan & scan/Full Screen edition, which cuts too much into Jim Denault’s compositions.  He and LaGravenese make some very interesting choices.  The color manipulation is wisely limited, as is any slight darkening/shading of the frame, both of which have become clichéd by now in current urban cinema.  In Full Screen, it just seems too phony.

 

The Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on the two versions are not the same, though the music is good on both, the soundfield in the Full Screen version is as narrowed as the picture to match the lame reframing.  Mark Isham’s new music is one of the best scores he has written to date and the use of Rap/Hip Hop music in the film is one of the greatest applications of the genre in film history.  Despite Rap/Hip Hop only being around for about a quarter century, this film will long endure in its hit song use decades from now, so smart and impressive are the choices.

 

Extras include some great deleted scenes and featurettes: Making 'A Dream', Freedom Writers Family, Freedom Writers: The Story Behind the Story, stills, the original theatrical trailer and a terrific commentary by Swank and LaGravenese.  I loved the interviews with the real Erin Gruwell, but then this is a far more important film than anyone realizes.  See it before everyone else catches up!

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo