# Hurricane, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Mac VerStandig

    The Hurricane
    4 Stars (Out of 4)
    Reviewed by Mac VerStandig
    critic@moviereviews.org
    http://www.moviereviews.org
    January 9, 2000
    USA Wide Release Date - January 14, 2000

---Those of you in the Portland, Maine area can hear Mac VerStandig's film reviews every Friday morning on the 98.9 The Point morning show.---

A copy of this review can be found at http://www.moviereviews.org/the_hurricane.htm

First he wrote a book about it. Then Bob Dylan wrote a critically acclaimed song about it. Now Academy Award winning director Norman Jewison and Academy Award winning actor Denzel Washington have a made a movie about it. The man is Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and the story is one of such power that it puts the knock-out punches he delivered as a prize fighter to shame.

"Here comes the story of the hurricane." (Did you really think I would make it through this review without quoting Bob Dylan?) Rubin Carter (Denzel Washington) was the champion of the world, having lost but a handful of fights and delivering forceful flurries of punches that would floor his opponents. But he was also black, something that didn't stand well in the eyes of a certain police officer (Dan Hedaya). When two black men wreak murderous havoc on a bar one night in the 1960's, Hurricane and another man soon find themselves in prison for a crime they didn't commit. The film ventures away from the other man and focuses on Hurricane; his way of coping with prison ("innocence is highly overrated commodity"); his refusal to give in ("I've committed no crime. A crime has been committed against me") and his eventually giving up ("I'm dead. Just bury me please"). Then, when hope was all but lost, a young and once underprivileged black boy, being raised and schooled by an upper-middle class Canadian family, stumbled upon the aforementioned autobiography. With the help of his new Canadian family, Lesra Martin (Vicellous Reon Shannon) looks to free the champion of the world in the biggest fight Hurricane will ever step into .

The Hurricane spends little time on Rubin Carter's childhood and instead focuses intensely on the very interesting time he spent in the boxing ring, in prison and in court. Boxing brings enjoyable sporting moments, while prison offers deep intellectual insights and court provides (SPOLER!!!) a heartbreak early-on and a sure-to-make-you-smile moment at the film's end.

Most of the film is spent in prison, however. Recently, The Green Mile painted a particularly rosy and black and white view of jail with extraordinarily kind guards and inmates minus the few rotten apples who are 100% rotten. Here things are more complex: some guards are nice, some are cruel and one particularly kind inmate professes wicked ways. But Hurricane isolates himself from the beginning when he gets 90 days in the hole for refusing to wear prison-issued garments.

Denzel Washington gives yet another kick-ass performance in a year when many great acting jobs will unfortunately lack recognition due to high quantity. The supporting cast also comes up strong with Dan Hedaya as a bigoted police officer and youngster Vicellous Reon Shannon as a curiosity driven, justice seeking boy in the champ's corner.

Simply put, The Hurricane is a knock-out punch.

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