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| “Hurricane” unleashes its power |
by Tom Snyder
Correspondent |
"Writing is a weapon." When Denzel Washington delivers that powerful line in Director Norman Jewison's new bio-drama, "The Hurricane," it is the understatement of a lifetime. Washington isn't just grandstanding; Rubin Carter's writing saved Carter’s life and brought to light the truth that had been painfully hidden for 20 years.
 Well-adapted by Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon from Carter's autobiographical book, “The Sixteenth Round,” and another book, “Lazarus,” and the “Hurricane” by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton, “The Hurricane” is a somewhat flawed, yet often stunning and emotionally gripping motion-picture. It is the story of a man who went through more personal hell than I have ever seen, and the sad part is, all of it really happened.
In the most powerful performance of his career, Washington is Carter, a once up-and-coming middleweight boxer who in the June of 1966, was arrested, falsely convicted of triple murder and placed in prison to serve three consecutive life terms. Most heartbreaking of all is the fact that this bitter and racist-driven event arrived immediately after Carter had finally turned his life around. After overcoming a tough childhood and serving a bogus jail sentence in which he self-educated himself, Carter
emerged from prison a changed man, full of promise and hope--only to have it crushed and trampled upon by dumb luck. Yes, Carter's life is by far the most nightmarish, yet ultimately inspirational, I have ever heard or seen.
The major problem with "The Hurricane" is that it sticks too strictly to that classic courtroom drama formula. We understand full well that the film will end in emotional "give me justice" speeches and a decisive verdict, and if you know the true story of Carter, any suspense in the film will be vacant. Thankfully, while Carter is serving his excruciating sentence, Washington presents the audience with the harrowing portrait of a man torn between hope and necessity, a hard heart and tenderness, love and hate. Wanting to hope for a reversal of verdict, but losing again and again upon appeal, Carter transforms before our very eyes, and the metamorphosis is nearly unbearable. We want to scream to him, "Don't give up! You're innocent," but the solutions seem distant and hope is all but dead.
Without a doubt, Carter was and is a great man. He overcame dire beginnings, extremely ignorant prejudice, injustice and the pain of losing half of his life behind bars. Yet, he succeeded, not by fighting or killing or screaming his frustrations at the top of his lungs, but by writing a book. “Writing is a weapon," indeed.
The book that saved his life was “The Sixteenth Round,” an autobiography he wrote while serving his three life sentences. At a used book sale, that important book found its way into the hands of Lesra, a Brooklyn teenager living in Canada with a kind and caring foster family. The book is Lesra's first, and as he stumbles his way through, he becomes more and more convinced that Carter is an innocent man. "The Hurricane" is at its best when Lesra and Carter become corresponding friends, at first through letters and culminating in an emotional face-to-face visit.
Vicellous Reon Shannon delivers a breakthrough performance as Lesra, the inspired young man who eventually convinced his foster family--Lisa
(Deborah Kara Unger), Terry (John Hannah) and Sam (Liev Schreiber)--to further investigate Rubin's case. Their dedication to Carter's case feels like something only Hollywood could create as they encounter roadblock upon dead-end, but the fact that is true (for the most part) makes it that more amazing and special.
What will leave you more furious than the lack of suspense and long running time of the film (which could have easily been shortened by deleting some standard and unneeded investigation scenes), is the lack of substantial evidence that sealed Carter behind bars for so many years. I kept asking myself, how could this possibly be happening to this man? Then I remember his skin color, and the year in which it happened, and the place that the frame occurred, and Carter's supposed "peers" that convicted him. And then I remember: my God, it is a true story, and that makes it all the more heartbreaking when Rubin declares: "Hate got me into this place, love got me out."
For John, my grade: B+ |
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