*** out of ****
Year: 1999. Starring Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Deborah Unger, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah, Dan Hedaya, Debbi Morgan, Clancy Brown, David Paymer, Harris Yulin, Rod Steiger. Screenplay by Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon. Directed by Norman Jewison. Rated R.
There are times when the success of a particular film depends entirely on one actor's effort. Often a single performance can turn what might have been a rather mediocre movie into something worthwhile. When one of these comes along, I usually try to think about how many other people put work into the movie, that there is no way one person could possible carry the entire project on his shoulders. But sometimes there is simply no other explanation, and such is the case with "The Hurricane." This biopic about falsely convicted boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter would normally be called "Norman Jewison's 'The Hurricane,'" as per the tradition of referring to a film "belonging" to a director. But though he does decent work, Jewison cannot claim ownership of "The Hurricane," because there is one reason this film works at all, and his name is Denzel Washington.
Washington plays Carter, a boxer who in 1967 was convicted of a late-night shooting in a bar. Jailed for 20 years, he maintained that he had never committed the crimes, but remained in jail after a second trial and countless appeals. The situation changed when a group of Canadians moved to Washington and worked on freeing Carter. Through the efforts of that group and Carter's lawyers, he was eventually freed when their case was heard in federal court and the judge ruled that Rubin Carter had been unfairly convicted. The film details Carter's childhood, which had him in and out of jail because of the efforts of a racist cop (Dan Hedaya). When he finally got out of prison for good, Carter became a rising star as a middleweight pro boxer, seemingly having his career on track, until the police framed him for multiple homicide. Despite the efforts of political activists and celebrities, he remained imprisoned. Flash forward to 1983, when Lesra (Vicellous Reon Shannon) a young African-American boy, living with a group of Canadian tutors, reads the book Carter wrote while in prison. The book, entitled "The Sixteenth Round," opens young Lesra's eyes to the injustice that was Carter's life, and he vows to help free the incarcerated boxer. Lesra convinces his Canadian friends (Deborah Unger, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah) to work with him towards his goal.
"The Hurricane" leans on Denzel Washington. He must carry virtually every scene by sheer force of will, and he does so brilliantly. It's probably accurate to say that Washington does not embody Rubin Carter, because he plays a character far stronger and nobler than any real person could hope to be. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that Washington embodies the character of Rubin Carter--a fictional personality invented solely for the film. The actor's work is masterful; Washington throws himself into every moment, refusing to keep the audience at arm's length. We feel everything he feels: the humiliation of having to return to prison after fighting so hard to make something of his life, the pain of having to order his wife to give up the fight, and the utter despair he feels when coming to the conclusion that all hope is lost. Washington's is a performance of weight and emotional depth. He doesn't merely play angry, happy, or sad; he feels it at the deepest level. His work is masterful, and for half of this film I realized that the scene I was watching would not have been nearly as affecting as it was if it had been in the hands of another actor.
Norman Jewison directs the film, doing a reasonably good job of pacing and shot selection. "The Hurricane" moves quickly, with no scene drawn out much further than necessary and the narrative galloping along nicely. Jewison handles his multiple flashbacks well; the audience is always aware of just what the time and place of each scene is, and nothing is terribly confusing. His boxing scenes, constructed with clear inspiration from "Raging Bull," get inside the action very well, and they are believable as real sports footage. Jewison puts together a particularly nice scene by utilizing a pretty cool trick: Carter is sent to solitary confinement for 90 days when he refuses to wear a prison uniform, and Jewison, assisted by some wonderful acting from a game Washington, shows how Carter gradually starts to lose his mind during the constant solitude, and eventually we get three Rubin Carters arguing with each other in one cell. Jewison's best achievement in "The Hurricane" is succeeding at showing how Carter becomes an embittered man during his hard-knock life, and how he is able to break out of that bitterness and learn to trust people again.
Sadly, though, the film's chief failures lie with the screenplay, as with most of the good-but-not-great efforts to round the pike this winter. There is much to interest a viewer in "The Hurricane," but it seems that every time the film gets a chance to take the most clichéd route possible, it does. Take a look at the supporting characters, for example, who are drawn up as either entirely good or entirely evil. Carter and Lesra (played nicely by Shannon, who deserves credit) are the only real people here; everyone else is a stereotype. The Canadians are good. The cops are bad. The Canadians spend most of their time dolefully grinning at each other in their lovey-dovey commune (and it is a commune, despite the film's failure to make that clear), while every racist cop (especially Dan Hedaya's) melts in out of the shadows and glowers at every black person that enters the room. Much of the dialogue comes off as rather hokey ("Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out."), and the big courtroom climax during which everyone gets to make an impassioned speech could have been lifted from a made-for-TV Lifetime special. It's too bad. The cast is game, the director does his job, and the subject matter is interesting, but the script takes the safer, slightly more boring route far too often. I wanted a real reason for the cop to hold a grudge against Carter other than "he's a racist pig." I wanted more evidence that these Canadians are real people with faults and virtues instead of a bunch of saintly crusaders looking for justice. In short, I wanted to see the film through a less distorted lens.
Criticism has been levied against the liberties "The Hurricane" takes with the truth of what really happened to Carter, and much of it is deserved. For example, the film gives us a boxing scene showing Carter pummeling defending champ Joey Giardello, only to be screwed by the judges, who ruled Giardello the winner. Most accounts of the fight, however, have Carter losing fairly. Furthermore, much of Carter's criminal past is conveniently left out of the film, and just why he was convicted again in his second trial is never really explained. Of course, "The Hurricane" works mainly as a fable, so digressions from the truth can be excused at least partially, but even dismissing such issues don't remove one fact: "The Hurricane" is a highly flawed film. Only one actor could have made a schmaltzy, predictable picture like this work as well as it does, and it's a good thing "The Hurricane" has that actor. Carter has been quoted as saying, "Denzel Washington is making me look good," but he's not the only one. Washington makes this film look good. Denzel Washington's "The Hurricane." Sounds pretty good to me.
-reviewed by Shay Casey
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