“Perhaps your skills do reach farther than basketball” said Prof. Robert Crawford. “Further” said Jamal Wallace. “What?” asked Prof. Crawford? Claire whispered to Jamal “Don’t…” but Jamal went on, “You said that my skills reached ‘farther’ than basketball. ‘Farther’ relates to distance, ‘further’ is a definition of degree. You should have said ‘further’. “Are you challenging me, Mr. Wallace?” asked Prof. Crawford. “Not any more than you challenged Coleridge” said Prof. Crawford. In Finding Forrester directed by Gus Van Sant in 2000 this quote was the first time that Jamal stood up for himself and proved that he was smarter than what most assumed. When Jamal was first introduced to the private school Mailor-Callow, they told him that it was because of his grades but most say that it was because of his basketball skills.
Jamal was a sixteen year old boy that lived in New York who was always outside with his friends at the basketball court playing basketball. The basketball court seemed very beat up and was used a lot. But in his bedroom, he was surrounded by books and liked to write in his many journals. Jamal did not want to stand out so he did not participate in class and received an average grade, but he surprised his teachers and his mother with the grade he received on an essay. Would you want all of your friends to not talk to you and make fun of you because you were the ‘nerd’ of the class? He would feel alone, odd, and weird. That is when the representative from Mailor-Callow, a private school, came to Jamal’s school in the Bronx and wondered if Jamal would like to become a student in that school.
The one person that really knew how much Jamal wanted to go to the private school was William Forrester a.k.a ‘The Window’. He lived in the same tall apartment building as Jamal, but only a few floors higher. No one knew what he looked like but they knew that he would just watch them outside of his always sparkly clean window. Jamal became kind of a student after the many times he would go to William’s house, all starting from a dare. William did Jamal a favor by helping him with his writing.
The movie taught people how to believe in themselves and not to judge a book by its cover. Jamal was judged because he was very good at playing basketball so some thought that basketball was his only talent or that basketball players could not be good students and receive good grades, like Prof. Crawford. They were very wrong and speechless. The soundtrack went perfect with the movie because it was jazz so it was very moody, slow and calm.
When Jamal stood up for himself it showed bravery, brightness, and brains. What is right, what is wrong, would you have done it? Jamal showed that he wasn’t only a basketball star and that he had potential. This movie motivates many to stand out and show your true self. I would rate this movie a 3.5/5. The friendship between Jamal and William was very strong. The overall movie was good and some students understand Jamal and why he acted the way he did. All he wanted was to fit in.