Freedom Writers

   Freedom Writers, I watched over four times in theatres, and I want to break down this movie like never before. I was shocked to know this was made by MTV, mainly because MTV only produced music in my generation, yet this movie made me think, ponder, and move.  These are my notes from the movie.  My little breakdown of the movie. 

 The opening scene is a modern rendition of Kristallnacht, the  Night of Broken Glass. When we think of the LA riots it was people struggling to get justice who simply could not get justice for their skin colour. The opening draws you in, for most people in this generation of “trigger-censors” I am glad this film was not afraid to take things to the next level of what it was like living in LA during the Rodney King Riots, forcing change, just like the Jews had to endure riots, and being expelled from their cities and living in food deserts like so many people in America. 

 I think it is incredible, the amount of similarities between these kids' lives and those living in 1920, and the lie that older generations give, that youth never experience hardships because they are young, this movie shreds this narrative down to the bone, and allows real life to unfold, as what it is like growing up in modern America, and why shield the public from something that happens every single day, in what adults call schools, and what youth call turf wars at school. These wars are not just a thing of modern society, but something Jews, like Anne Frank herself knew and understood as Jews were kicked out of public spaces.  

 The movie moves into describing that beauty is not defined by what you see on a shelf, rather, it is determined by who is inside of you, and the more that beauty is imprinted on by parents, the more you are willing to believe it. That strength is more important than beauty. That is the comparison to the Holocaust. The Holocaust did not care about your beauty, to survive it you needed strength. To overcome poverty you need the strength of your education.  You either jumped into a future by choosing to jump into a gang or to jump into books. When you jump into books, you unfold a hero inside yourself you never found. 

 Colour is used in this film a lot. I love the scene with Eva sitting and waiting for the first day of school she is wearing a feminine dress, and she is excited about jumping into learning. her brother is wearing white, the stance of a protector waving at her, and the blood on him showed her, that her people were not safe. A reflection that Jews were not safe and that one minute as a Jew, you were there, and the next you were not. 

 “War has been declared!” Eva says this and then a new war on what Erin is able or needing to teach was declared at the same time. It showed that no matter, if you are in a gang, or a teacher, or a doctor, there is a war, not always with bullets, but the right thing to do, revealing who you are will come up. We each have a war on being a decent human being by pulling people up, or keeping them down because we have preconceived notions about who they are. 

 Red, white, and blue, with pearls is what Erin was wearing, it was to show that she believed in the US flag and the freedoms it stood for, and she was wearing what she wanted to give her students the pearls of wisdom. I love that in the office as she is drinking her coffee, she gives the why, of her choice to teach. Eva, at the beginning, had given her why to join a gang. We each have a “why”  for the choices we make, but then it comes down to is the why is good for me or society.  This “why” in us is why some become heroes and why some of us become villains, and she wanted to love on kids, to teach kids for them to be the heroes of their own stories. Erin says, I know how to be a good student and I want to learn to be a good teacher, she understood from the beginning, that she was going to have to learn from her students. Further, along in the story, this becomes important, because we often think we know what is best for others, but in reality, children are the teachers far more often than not. Traumatic events connect us. This is why Meip Geies connected with these children because the same hardships they faced she was familiar with it, and this is why she would later call them heroes. 

 She wore red on the first day, to contrast against the white walls and blue lockers, it was to make her stand out, to inform the viewers she did not belong there. She had this faraway look of dreaming, not being able to see reality quite yet. She holds her coffee cup relaxed. Yet, we are all relaxed and we never really fit in, and danger seems so far away when we are dream chasing. The wisdom in this first scene is that we all hold the coffee cup, we all want the dream to happen, but we must be anchored to the real dangers that surround us. Being naive is just as dangerous as having too many walls up. 

 I love the scene on the blackboard, it was very clear the director did such good imagery, that like her mistakes signing her two ll's could be erased, and written over, that the teens in her classroom, she was going to teach them their mistakes were also written in chalk, but their lives could be written over with love.  Her red suit was the benchmark that she was going to add color to their lives, and she would mark their lives with passion and respect. 

 We will be shaken when we chase our dreams, but we won't lose our resolve if we believe in those dreams, even around naysayers. Life brings both but knowing who you are and what you bring to the table, is how dreams become accomplished. She had to fight against the grain, teaching her students they too would have to fight to become more than what the naysayers told them. The colors around her are muted, because it was to prove she would stand out and build greatness, and the muted colors the other characters wore, helped the audience to know they were not building anything, they were just ordinary, and they were blah. 

  The music that they had when they were fighting, was sort of the same violin backdrop sped up a little, but the tempo almost matches most music played in Holocaust films, it brings that same sad melody and drama to the film that death is impending and it has the same tones as someone is going to die. In history violins and the Grim Reaper have gone and hand in hand, and most of the time when the violin is played it is a tune of impending death. This is the foreshadowing of what is to come. When she gets home, she removes the pearls, it is highly symbolic of her removing her dream, and taking a stand that her father might be right, she was not ready to teach, and it shows that she doubts who she is, it is a real-life motion of temporary surrender.  

