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The Hurricane (1999)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
12/03, 1/24
1/24:
What I remembered the most when The Hurricane premiered in 1999 was a shocking article that I read which enumerated
many lies coming from the film.
In other words, the whole story about what happened to Rubin "Hurricane" Carter had been completely fabricated by Hollywood.
So, why did everybody believe they could get away with it? Didn't they think it would be a lot easier to change the names while
making the tale strictly fictional? That way, nobody would look stupid.
Imagine yourself as Joey Giardello, a world middleweight champion who once defeated Sugar Ray Robinson, watching the film
one day and be totally surprised at being handed the hard-fought decision by the bigoted judges when he won it fair and
square while he was ahead a lot in points. He would later sue the filmmakers who ended up settling the case outside of court.
By the way, their fight was the beginning of the decline of Carter's boxing career.
An all-white jury? Right, yeah...the second jury had a couple of blacks, yet the boxer was found guilty. A black bondswoman
raised the money to win a retrial for Carter, and he, an abusive alcoholic who loved vodka too much, paid her back by
beating her up which ultimately lost him support of the gullible celebrities. Even the media turned against him. Did you like
that cool gesture Denzel Washington made to Mae when he told her to divorce him while putting his kissed hand on the glass?
Nope, it's the other way around as he was constantly cheating on her.
Think that Denzel Washington looked great in his airborne uniform when he showed up at the bar? Well, Carter was, in fact,
dishonorably discharged after he got slapped with a court-martial four times. A violent man who often bragged about
beating up and shooting people, hence the nickname "Hurricane," he was found guilty of three muggings and thus sent to prison.
Wrongfully convicted? Uh, right. Carter took a lie detector test and failed it. So, he was offered a second chance to clear
his name but refused to take it again...four times. His car did fit the description of the getaway car, and it contained two
bullet shells which matched those found at the crime scene. During the first trial, there were alibi witnesses in favor
of Carter, but it turned out, in the retrial, that he bribed four of them and that they admitted it on the stand. At the end, the
prosecution declined to retry him for the third time because it was so long ago, some of the witnesses had died, and Carter
was nearing his parole date.
Della Pesca the racist detective who had it bad for Carter? The person never existed in real life. No evidence was suppressed;
on the contrary, it was actually overwhelming against Carter. Alfred Bello lied? During the second trial, he admitted on
the stand of being promised $27,000 by Carter to recant his testimony. As a last-ditch effort, his defense team
judge-shopped until they landed Lee Sarokin who had a reputation as the nation's most liberal judge. Ergo, the plan
worked, and Carter was set free.
Anyway, it's a good performance by Denzel Washington, but he relies too much on acting tricks to make himself look cool. The
story is obviously inspiring, but then again, it's full of lies with rip-offs from Raging Bull,
especially during the
boxing matches. The first half is certainly strong, but the second is made implausible by taking advantage of the flimsy
detective work when I was thinking that if everybody had looked at the case so many times how could they have missed the obvious?
All in all, it's okay to like The Hurricane, but don't be fooled by the dishonest storytelling.