# Hurricane, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Matt Petras

    Review: The Hurricane (1999)
    By: Matt Petras

    Rating: *** out of ****
    Length: 155 minutes

Cast: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Deborah Unger, Leiv Schreiber, John Hannah and Dan Hedaya Director: Norman Jewison Producer(s): Armyan Berstein, Norman Jewison, and John Ketcham

As an up and coming boxer, Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, had a lot of things going for him and it looked like things in his life were on the up and up until he was wrongfully imprisoned for murder. Ending up spending many years in jail, trying in vain to get his sentence and wrongful conviction overturned. This movie is the story of his life. The movie is based on a true story about a real man and is quite touching and surprisingly doesn't deviate from the truth other than for some artistic leeway (a Hollywood first).

There is some great acting in this movie especially on the part of Denzel Washington, he manages to capture the role of Rubin Carter perfectly and makes the movie magical. He manages to portray the real person as well as the character that is in the script he is given admirably. Aside from Denzel Washington the remainder of the cast portray their roles very well and bring out the warm characters that are involved in this story as well as some of the truly harsh and evil ones. The casting for the roles in this movie is great everyone fit their role perfectly; the movie is an example of what casting for a movie should be like. The whole cast gives the movie a very real quality that it needed to have in order to be credible.

Now, this movie is quite long being just under three hours so that's my warning to anyone who can't sit for that long. Regardless of length the pacing in the movie keeps you interested the whole time (and we'll ignore the one guy who was happily sleeping when the movie ended). The pace was perfect I didn't want to get up to stretch my legs even and that is rare for a movie this long.

I like the portrayal of both the jail and the racially tense atmosphere that is brought out during the course of the movie. The racial atmosphere changes as time progresses and this is true with reality, things became more tolerant as time passed with pockets of hate still existing. This is nothing new and it exists in reality, this was a good feature to make visible as it gave the movie a grander more realistic feel to it. I also like how the jail cell that Ruben Carter was kept in changed along with the conditions of the jail. Time doesn't stand still for anyone and things change over time as this the case in reality the jail changed and the conditions that the inmates were kept in changed. This attention to detail gives the movie a certain quality that is often lacking in movies today.

All in all, The Hurricane is a whirlwind ride of a movie that takes us through the life of a man that was horribly wronged by the system. I highly recommend it, its informative and thoughtful as well as very well done and a pleasure to watch. The movie also points out the importance of being literate. Its definitely one of the best of the year, well last year now, and I think that it should get some of the credit it deserves. Good Luck at the Oscars!

February 13, 2000 For any comments I can be reached at bootsector@hotmail.com

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