Customer Reviews

The Hurricane (Widescreen)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

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.

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 American who was wronged injustice.. The movie came out a year later. And when I watched it in the theatre you can imagine my reaction and suprice. So after the film I called up my friends and told them to watch this amazing film, and really couldnt believe that I had met him a year ago and was picking quotes from his book in our daily quote of the day annoucements.

The Hurricane took me by storm! It is riveting story-telling cutting deeply into our deepest emotions. Finely woven autobiography and historical profiling rolled into one. Denzel Washington plays the role of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter with such utter conviction that it is difficult to remember he is the actor, not the man, himself. I couldn't take my eyes from the screen whenever he was there. Assured direction from Norman Jewison boosts this story from the ordinary bio-pic to a masterpiece of pacing where the audience's emotions are taken on a rollercoaster ride. Denzel was nominated for an Oscar for this role and was robbed again ang going in on the red carpet, said he was winning it. The film isnt not manipulative of our emotions, as some films can be. The truth of the man's life and times and those who were drawn into his exoneration are moving alone. I found the portrayal of the Canadians much less stereotyped than other non-Canadian productions, although I found myself watching John Hannah who played the Canadian Terry. The most original device was Rubin in isolation his personality battling as he struggles with the conflicts inside himself.

To know suprise now I realise that 4 years after watching the movie I became a volunteer to help inmates in prison, and everytime im there I think back to The Hurricane and wonder how many innocent victims can be in prison.

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.

I really liked this Movie (until I did my homework). The Movie was very powerfull leaving you in disbelief, how could this happen? How could a innocent man be sentenced to Life for a crime he didnt commit?

The Movie's 2nd half left me teary eyed of the injustice done to Hurricane Carter and very touched by the young man that wrote, visited & belived in his innocence and who along with his Canadian Family worked so hard to free him.

Denzel Washington Does an exceptional peformance, what a great actor, But SHAME ON YOU Mr. Washington, This Movie is Based More on Lies than on the Truth, you were one of my favorite Actors, but your credibility has suffered, you had to of known of the Untruths of this Movie, and then to embrace Hurricane Carter and make a statement that this man is full of Love?

I gave this Movie 5 Stars because it was entertaining. The Movie left me with wanting more, immeadiately after watching the movie I did a search on Boxer Hurricane Carter. The First site was:

http://www.graphicwitness.com

My first impression was, Wow this must be some Racial Web Site against Hurricane Carter, but after spending hours reading all the many pages of well documented articles and interviews, my conclussion is their is more evidence that this man, Hurricane Carter is a Guilty as charged, than an innocent man wrongly accused as partrayed in the Movie.

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. I don't understand why there are so many condemnations of Ruben by reviewers who are taking information from a questionable website. Of course there are documents out there that suggested he is guilty or he never would have been convicted in the first place. Whether those documents are truthful or not should be considered before wasting space on amazon, not giving any commentary on so much as the acting in the film.

The story is about 15% factual. Carter was set free because of two alleged procedural errors, NOT because of new evidence. His resume was 27-12-1 - high point of his career was his 1st round TKO of former welter & middleweight champion, Emile Griffith. he didn't destroy the great Emile as depicted in the movie. The fight was stopped after 3 flash knockdowns. Griffith was never dangersouly hurt, he was caught cold & never regained his legs - due to the three knockdown rule, the fight was prematurely stopped.

Carter was a rough, tough, seasoned boxer, with slightly above average power, a decent mandible & average hand/foot speed. He struggled against slick styled boxer's that were defensive gurus - movement off angles, stylists and great side-to-side movement. Carter would literally give up when outclassed in the ring - ie. the Joey Giardello and Luis Rodriguez fights. The Giardello fight is one of the key elements of the movie. In the movie, Carter pounds on Giardello for 15 rounds & then gets outrageously robbed of the decision by a racist conspiracy by boxing's powers that be. Joey Giardello - foolishly portrayed as a racist in the film - beat Carter as convincingly as Nigerian Dick Tiger did - both beat Carter like a drum.

Carter's main weapon was sheer intimidation. He looked as bad (mean) as Sonny Liston, but when he was about to do battle with someone who wasn't intimidated, Carter simply had problems - not to mention he was easily outboxed. USA Today described Rubin Carter as, "A true folk hero" & a "warrior scholar" - obviously the public seemed to be buying the movies hook, line & sinker. The fact is, Carter was never a world champion and clearly lost to every upper echelon fighter he fought. Though wrongfully accused, Carter was well out the game when convicted. Unfortunately "The Hurricane" is more about artistic rape.

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 worthy investigation. Because this is a true story, it makes the inspiration to create a film all the more admirable.

... Except, somewhere down the line, some greedy jerk with a penchant for turning drama in melodrama got their hands on this script (and infused the soul of that fat obnoxious little boy) and turned it into just another Hollywood Weep Fest For Those Who Do Not Understand Real Drama.

Denzel Washington is amazing in this film, by the way. He deserved the Golden Globe for Best Actor. And it's not his fault that they gave him the crappiest "I love everybody" lines towards the end, or snuck cheesy sob music in there, or surrounded him by talentless and annoying actors. Thus, Denzel is the only thing worth watching. And he's not even good enough to warrant sitting through this film -- which is over-long to boot -- and that, my friends, is a shame.

"Hurricane" should be taught in film schools. What Not To Do When You Have Good Material, A Great Star, And Limitless Potential. A new breed of filmmakers should examine this film. They would declare, "This is crap. It's time to make something better."

Yeah, if only. In the meantime, you're stuck with this -- "Hurricane." Could've been good, but a miserable script and phony actors hammed it up to the point of low-brow comedy.

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 #1 ranked contender by anyone. Look that up you loud mouthed idiot, then go slap yourself

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 well-crafted effort. Anyone taking time to look at the evidence produced at the trials, will have to reach the conclusion that Carter, if not the gunman, was closely connected to the commission of the crime. But should this matter to a movie-goer, who is looking for an enjoyable movie experience? That being said, this is an okay effort, with plenty of drama for someone not familar with the story. It has generated more interest, however, in the ensuing debate about the accuracy of the story as told in the film.