Hilary Swank's Erin Gruwell

Life is context. Hilary Swank's Erin Gruwell tells young gangster Marcus (Jason Fin), "Ð'...You know what happens when you're dead? People are going to go on living and forget all about you!" 15 year-old Marcus wishes to "die a warrior" protecting his own. Not as Swank's Gruwell pleads his young death would accomplish nothing. For students in this Long Beach high school this is the gang and race war, where everyone loses, void of possibility, all about survival. For many, surviving to their 18th birthday is a milestone. In director and writer Richard LaGravenese's "Freedom Writers" based on the "The Freedom Writers Diary" by real-life teacher Erin Gruwell, splintered racial gangs become a family, because Ms. G (Gruwell) really "sees" her students and dismisses their uninspired excuses. She is undyingly committed to their greatness. As Erin, Swank really walks the walk. She is absolutely powerful. In giving a toast to her class with apple cider Erin requests, "The person you were. That person is over." "Freedom Writers" is the most inspiring and touching movie of this young year. "Freedom Writers" is about seeing and inspiring greatness in the presence of no possibility, and walking the walk.

In 1994 Erin (Swank) is a new teacher at a Long Beach high school teaching freshman English. Reviewing young Erin's reading list, Principal Margaret Campbell (Imelda Stanton) notes to Erin that Homer is entirely inappropriate for her student's elementary reading levels. Campbell instructs the idealist Erin to baby-sit her class, because she will not be able to teach them anything of value. If there is one weakness of the movie it is that Campbell is a cold villain. Not knowing much about the history of this story, I would surmise that Campbell was a victim of her own idealism being beaten from her. One of the offsetting strengths is Scott Glenn as Erin's father Steve who advises Erin to do her time and "do your job".

Erin's students know that have been written off in this racial charged and divisive classroom. Maintaining order, much less teaching English is a threatening nightmare. With her father's pearl necklace and proper dresses, Erin seems an easy victim. However, Swank gives Erin a beguiling spirit and tenacity. The Blacks, Latinos, and Cambodians stake their territory in her classroom and are unyielding in retreat. Eva (amazing April Lee Hernandez) silences the room and breaks Erin's heart when she proclaims, "I hate white people!", and proceeds to justify. Where Erin draws her line in sand is when she sees a racist cartoon of her student Jamal (Deance Wyatt). She schools her wannabe gangsters that their game is not even in the same leagueÐ'--as the Nazis. The tipping point occurs when Erin along with her Dad escort her class to the Museum of Tolerance as they learn about