The Freedom Riders were a group of men and women who, in 1961, rode public busses throughout the southern portion of the United States to combat the states’ decisions not to enforce the results of both Morgan vs. Virginia and Boynton vs. Virginia (both regarding segregation in the United States). In 1999, nearly forty years after the actions of the Freedom Riders, Random House published the book The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. The nonfiction story was written by Erin Gruwell (who is played by Hilary Swank) and somewhere around 150 of her students at Woodrow Wilson High School in California. The term “Freedom Writers” pays homage to the men and women who challenged the law in the 1960’s, and their story, in many ways, relates to the story of those men and women in the 60’s.
The young men and women in Erin Gruwell’s class struggle to read. Many of them, who are in ninth grade, have difficulty reading on even a fifth or sixth grade level. Freedom Writers tells the story of these young, struggling teens and their journey toward redemption. When Erin Gruwell shows up to Woodrow Wilson High School for her first day as a teacher, she encounters these students and their awry behavior. She immediately, almost before she ever meets them, falls in love with them and their difficulties. For years she works harder than most to make even the slightest change, for the better, in their personalities and in their lives. Her tenacity proves to be tougher than the gangs that plague the streets in which these teens live, and she proves to the people closest to her, and the world, wrong about the students in her classroom.
Hilary Swank, at least to me, has always been on the fence in terms of her talent as an actor. For those of you that feel that same way about Swank, I implore you to find a way to access this film (it is currently available to stream on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Tubi) and soak in the beauty of her performance. Her performance is genuine and heartwarming. She beautifully embodies everything Gruwell represented to her students, her community and the world.
The story, while it is not Richard LaGravenese’s, is adapted by him for the big screen. He manages to capture the most gut wrenching moments from the story and, with his directorial expertise, finds ways to represent these difficult situations for the world to understand and appreciate. The casting choices that casting director Margery Simkin makes adds levels to the genius that is this film. In particular, the decisions to cast April Hernandez Castillo as Eva Benitez and Jason Finn as Marcus allows the multidimensional cast to flourish on screen and present audiences with one of the more touching stories the world has ever seen. Their passion washes over audiences and envelops them in the story of significant growth and perseverance.
LaGravenese, and his crew, manage to relate this story to audiences in a way that has them regularly reaching for the tissues. Viewers are constantly subjected to stories of the harsh realities of these at risk students in the 1990’s. Stories that most should struggle to understand become easily accessible and allow audiences to empathize with the students and rocky terrain of their very existence. It does not take much for audiences to appreciate the magnitude of the horrific situations that these students encounter each and every day or Erin Gruwell’s persistence as she attempts to guide her students through their rough world and into a better life. There are endless things I could say praising this film, and it all stems from the hard work of one Erin Gruwell.
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