Finding Forrester - Film Review

Purpose: How well does Gus Van Sant convey his ideas in Finding Forrester?

Finding Forrester is a film directed by Gus Van Sant. It shows the relationship between Jamal Wallace, a sixteen-year-old African-American teenager living in the Bronx, New York, and William Forrester, a Pulitzer-prize winning author who lives in the same neighbourhood as Jamal but has become a neighbourhood “bogey man” because of his reclusive lifestyle. It appears that Forrester has no contact with other people and never leaves his apartment.

One of the most important themes explored in the film is the notion of entrapment, particularly by social expectations and stereotypes. Jamal is trapped in a lifestyle that is inconsistent with his passion for literature and his aspiration of becoming a writer. His life is shaped by the expectations of African-American youths, and his efforts to fit in with his peers. This means that while it acceptable for Jamal to excel at basketball, he deliberately disguises his intellectual and writing abilities.

Van Sant uses a montage at the beginning of the film to portray the stereotype of a disadvantaged African-American neighbourhood. It suggests that Jamal’s neighbourhood is one where literary ambitions are not common. However, when we are introduced to Jamal it is immediately obvious that he is “different”. We are shown his collection of books and led to make the obvious assumption that Jamal must be interested in reading and in knowledge. This impression of Jamal is strengthened when he breaks into Forrester’s apartment, where his attention is almost immediately drawn to the book shelves.

William Forrester is a very different character to Jamal. Forrester is of a different race, and much older than Jamal. However, like Jamal, he is a man who expresses himself through writing, and in this way is more like Jamal than Jamal’s friends and other people in his neighbourhood. Forrester is also similar to Jamal in another important aspect - he...