Freedom Writers vs the Outsiders
Taking place in Long Beach California, Richard Lagravense directed an amazing movie titled “Freedom Writers. ” Freedom Writers came out in 2007 and has inspired many teenagers all over the world. Not only do I consider this to be one of my favorite movies, but many others do too. Freedom Writers was a movie with many interesting characters. Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell (Mrs. G), a high school teacher who realizes that teaching is her passion and who doesn’t know what she would do without her students.
Scott Glenn plays the role of Steve Gruwell, Erin’s husband. The rest of the stars of the movie are Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey, Imelda Stainton as Margret Campbell, April L. Hernandez as Eva Benitez, Mario as Andre Bryant, Kristin Herver as Gloria Munez, Jaclyn Ngan as Cindy, Sergio Montalvo as Alejandro Santiago, Jason Finn as Marcus, Deance Wyatt as Jamal Hill, Vanetta Smith as Brandy Ross, Gabriel Chavarriaas Tito, Hunter Parrish as Ben Daniels, Antonio Garcia as Miguel, Giovanne Samuels as Victoria, John Benjamin Hickey as Brian Gelford, Robert Wisdom as Dr. Carl Cohn, Pat Carrol as Miep Gies, Will Morales as Paco, and Armand Jones as Grant Rice. I feel that each character played an important part in this movie and I loved each and every one of them. Due to the fact that this is one of my favorite movies, and how much I enjoyed watching it, I would rate this movie a 4. 5 out of 5 stars. The only reason I felt that it didn’t deserve 5 stars is because I found some of the parts in the movie to be rather confusing. At times, scenes were hard to follow and truly understand what was happening. For example, Eva and Paco went to the convenience store.
When they arrived they unexpectedly bumped in Cindy and her boyfriend. Paco tries to shoot the guy in the orange sweatshirt (the guy who beat him up in school) because he wanted his money back on a game he was playing and was giving the cashier a difficult time. Paco also wanted revenge. When Paco took out his gun and fired it at the guy in the orange sweatshirt, he accidentally ended up hitting Cindy’s boyfriend because the other guy ducked. After watching this part a second time I more clearly understood what was happening. The first time I really didn’t know who each character was or the point of the scene.
I would still highly recommend this movie to kids all ages. Some parts are violent but this movie does teach valuable lessons. The movies, Freedom Writers, and The Outsiders, are both spectacular movies. Even though these two movies are quite different, they do have some similarities. Both Freedom Writers and The Outsiders are about two extremely violent gangs. All of the gangs in the two movies stuck up for all of their fellow gang members and each member stands by whatever another member does. This is true for all gangs. Personally, I think that Freedom Writers was a better movie. Hey, do you want some fries with that shake? ” says a male student to Mrs. Gruwell on the first day of school. That type of rudeness was pretty much the way things always were in Long Beach California where the movie Freedom Writers takes place. Hillary Swank (Mrs. Gruwell) stars in this gripping story of inner-city kids raised around drive-by shootings and hard-core attitudes. Whenever you step out the front door of your house, you have to beware because anythitwo gangs in Freedom Writers fight for their territory, race, respect, and what’s theirs.
In this movie, the music played throughout the scenes was always different. At the beginning of this movie, the two gangs wouldn’t even sit next to each other in school, let alone talk to one another. At the end, the gangs made peace and everyone ended up getting along all because of Mrs. Gruwell. Even though the gangs, The Greasers and The Socials, are violent in The Outsiders, they are not quite as violent as the gangs in Freedom Writers. The Greasers are more caring and respectful whereas the gangs in Freedom Writers don’t really care about anything.
The music played during this movie is always the same song; it is just different parts of the song being played or the same part repeated. Taking place in the 1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma makes this movie older which contributes to some of the differences in the gangs. Although The Outsiders is a thrilling and well directed movie, I didn’t find it to be as exciting as Freedom Writers. My recommendations for these movies would depend on the age of the viewer. I would recommend The Outsiders to pre-teens and Freedom Writers to teens because it is more violent.
