Film Music Background Information Of Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers
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Freedom Writers
The movie Freedom Writers was directed by Richard LaGravenese and was released in 2007. The movie is based on a true story that happened from 1994 when an English teacher by the name Erin Gruwell becomes an English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. The movie is inspirational and appears to tackle several issues including racism and xenophobia, student-teacher interactions, discrimination, teacher’s contribution to the success and failure of students, among others. Throughout the film, one is able to notice how a teacher’s perspective on life, learning, and believing in one’s dream can inspire students to want to be successful. However, this article’s focus is not on either of the issues mentioned above but on how the music in the film appears to complement the different events and situations depicted. LaGravenese is quite accurate in the selection of music throughout the film as they seem to exude the mood of every particular event. So, this article seeks to show how music has been used to supplement and complement the moods and themes discussed in the film.
Background information of Freedom Writers
Freedom Writers is a movie that is based on a real story. In 1994, Erin Gruwell started her job as an English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. However, having been marred by riots and protests with regards to the treatment of Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department, Gruwell is thrusted into a world which is almost succumbing to chaos. Racial tensions appear to be at an all-time high, and this is evident even at Wilson High School. Students want to be in their racial groups, and the animosity is real as fights are also rampant. Gruwell’s class is a typical example of how the world out on the streets was. The students were violent towards each other, and a majority of them were angry all the time. Having never taught such a class, Gruwell is forced to deal with her new reality.
Erin works hard to ignore the obvious racial tension evident in her class but soon is forced to deal with it when a racist caricature starts doing rounds in class. Even though the students find it funny, Erin appears angry and decides to use the moment as an opportunity to educate the students regarding stereotyping and xenophobia. She proceeds to educate the students about the Holocaust and soon finds out that only one student knows what it is. At this point, her entire approach to teaching changes and she discovers that to have any impact on the students, she had to change her focus to issues that impact the lives of the students directly. Erin, not one to be told NO or to be discouraged decides to work two extra jobs to help her fund projects that she believes will help her students. She buys them books, pays for their trips, and organizes dinners where she invites guests to come and speak to the students regarding their ordeals which started as a result of stereotyping and xenophobia. Slowly, the students’ perspectives change, and they become more aware of their actions and reactions towards each other. In the end, Erin manages to help the students, and against the expectations of even her colleagues, she helps most of them go to college.
Erin is the main character in the film as her work is the one that resonates and appears to influence the trajectory of the movie. However, there are other members whose stories also affect the film and they include Jamal Hill (whose caricature/drawing set the stage for what was to come next), Eva Benitez (who was always angry, loyal to her gang members, and made the decision to stand for truth), Andre Bryant, Scott Casey (Erin’s husband who later divorced her), Margaret Campbell (rival teacher and department head), Brandy Ross, Sindy (whose boyfriend got shot), Marcus, and Grant Rice.
Richard LaGravenese is a man who is renowned for being a screenwriter, a film director, and also a writer. The man it appears can do it all, and with the film Freedom Writers, he did manage to hit all the nodes. Some of the books he has written include The Fisher King, A Little Princess, and P.S. I Love You. Aside from these, Lincoln (2015) reports that he won the 2016 WGA Ian McClellan Hunter Award. Additionally, LaGravenese is also a recipient of the Gotham Independent Film Tribute Award which he won in 1998 (Gotham, 2011).
However, the work of Richard LaGravenese would not have been possible without the input of Erin Gruwell and the book Freedom Writers Diary. Erin Gruwell is often listed alongside the Freedom Writers as composers or those who help with the fine details of a story. She is still a teacher and is responsible for inspiring her students to write their own stories and later combine them. The Freedom Writer’s diary eventually became a New York Times bestseller and had had a lot of success around the world (Global Teacher Prize). All of Erin’s students successfully graduated high school, and she decided to open and run the Freedom Writers’ Foundation. Her story is one that inspires and one that moves a person to fight for what is right and to leave the world differently than before.
The musical tone of the movie is largely reflective of the...