Hurricane,the

 

 

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Rubin Carter was wrongfully imprisoned before I was even born, and I'm sure I am one of many who first learned of his shocking case through the telling words of Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane." Dylan was one of many who believed in Carter's innocence and helped raise awareness of the gross injustice he suffered at the hands of the justice system in New Jersey. I do not know all of the facts in the actual case, but I am aware of the fact that this film does not follow the history of events exactly - it's no secret, as a disclaimer of such appears at the beginning of the movie. This is not a documentary; it's a moving tale of prejudice, corruption, and hatred ultimately defeated by love, truth, and honor; as such, it captures the heart and spirit of Carter's tragic story in the most powerful of ways.

You could call what happened to Rubin Carter a travesty of justice, yet even this term barely begins to explain Carter's plight. He was tried and convicted of the murder of three individuals in a New Jersey bar in 1967 for two reasons: he was black and he was successful. He and a fan were heading home in a white car when they were pulled over, hauled over to a murder scene they knew nothing about and then to the hospital to see if anyone could identify them as the murderers - which no one did. This did not stop the lead detective from arresting and trying them for murder - by suppressing evidence and forging documents, not to mention engineering the false testimony of quite impeachable witnesses, the police and prosecutors got their conviction. Rubin Carter's boxing career was over, and this man - who could have been the middle-weight champion of the world - found himself looking at three life sentences for a crime he did not commit.

Much of this film examines Carter's response to the crushing weight of prison and the repeated denials of his appeals over two decades (somewhat strangely, it mentions but does not dramatize the second trial he managed to get - and lose). Along the way, we flash back to the important events of Carter's childhood and early adulthood - including some of his overpowering victories in the ring. Another story converges with Carter's as the movie progresses, though. A young man from Brooklyn, who has been taken under the wing of three working partners in Toronto - who teach him to read and help him prepare for the college education he longs to have - buys Carter's autobiography at a used book sale - it's the first book he has ever bought. Reading Carter's story, young Lesra Martin feels a close connection to the man and decides to write him a letter. A friendship emerges between Carter and Martin, and eventually Martin's Toronto friends and teachers all risk their careers if not their very lives to help Carter win his release from prison. Even though you know how the story turns out, the final scenes are wondrous moments of cinematic art full of raw emotional power.

This movie does run a little long, coming in at just under two and a half hours, but you'll be so absorbed by the story you won't even realize how much time passes. Denzel Washington does a remarkable job as Ruben Carter, and the supporting cast is stellar as well. Hurricane affects you across the whole range of emotions: hatred for the crooked cops and prosecutors, disgust with those who not only feel racism but use it as a weapon to subvert justice and ruin a man, growing admiration for Carter as he deals with year upon year of incarceration, deep respect for those who risk their own livelihoods in order to open the eyes of Lady Justice, and the moving joy of hope fulfilled and the eventual triumph of good over evil. The film may not be historically accurate in all its details, but Hurricane is about as real as it gets. This is just an extraordinary motion picture.

In the movie DISCLOSURE, with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore (based on the Michael Crichton screenplay), a high-powered, very ambitious and very sexual woman sexually harasses Michael Douglas in a software company. The resulting chaos this causes in his personal and professional life forces him to accept the irony of his circumstance--him, a man, being harassed by a woman--and take her to court, or in this case, arbitration, to save his job. So much controversy was engendered by the plot of this movie and its relationship to the serious issue of sexual harassment (then a fairly new one) that most people ranting on either side about DISCLOSURE's true social significance forgot the actual plot of the movie, and as such, missed its real message: Demi Moore's character was brought to the software company Douglas' character worked for for the sole purpose of getting rid of him in the first place, so a pretty immoral and essentially illegal business transaction could go through, making the principal stockholders rich. The movie really begins when the sexual harassment subplot ends. Like ERIN BROKOVICH or WALL STREET, DISCLOSURE was really a window to the architecture and life-destroying immorality of corporate greed.

I was slightly put off by some of the publicity surrounding the treatment of the subject matter that is the life of boxer Reuben Carter before this movie came out. But after seeing it in the theatres and subsequently realizing the actual reason for the controversy, I am perplexed to the point of amused as to why everyone still rants about every aspect of the film's subject matter but not the actual film itself. Just as people still talk about DISCLOSURE as a sexual harassment irony movie, missing the actual point Michael Crichton was making about the business world, people have missed the fact that it was a rival movie company's publicity staff who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to see to it that all this historical controversy would make it to the news in time to prevent this movie from winning the many Oscars it probably would have won; damaging the biggest competition before the race like shooting the odds-on favorite horse in the leg before the beginning of the Derby. The Oscars have so much money at stake for the studios that they are almost as political as Washington, D.C, and mud-slinging on the competitors is a convenient political tool. So here's the real News Flash: it wasn't the Smithsonian or Cornel West or Mike Wallace that broke this story, *it was the corporate greed of Hollywood, Inc. itself, doing so as part of a ruthless and pretty immoral business deal against a competing movie studio*. The very debate of Reuben Carter's actual historicity is as much a symbolic morality play on the corporate greed of Hollywood as the plot of the movie is about the triumph of the human spirit.

