Herald rating: * * * *
Running time: 125 mins
Rental: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
You've heard the song, read the newspapers, now comes the movie. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (Denzel Washington) was a middleweight boxer who was framed for three murders in Patterson, New Jersey, and lost his chance and 19 years of his
life in jail.
In Norman Jewison's film, a 15-year-old boy, Lesra (Vicellous Reon Shannon), goes to a Toronto fleamarket and buys his first book, Carter's autobiography, for 25c. Because he's inspired, because he's from New Jersey, he decides to meet the boxer and support his fight.
Lesra enlists his Canadian foster-family to help in finding new evidence.
At first Carter is wary of the Canadians, turning Lesra away when he visits the jail. But they move near to the prison, meet his lawyers, and become amateur detectives who help take the case to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Turns out that a bad cop, Vincent Della Pesca (Dan Hedaya), has made it his business to get Carter.
Those who remember or have researched the case have found many faults with the "facts" in The Hurricane. (Mind you, Bob Dylan started the mythology when he snarled that this journeyman boxer "coulda been the champeen of the world").
So don't treat it as history. Enjoy it, instead, for a marvellous, burning, angry, focused performance from Washington.
