Finding Forrester Essay

Finding Forrester was directed by Gus Van Sant and released in 2000. The film was refering. It showed you that anything is possible you just need to put in serious work and effort. Gus Van Sant shows us that it does not matter w present you are from, anything is possible. Jamal Wallace is an African-American boy from the Bronx who is privy(p)ly highly intelligent but he does not unavoidableness anybody completeing because it will ruin his reputation at school, an example of this is when Jamals teacher asks him to recite a famous poem that he knows, Jamal lies and says he does not know it.William Forrester is an old, Caucasian man who is an alcoholic and has written a famous book. Forrester spends his days in his apartment because he is scared of the public and society. The film focuses on the theme of stereotyping. A stereo type is a widely held but fixed and over simplified image or idea of a particular type of person/thing. Oxford Dictionary. Stereotyping is shown through and throughout the film, just about examples of stereotyping in the film are when Jamal is at his new school and writes an amazing paper.His teacher, Crawford, does not believe Jamal wrote the paper because he is a black boy from the Bronx who is a fantastic basketball player. There is a stereotype about African Americans being good at sports (especially basketball), but here the black character is also truly smart and interested in things besides sports. In fact, Jamal throws a basketball game so no maven thinks he is just another black boy only good for basketball. Another example of stereotyping in Finding Forrester is Claire. Claire is Jamals first friend at his new school and we see right away that she does not discriminate but is a victim of stereotyping herself.Claires father is the man responsible for devising the school for boys and girls so students see her as spoiled and think the only reason she got accepted to school is because of her father but she is really a very bright girl. Basketball is an important symbol in the film, which symbolizes that even though Jamal is a great basketball player, it does not mean he is not smart. This is shown in the film when Jamal gets a chance to play basketball at his new school. Basketball represents the real world its struggles, relationships, and competition.There are also some more very important symbols in Finding Forrester. The books in William Forresters apartment represent escapism, insulation from the real world, and the world of intellect. And the window which William Forrester watches Jamal and his friends play basketball is literally a window into the real world. Forrester watches the world pass by him though that window. The characters Jamal Wallace (Robert Brown) and William Forester (Sean Connery) form a friendship through their mutual interest in writing.This all started when Jamal and his friends notice an old man, William Forrester, watching them play basketball through his window. They notic e that this old man has never left his house and actually gets grocery, mail, and clothes delivered to him. One day Jamals friends dared him to go into Forresters apartment and to choose something from the apartment to prove he was actually in there. While in the apartment, Jamal gets frightened by Forrester and runs out but little did Jamal know that as he was leaving he left his backpack full of all his secret journals.After Jamal talks to his friends about his experience they go out to play basketball and Forrester drops Jamals backpack out the window. When Jamal opens it up he finds that Forrester has gone through and corrected and critiqued every page of every journal. Furious, Jamal takes his journals back to Forrester to ask why he would do this. After days of trying to talk to Forrester, Jamal and Forrester come to an organization that Forrester will help Jamal with his writing. They teach each other about life. Jamal helps Forrester get back into society without being sca red.Forrester teaches Jamal that is does not matter where you come from, if you are intelligent, take advantage of that and embrace your great talent. The movie Finding Forrester was a good, quality movie with a great theme and moral. In this movie Jamal, an African American basketball player and student proves that it does not matter where you come from, or what color your skin is, if you are intelligent to need to let that talent shine. And William Forrester, an old, rinse up writer gets a new look on life because a brilliant boy has faith in him.Together, William and Jamal fight through racialism and stereotyping. Dear Jamal, Someone I once knew wrote that we walk away from our dreams afraid that we may fail or worse yet, afraid we may succeed. You need to know that magic spell I knew so very early that you would realize your dreams, I never imagined I would once again realize my own. Seasons change young man, and while I may have waited until the winter of my life, to see the things Ive seen this past year, there is no doubt I would have waited too long, had it not been for you. William Forrester Forresters letter to Jamal.