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THE SKINNY
Uplifting and touching film based on the true story of a boxer imprisoned for murders he didn’t commit.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Entertaining drama with a performance by Denzel that shouldn’t be missed.

THE FULL REVIEW
It should come as no surprise that Denzel Washington gives one of his best performances to date in Norman Jewison’s stirring new film, The Hurricane, which tells the incredible true story of a boxer named Rubin “Hurricane” Carter who, in 1966, was falsely accused and imprisoned for murder. Washington’s deep commitment to the role began nearly six years ago after he made an impassioned plea to screenwriter, Armyan Bernstein to be cast in the role of Carter upon the script’s completion. Washington began physical preparation for the role with boxing trainer Terry Clayborn a full year prior to the start of production on the film. The actor’s strenuous workout regimen and special diet enabled him to lose the 45 pounds necessary to accurately portray Carter as he appeared early in his boxing career.

As great an actor as Washington is, it is the emotion imbedded within the story of Rubin Carter that enabled him to truly shine in this film. The Hurricane is based on two books, Carter’s autobiography, The Sixteenth Round and Lazarus and the Hurricane by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton. In the film, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a Middleweight Boxing Title contender, was near the peak of his career when, in 1966, he and friend John Artis are falsely accused of a triple murder in a New Jersey bar and are sentenced to serve three life terms in prison. After his first seven years in prison, Carter writes a book about his experiences that is later published and read by a teen-aged boy named Lesra Martin played by Vicellous Reon Shannon (Can’t Hardly Wait, NYPD Blue, Moesha). Martin lives in Toronto with three social activist guardians, Terry Swinton played by John Hannah (The Mummy, Sliding Doors, Four Weddings and a Funeral), Lisa Peters played by Deborah Kara Unger (Payback, The Game, Crash), and Sam Chaiton played by Liev Scheiber (A Walk on the Moon, Ransom, Walking and Talking). Deeply moved by Carter’s story, Martin initiates a series of correspondences with the former boxer that leads to a bond being formed between the two. Ultimately, Martin is able to enlist the help of his guardians in a crusade to set Carter free from prison.

The version of the Hurricane Carter story that Jewison and Bernstein bring to the “big screen” is a clean and neatly packaged one. Several details of the story have been simplified for the film, but not quite altered. In the film for example, a single racist New Jersey police detective played by Dan Hedaya (Dick, Clueless, A Civil Action) is responsible for framing Carter and ensuring that he remains behind bars. In reality, Carter was partially the victim of a suspect New Jersey legal and political system that was rife with corruption and racism throughout much of the 1960’s and 1970’s. In addition to this example, many professional film critics have knocked The Hurricane for what really amount to harmless modifications to the true story. Does it really matter that Lesra Martin actually lived with nine guardians rather than three? As actor John Hannah states, “There may have been a couple of times where there were contradictions between the books and the script, but ultimately we were making a film, not a biopic.”

The Hurricane may not quite measure up to the high standards set by Jewison’s prior two films that dealt with racial injustice, In the Heat of the Night and A Soldier’s Story, but any film that can elicit cheers from the audience several times during its showing, as this one did, must be working on some level. As for those whose curiosity is peaked so much by this film that they demand to know the complete story, there are several resources available to them. In addition to the previously mentioned books (although, The Sixteenth Round is supposedly out of print, so you’ll have to look for it at the library), there are several web sites, the links to some of which I have listed below, filled with varying amounts of information on Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.

By: Craig Ettinger