Film review:“Finding Forrester“
The film “Finding Forrester” tells about an old man whose life gets a new sense by a young man.
The main characters are a man named William Forrester and the 16-year-old boy Jamal Wallace. Other important persons are Claire Spence, a friend of Jamal and Robert Crawford, Jamal’s teacher.
At the beginning, Jamal is presented living in the Bronx and playing basketball with his friends every day. Next to the basketball field lives a man they don’t know, they call him “the Window”.
The boys tell stories about him that he’s strange and killed a person in the past.
One day Jamal has to do a dare, he has to climb into the flat of the man.
He does and is very interested because he finds a lot of books and readings is his favorite hobby.
When the man comes back Jamal has to leave quickly and forgets his bag.
After a day the bag is falling out of the window, Jamal picks it up from the street. He finds his notebooks, in which he writes every day. Someone has corrected some passages and wrote his opinion about the written words.
The next day Jamal’s teacher tells him that his test scores where excellent and a private school wants him to go there.
Jamal visits this school, but all of the people aren’t that friendly, except of Claire Spence, who shows him around and is very friendly.
These days Jamal visits the flat of the man because he wants to know why the man read his words, which are very private. The man tells him to get off and write 5000 words why he has to stay away.
Jamal does and the next time the man lets him in.
His name is William Forrester and he isn’t very friendly, but Jamal has to visit him again and again.
The same time school isn’t easy going, Robert Crawford, a teacher of Jamal, is unfriendly and puts his students under pressure.
There’s a writing contest and the school wants Jamal to take part in it.
William Forrester, who is a famous author, even he has just written one book, which they are reading in school, tries to help Jamal.
He says to him that he can use his words and after a while he should try to write himself, but no word is allowed to leave the flat.
Jamal doesn’t listen to this advice and gives his text to Mr. Crawford because of the writing contest.
But Mr. Crawford believes it’s a plagiarism, he has a lot of prejudices and thinks Jamal can’t be that clever.
Then they find out that Forrester has written a magazine article, which has the same headline like Jamal’s text and they want him to go to the school court.
Jamal is angry because he thought Forrester had published only his book. On the other side William Forrester is angry because Jamal broke his own word.
They have an argument in which Jamal tells Forrester that he’s just an old man, never leaving the house because he’s fearing other people. Then Jamal leaves.
A few days later, all the students have to read their texts. Immediately, William Forrester gets into the room. Everyone is surprised, also Mr. Crawford. Forrester reads a text and everyone’s listening. When he ends he gets a great applause and Mr. Crawford tells him how wonderful it was. But Forrester only says it wasn’t his text but Jamal’s.
Crawford says it was a great text but he can’t do anything, Jamal has to go to the court. But another teacher tells him to sit down, because it isn’t his case anymore. Than he tells Jamal that he has not to go the court because he wrote his own words and Forrester allowed him to use some of his words.
Forrester and Jamal leave the room together, their friends again. After that they go different ways, but one day a lawyer visits Jamal to tell him about William Forrester’s death because of cancer.. He gives him the key of the flat, in which he can find everything.
The last scene is Jamal sitting in the streets, reading a letter of Forrester.
The film shows how important friendship is and that a huge difference between ages doesn’t mean anything.
Another important topic is the relationship between blacks and whites.
The black people are living in the Bronx, they visit a normal school and have typical hobbies like playing basketball.
If one of them is more intelligent, the white people can’t believe that, they have too many prejudices.
Mr. Crawford plays the role of the typical white man, not accepting the intelligence of a black boy.
But the girl Claire, who falls in love with Jamal, shows that there are more options and that no one is better than the other, only because he’s white.
So this film deals a lot with integrity.
There’s an example at the end of the film, when the head teacher says: “To someone integrity means something!”
I’d enjoyed watching the film because it was nice to see how the relationship between Forrester and Jamal goes on and how Jamal finds his way in the difficult world.
The topic about blacks and whites was shown in a realistic way.
You could identify with Jamal very well how he felt visiting the new school without any of his friends.
The ending was sad when Forrester died and they could never see each other again.
I would watch this film again, because it’s teaching, interesting and in it’s own way kind of cute.
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care
I can’t take the smell, I can’t take the noise no more
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far
Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car
Chorus:
Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head, ah huh-huh-huh
[2nd and 5th: ah huh-huh-huh]
[4th: say what?]