THE HURRICANE in the end is a drama, not a documentary. By the same token, virtually every movie made in Hollywood before 1978 and God knows how many afterwards, from BIRTH OF A NATION to GONE WITH THE WIND to DRIVING MISS DAISY to FRIDAY AFTER NEXT, shows the African-American community in such an absurdly one-dimensional and offensively inaccurate light that if we commented only on the historical/social inaccuracies inherent in the depicted subject matter we'd never know what the art form of film actually consists of, let alone what represents it well. MISSISSIPPI BURNING (1988), for example, so enraged the family members of the Black main character of the civil rights drama that they held many a lecture in many a college regarding its blatant historical inaccuracies; historical inaccuracies obviously designed to whitewash history such that it would be more palatable to the dominant culture of the Reagan Era 80s (as racist apologia usually gets in a strong white audience for civil rights films and did so quite well during his administration). Yet no one, however, not even them, argued that Gene Hackman and Willem Defoe weren't incredible in it, and probably deserved Oscars for their portrayals. It is not history; it is art.

What made me see THE HURRICANE is why everyone should see it. Here is the reality of this film: minor flaws notwithstanding (in construction, not research), director Norman Jewison creates a completely magnificent film. And the incomparable Denzel Washington gives what is undoubtedly the greatest performance of his career. From the very first moment the screen is filled with an image of Denzel as the boxer, you have no choice but to believe him and believe in him. Even the downright eerie way Washington completely became Malcolm X in Spike Lee's masterpiece is SURPASSED by the degree to which he took on and magnified the soul of Rueben Carter. I've seen most of Marlon Brando's work; I've see James Dean's; I've seen the best of de Niro; I have never seen acting like this before, ever.

Kevin Spacey, who by all accounts is one of the most talented men in Hollywood, did an absolutely wonderful job in that macabre comedy/drama AMERICAN BEAUTY--THE HURRICANE's biggest competition for the Academy Awards. But make no mistake, Denzel was robbed of the most deserved Best Actor Oscar in recent memory, because in no way did Spacey's performance come close to that of Mr. Washington's. The Oscar given to Denzel for his essentially phoned-in performance in TRAINING DAY a year later was as a "Sorry we screwed you over THE HURRICANE" Oscar; as much as Al Pacino's SCENT OF A WOMAN Oscar in 1991 was little more than an apology for the Academy's repeated dissing of his work in the GODFATHER trilogy.

Denzel Washington is not a historian. He is an actor. And if you love the kind of acting that makes history, you will want to own this film. A strong supporting cast and Jewison collaborate to create the story of a troubled boxer's story. But THE HURRICANE is Denzel Washington's tour de force.

Well, it should've gone to Washington for his breathtaking performance in this biopic from 2000. Washington captures the very essence of the different modes of "Hurricane" Carter, a man wrongly incarcerated for a crime that he didn't commit. Washington superbly displays the various sides of this most complex man: anger, defiance, reflection, intelligence, humility, and perseverance. As others have hypothesized, Denzel's win for "Training Day" was a reward for Academy oversights for earlier tremendous performances...and his work in "The Hurricane" ranks as one of his best.

Besides the work of Washington, the film benefits from marvelous turns from co-star Vicellous Reon Shannon as a young man enamored of the boxer and determined to right the wrong that has befallen Carter. The young man possesses the right amount of "wide-eyed innocence" as he confronts a man that he discovers in a long-forgotten autobiography. Who cannot be moved when man and boy share a tender moment by touching through the bars of the convict's cell???

This kid deserved a supporting acting nod, if nothing less.

And a film that sports such stellar character performers as Rod Steiger, Debbi Morgan, Dan Hedaya, Harris Yulen, Clancy Brown, and David Paymer is a cut above the others. Liv Shrieber, Deborah Unger, and John Hannah are wonderful as Canadians that assist Shannon's "Lesra" as the lad works to free his friend.

While there are a few slow moments, the overall film is worth viewing...and owning.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out.
In 1998 Rubin Carter came to my high school, to talk about his life and journey through prison. At this time we didnt know who he was, and took the sppech like another African... Read more

Published on Jan 1 2008 by Rassool Auckbaraullee

3.0 out of 5 stars Consistant
This film always kept its focus and Denzel was supurb. The inaccuracies of the movie are to be expected because afterall, this is Hollywood's take. Read more

Published on July 13 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Hollywood Revisionism At It's Freakin' Finest
The story is about 15% factual. Carter was set free because of two alleged procedural errors, NOT because of new evidence. Read more

Published on July 11 2004 by retro_styled_crooner

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm Still Puking....
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is one that will continue throughout the ages. A black man wrongly accused of a crime serves multiple years in prison without a... Read more

Published on Jun 30 2004 by Brennon A. Slattery

1.0 out of 5 stars big talker
should change his name to big talker saying nothing of any intellgence. Other things might be a matter of opinion but this is not; Carter lost 7 of his last 15 fights and was not... Read more

Published on Jun 16 2004 by S. Pastre

2.0 out of 5 stars Classic issue of what standard to apply to a film
Like Oliver Stone's "JFK," this film raises the issue of whether to judge a movie by historical accuracy or simply by the standard of if it is an entertaining and... Read more

Published on Mar 19 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars You can't bring down a legend
A decent drama based on real charecter, Rubin Carter sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit. If he wasn't sent to jail, would Muhammed Ali be called the greatest. Read more

Published on Mar 7 2004 by hadi jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie To Bad It Is Based On Lies
I just watched this movie for the first time last nite, I dont know how I never heard of it, or the story of Hurricane Carter but I had not. Read more

Published on Feb 9 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars big talka is right
Though no offence you shouldnt have come out so aggresively against " A viewer". Though I can fell your anger as a dedicated fan of Rubin Carter. Read more

Published on Dec 25 2003 by Movie lover

4.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER WINNER FROM DENZEL WASHINGTON
A BOXER [DENZEL WASHINGTON] GETS ACCUSED OF MURDER AND IS SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRSON. THIS MOVIE, WHICH IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY, IS VERY POWERFUL. Read more

Published on Dec 18 2003 by MICHAEL TAYLOR

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