  She is a Daddy's girl and she is mirroring Eva's need to please her father, it is to show that though they are different ages and backgrounds they have something in common, their love for their dad. As she mixed the kids up, they understood that she had control. You have to have control over hate, you have to challenge the powers at be if you are determined to succeed.  

    Shaming was the last straw she had. She understood he was in pain. Shame is the worst kind of pain, and she could not leave it alone because two students were dead. She schooled them on gangs, she schooled them on what respect means. She taught me what death means and that people need to live for a cause. She called to their conscience. To make a difference you have to bring tears of reality of what a lifestyle can do. 

 When she lives in the school she comes up on the setting sun, it is the imagery of how she has to fight through the shadows to see them, to get them to be as one, she had to move into the light and depend on her instinct, not the help of people that were blinded by the four walls that blocked them for seeing the children and all of their potential. 

  Loss brings people together, it binds us, and it makes us reflect like nothing else. She understood that to move forward they had to look back. She wanted to get them to know themselves, when you know yourself, you can see yourself in the mirror of truth, the written truth. This is where real empowerment starts. 

 On the parent-teacher night, they put her in black to foreshadow the fact she would be in mourning, she would be mourning the fact none of her students' parents came, mourning their story, and wondering how to navigate her students to be free from the coffins of sadness. 

    She put a knife into the system, and as she murdered the system she resurrected hope in her students. She wanted to drive her husband to greatness, he seemed to be stuck in mediocrity. She wanted to pull greatness from everyone around her but you can only pull greatness from those that want it to shine. 

  Looking at the Holocaust photos, they started to see that life was indeed a gift, and it gave them the courage to fight for more because so many of the children did not even make it to their age in high school. 

  A little backstory of Renee Firestone, she was a fashion designer who came over to America and landed in California. She ended up arriving in California on Halloween, and she sold her fashion label, so she could dedicate her time to speaking events about the Holocaust, she was interviewed several times and the first time was with Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.  All of the Holocaust survivors in the movie are real and all of them were also interviewed by Steven Spielberg for the Shoah Foundation. 

 After the dinner, I love the scene where the boy drops his gun, as he is carrying books, I think the imagery was great, because it showed a real depiction you cannot carry knowledge and violence at the same time. One has to be dropped so the other can be fully embraced. 

 In Sophmore Year Erin wears white for the first time, it is a transition for Eva to see that she has a new hero who would, help her transition from gang life into a new girlhood and that Erin was there to help her become the hero of her own story, and the hero of her classmate. In Sophomore year, Eva is wearing pink the same color as her sweater when her brother got shot in the first scene.  The director showed it is a sign she is going to a place of innocence and a longing to be the girl she once was. All of them wanted one thing home and safety.  Eva hung back because she was not sure what choice she would make, she was not sure if she was going to be a villain or a hero. 

 As they start reading the Diary of Anne Frank they read about the racial issues with her, and it makes them think what their own beliefs of racial beliefs are leading them. Each of the students was getting their taste of change in their lives.    

   When we sacrifice for children, things bloom, and dreams unfold, and I think that is really what this story is about, is seeing kids and the magic they hold, and the stories they write move generations. This is why Freedom Writers the book became a New York Bestseller.  We are all ordinary but but doing kind things we all become extraordinary. We as a society must allow children to also build kindness so they can be heroes in their communities and this is the meaning and message of the movie. 

  The scene where Eva is kicking the gate, resembles the scene where she jumped into a gang against a fence, and she would have to break the fence of her gang to find real freedom. Markus would have to build a fence of protection around his mom to go home to safety and he was carrying her burden to let her know he could be depended upon.  When Eva gets chased it is the symbolism that either good is chasing us, or evil is chasing us, and evil chases us when we do the hardest thing of following the ethics of love. The more we follow the path of love, the more evil will chase a soul. 

 The one time Erin blends into the background is where Eva and the girl from Cambodia talk, and dive into friendship. It was to show that friendship should take center stage over lectures and books, that the pearls are left behind and that love shines. In that scene, Erin is wearing a gold heart, because love outshines wisdom by far. 

 When it all falls apart, you don't have pearls of wisdom or a gold necklace of love, sometimes, it is just the moment when you call home and say, I need a shoulder, right now.  She fell back on the man she needed the most her father. 

 At the very end of the movie, all the kids blend in and are wearing similar colors representing the fact they are family, and that she gained respect and they see her wisdom and friendship. 

 My favorite line in the movie is, “You have been blessed with a burden my daughter, and I envy you for that."  We need more people who seek to have burdens and allow people to be envious of us making a difference. 

 We can't give ourselves an F, because if we are failing, we can't tell life to ever say Fuck You, it is a gift! Life is priceless. 

  This movie will move you to tears, laughter, and deep thinking. It is one of my favorite movies of all time and these are the notes and symbolism I found through it all.  Thank you for reading.