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The Hurricane

1495 votes

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

Status: Released

Released Date: 1999-09-17

Runtime: 146 mins

Director: Norman Jewison

Spoken language: English

Genres: Drama

Original title: The Hurricane

Production Companies: Beacon Pictures, Rudy Langlois Productions, Azoff Films

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

Denzel Washington

Vicellous Shannon

Deborah Kara Unger

Liev Schreiber

John Hannah

Dan Hedaya

Debbi Morgan

Clancy Brown

David Paymer

Harris Yulin

Rod Steiger

Badja Djola

Vincent Pastore

Al Waxman

Reviews

Geronimo1967

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.

2025-05-30

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