15 years after The Hurricane came out Rubin Carter passed away still quite the
symbol of what can happen when a malignant criminal justice system puts a
target on your back and is determined to nail you. The Hurricane became his
nickname in the boxing arena given him for the speed and accuracy of the deadly
attack in the ring. He was forever Rubin Hurricane Carter even after he fought
his last fight.
After his boxing career had wound down he and a friend were picked up in his
home town of Patterson, New Jersey because they vaguely resembled two men who had shot up and robbed a bar and killed 3 people. On some flimsy
evidence and some evidence withheld Carter and the other man went to jail
and probably escaped the death penalty because it wasn't being used at the
time.
Besides the background events The Hurricane mostly focuses on the events
of Carter trying to clear himself and the young kid who reads the book Carter
wrote while he was in prison. The best scenes in the film are Vicellous Shannon as young Lezra and Denzel Washington as Carter.
The Hurricane brought Denzel Washington one of his Oscar nominations and
he will keep you riveted on the screen with his intensity. Occasionally Washington boils over, but it's the slow simmering tension he conveys as Carter
that really keeps you watching. His scenes with Shannon are a great relief for
him as in this kid he meets someone who believes his story and gets what he's
about.
Besides Washington and Shannon, performances to watch out for are Rod
Steiger as Judge Sarokin who is the federal judge who decides Carter's fate and
Dan Hedaya as the incredibly vicious and racist police lieutenant who made
incarcerating Carter a life's obsession.
The real Rubin Carter could not have had his story better told than be Denzel
Washington in The Hurricane.