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
Standing on the front stoop, hangin‘ out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady livin‘ in a bag
Eating out of garbage pails, used to be a fag-hag
Said she danced the tango, skipped the light fandango
The Zircon Princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got social security
She had to get a pimp, she couldn’t make it on her own
[2nd Chorus]
My brother’s doing bad on my mother’s TV
She says: „You watch it too much, it’s just not healthy!“
„All My Children“ in the daytime, „Dallas“ at night
Can’t even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
I can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standin‘ on my back
Can’t stop to turn around, broke my sacrophiliac
A mid-ranged migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I’m going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane
My son said: „Daddy I don’t wonna go to school
Cause the teacher’s a jerk!“, he must think I’m a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it’d be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I’ll dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can’t walk through the park, cause it’s crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun, cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jar
Hear them say: „You want some more livin‘ on a seesaw?“
[4th Chorus]
A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he’s frowning too
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You’ll grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you’re playin‘, where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You’ll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them, huh,
Smugglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers even panhandlers
You say: „I’m cool, I’m no fool!“
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you’re unemployed, all non-void
Walking ‚round like you’re Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you’ve done did
Got sent up for a eight year bid
Now your manhood is took and you’re a may tag
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag
Being used and abused to serve like hell
Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young
Don’t push me ‚cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under
Yo Mell, you see that girl there?
Yo, that sounded like Cowboy man
Cool
Yo, what’s up Money?
Yo, where’s Cooly an Raheim?
They is downstairs coooling out
So what’s up for tonight y’all?
We could go down to Phoenix
We could go check out „Junebug“ man
Hey yo, you know that girl Betty?
Yeah man
Come on, come all man
Not like it
That’s what I heard man
What’s this happening, what’s this?
What’s goin‘ on?
Freeze
Don’t nobody move or nothin‘
Y’all know what this is (What’s happend?)
Get ‚em up, get ‚em up (What?)
Oh man, we’re (Right in there) Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
What is that, a gang?
No
Shut up
I don’t wanna hear your mouth
Shut up
Officer, officer, what is the problem?
You the problem
Hey, you ain’t gotta push me man
Get in the car, get in the car
Get in the god…
I said, „Get in the car“
Why is he?
Sarah „Sally“ Hemings
Sarah Hemings (circa 1773 – 1835) was an „mixed race slave“.
Her master was the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. She was said to be the half-sister of hos wife but historians credited the allegation. Today it is proved that a male in Jefferson’s line was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings’s children.
… to be continued!
Image of humanity in the time of slavery
How could a civilized society accept and support slavery? Which image of humanity (=Menschenbild) existed at that time?
The white people’s opinion was that the black were less worth than them and that they were „subhuman beings“. The education level of the blacks was much lower because they often had not the chance to go to school. Already as children they had to work on fields. An other aspect were the cheap workers which had to serve all the time. Also the blacks belong to the whites, they had no rights and weren’t free so it was easy to deal with them.
The image of humanity was that the whites were better and the blacks were like animals.
Irina und Julia
South Africa’s hopes & expectations going along with the world championship
„The hosting of the 2010 World Cup will change the way the world sees South Africa and the African continent forever.“¹
¹President Jacob Zuma,
http://www.southafrica.info/2010/leap.htm
„The first African World Cup in South Africa could have an equally dramatic effect on promoting social cohesion in a country with a lingering legacy of deep racial inequality.“²
²http://www.southafrica.info/2010/leap.htm
I read an article in a magazine which dealed with the rights of women in South Africa. Some women told that there are not treated like they deserve it.
They hope to achieve a change of their situation and make the people notice what’s going on in South Africa.
Klausur, English Grammar Tests
In my opinion some pages are well structured and it’s easy to find what your’re searching for.
For learning for a test or improving your skills these sites could be usefull. On the other hand sometimes a exercise isn’t described very well but in the most cases it isn’t that way.
I think it depends on pupils if they can learn with this method or not because everyone has a different way of learning.
William Martin Murphy
William Martin Murphy lived between 1844 and 1919.
He was an irish nationalist journalist, who founded the ‚Sunday Independent Newspaper‘. During the Dublin Lockout 
(1913) he was an emloyers‘ leader. But among the workers in Dublin, he was not very popular, they called him ‚William Murder Murphy‘. As he led employers to demonstrate against the trade unions because he thought tey would destroy his Dublin tram system. The press named him vultur(Aasgeier) or vampire.
Murphy was also a political man. He was member in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the Irish Parliamentary Party representing Dublin from 1885 to 1892.
1846: Great famine in Ireland
In 1846 there was a great famine in Ireland, because of a potato blight.
The British government didn’t take action so the famine led death, disease and emigration.
This was the cause that the number of habitans dropped from 8 millions to 6 millions.
Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/troubles/overview_ni_article_04.shtml
Irina & Mareike (http://mareikegrest.wordpress.com)
1973: Ireland joins the EEC
In 1973 Ireland, Britain and Denmark became the newest members of the EEC (European Economic Community, now EU). With them the numbers of memberstates were nine.
After difficulties in adapting they got money from the EU and that was the reason for a great economy boom in the 90th.
Ireland got the Nickname „Celtic Tiger“, because they had a economic boom like the South East Asian States, which are called “ Tigerstates“.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_in_Ireland
written by Irina in cooperation with Mareike (http://mareikegrest.wordpress.com)
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