The Hurricane

12/29/19992h 26m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ His greatest fight was for justice. ~

Overview:

The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

Director:

Norman Jewison

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$50,000,000.00

Revenue:

$73,956,241.00

Key words:

prison
new jersey
1970s
boxer
affectation
melancholy
boxing school
biography
based on memoir or autobiography
hard
angry
aggressive
1960s
boxing
legal drama
legal thriller
absurd
admiring
adoring
defiant
demeaning
familiar
scathing
tragic
vibrant

Cast

Denzel Washington

~ as ~

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

Vicellous Shannon

~ as ~

Lesra Martin

Deborah Kara Unger

~ as ~

Lisa Peters

Liev Schreiber

~ as ~

Sam Chaiton

John Hannah

~ as ~

Terry

Dan Hedaya

~ as ~

Della Pesca

Debbi Morgan

~ as ~

Mae Thelma

Clancy Brown

~ as ~

Lt. Jimmy Williams

David Paymer

~ as ~

Myron Bedlock

Harris Yulin

~ as ~

Leon Friedman

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 6 month(s) ago
7
Denzel Washington is really quite convincing here as the real-life boxer Ruben Carter who fought his way from poverty to a crack at the title only for it to be snatched away from him. That’s because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and swiftly found himself on the wrong end of a triple life sentence for murder. With the authorities quite happy that the right man (or, indeed, any man) is locked up for these crimes, nobody is interested in paroling him let alone hearing any appeals. Things might be about to change, though, when the young Lesra (Vicellous Shannon) reads of his case and together with a few of his own mentors, decides that he is going to strive to prove Carter’s innocence. What’s quite clear is that his incarceration has robbed Carter of any semblance of faith in the system, and his anger is barely disguised as his contempt becomes more ingrained and his despair more entrenched. The young Lesra does, however, manage to make him see that there is always hope, even when it’s clear that for the establishment, admitting it is/was wrong is simply not on it’s agenda. To add to the complications, there are also some more venal aspects enthusiastic for him to remain in jail and finally there is the convicting sheriff (Dan Hedaya) who is as racist as it’s possible to get, and who has no intention of seeing his quarry ever escape from behind bars. There are a few solid supporting roles from Liev Schrieber and briefly from Rod Steiger - though not so much from the curiously cast John Hannah - to support this developing critique on the flawed justice system that put him there, and though there’s no actual jeopardy to the conclusion of the story, Norman Jewison and Washington do still manage to keep this interesting for much of it’s admittedly overlong two and an half hours as it spotlights racial discrimination and hatred hiding in plain sight. It drags a little at times, but for the most part is quite a compelling drama.