"Won't Back Down" movie quotes follows one mother's mission to reform a failing school in the inner city into one that puts each child's success as the top priority. The drama film, released on September 28, 2012, in the United States, was produced by Daniel Barnz, directed by Mark Johnson and written by Brin Hill and Daniel Barnz using true events as its inspiration.
In "Won't Back Down," mother and bartender Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal) becomes irate after an incident at her daughter Malia's (Emily Alyn Lind) school in which Malia was punished for what Jamie believes is inappropriate. Jamie digs deeper to discover that her inner city public school is laden with corruption, bureaucracy and little focus on the actual students' success. This is not acceptable for Jamie and she embarks on a mission to change all of that.
Inspired by a speech given by a local charter school principal (Ving Rhames), Jamie sets out to change her daughter's school for the better. It's no easy task however and she'll need a lot of support, the majority of parents and teachers behind her, to make a difference. That's exactly why she recruits teacher and fellow mother Nora Alberts (Viola Davis) and music teacher Michael Perry (Oscar Isaac) to help her along the way.
Like fellow school film "Waiting for Superman," "Won't Back Down" is a thought-provoking film that has polarized some audiences and attracted criticism for its portrayal of the education crisis. If you're not quite into all of that drama, many other great movies are available instead including "End of Watch, "Dredd 3D," "Lawless," "Resident Evil: Retribution, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," "Trouble with the Curve, "The Master," "The Words," and "The Inbetweeners."Won't Back Down Movie Quotes,
Want to Start a School With Me
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "Hey, they told me you'd be here. Hi:
Nona Alberts: "Hi, I'm Nona."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "I'm Jamie."
Nona Alberts: "Sorry about last night."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "I know, it was a bad night for all of us."
Nona Alberts: "I asked about Malia switching and..."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "And he said no?"
Nona Alberts: "Yeah"
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "Okay, I'm sorry, you're like the only person who actually does what she's says she's going to do around here."
Nona Alberts: "I'm sorry"
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "You want to start a school with me?"
Nona Alberts: "What?"
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "Cause I'm sick of this. I can't take this anymore and somebody told me that if you find a teacher and you stick with it long enough you can turn a school around. I'm just so tired of getting shafted here. The thing that keeps me up at night is why do I got to let her down on this? So you want to start a school with me?
Nona Alberts: "Listen, I know what you're saying more than you might think but I'm not who you're looking for."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "No but see listen to me. I work in sales where success rate is based on need and you've got need. I saw it last night. You don't want to get left behind, neither do I. So, I'm going to go to district tomorrow at nine a.m. figure out how to do this. Could you take a sick day and meet me there? Please?"
You Dared To
Nona Alberts: "One great thing happened to me. I got a phone call from Tyler and he called me on the phone number I gave out. Why'd you call me, Tyler?"
Tyler: "I had a question."
Nona Alberts: "He had a question about the famous speech I sent home with you last night to discuss with your parents and your grandparents and did you do that?"
Class: "Yeah"
Nona Alberts: "Very good, now we're going to get to Tyler's question in a minute. So the speech let us tenderly and kindly cherish the means of what?"
Class: "Knowledge"
Nona Alberts: "Knowledge, which is why I sent it home with you in the first place, the means of knowledge. So, you ready for the second part?"
Class: "Yeah"
Nona Alberts: "Let us dare to..."
Class: "Read"
Nona Alberts: "Let us dare to..."
Class: "Think"
Nona Alberts: "Let us dare to..."
Class: "Speak"
Nona Alberts: "Let us dare to..."
Class: "Write"
Nona Alberts: "Let us dare to read, speak, think and right and Tyler, who wrote that?"
Tyler: "John Adams"
Nona Alberts: "John Adams, our country's second president. Tyler's question, his question was 'is that the same Adams the school is named after?' and I told you?"
Tyler: "Yes"
Nona Alberts: "Yes and the reason why that is a prefect question is that you dared to think. You dared to read, think, speak and write and who wrote that?"
Class: "John Adams"
Nona Alberts: "Our school's name is..."
Class: "Adams"
Nona Alberts: "All right"
I Care
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "We're late, we're late"
Malia Fitzpatrick: "This school doesn't care."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "I care"
We Will Not Wait
Principal Thompson: "In our country, one child out of ever four grows up not knowing how to read properly. Let me ask you, does that make you mad?"
Crowd: "Yes!"
Principal Thompson: "Good because I want you to be mad. We have 40 spaces for you in our school. So that means 400 of you are going to have to go out there and fight for something better, just like I did 10 years ago. I was a teacher, a parent of two. I was sending my kids to school but they weren't learning anything. Now I don't know everything, but I knew I had to do something to try to fix it and now Rosa Parks is third in the state. But when I first tried to start it, you know what they said to me? 'Hold on, wait, we're addressing the problem. Hold on, wait, they're making changes.' That word wait means they're not going to do anything about it. I said then and I'm saying it now, we will not wait. Are we going to wait while our kids are dropping out of school? Are we going to wait while the school system is failing us? We will not wait."
Crowd: "We will not wait! We will not wait!"
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "This is it. This is our school."
Have You Heard About Those Mothers?
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "Have you heard about those mothers who lift one-ton trucks off their babies? They're nothing compared to me."
Jamie is one mother who does not want to be messed with. As she describes in this quote, those mothers who perform amazing feats of strength to save their kin have nothing on her in her mission to reform this school.Malia Will Suffer From It
Evelyn Riske: "I admire your ideals but Malia will suffer from it."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "Now don't use my daughter to scare me."
Work a Little Harder
Nona Alberts: "We're going to try something new. We're going to work a little harder, me included."
Realizing that the teaching methods used by other teachers in the school are ineffective, Nona vows to go the extra mile to help her students succeed but will need to give just as much extra as the students do.Leading the Charge
Michael Perry: "Are you the one out there leading the charge?"
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "I saw you teach. You're really good at it."
Do You Really Think You Can Turn This Around?
Parent: "There's drugs, there's gangs..."
Nona Alberts: "Change the school, you change the neighborhood"
Parent: "You really think you can turn this around?"
Nona Alberts: "I didn't say say for certain..."
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "A hundred percent yes"
Being Poor Affects Education
Jamie Fitzpatrick: "I can't wait with 10,000 studies about how being poor affects education. I can tell you being poor sucks and my kid can't read."
Angry that the public school system which her daughter, Malia, attends is failing, Jamie expresses her dissatisfaction with the current state of things. However like the title of the film suggests, she has no plans to allow this to happen if she can help it.
