The Hurricane - Starring Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, John Hannah, Deborah Kara Unger, Dan Hedaya, Rod Steiger - Movies

Bob Dylan said it most famously: "Here comes the story of the Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blame, for something that he never done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been the champeen of the world ..."

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter became a cause celebre down the decades after his imprisonment in 1967 for the 1963 murder of three people in a bar in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey. Dylan and others took up the cause in the 70s.

A rising middleweight boxer with a childhood in correctional institutions, Carter was the wrong man in the wrong place. Along with John Artis, the other innocent man in the car with him that night, Carter was sentenced to three times life-imprisonment. His case was reheard twice and each time Carter was sent back inside.

It was only after more than two decades that crucial and suppressed evidence was uncovered and he was eventually freed, and this film would have you believe that freedom was secured solely through the agency of three white Canadians (Hannah, Unger, Schreiber) and the young black American boy ( Shannon) who is their charge.

Carter's struggle has the makings of great film: boxing and childhood rebellion; institutional racism that was endemic at the time; Carter's unwavering stance that in prison he would cease to need what the authorities would deprive him of and therefore be free; and the fight for justice against overwhelming odds.

As Carter, Washington is excellent. He moves from the barely suppressed anger of a young man and a punishing prize-fighter to a man of restraint and dignity in prison.

The rest of the film is problematic, however.

Director Jewison has levelled out nuance and the more broad and thoroughly relevant issue of racism to have Carter's conviction rest solely on the head of a corrupt cop, played by Hedaya, who trained for the part on Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. And as if by way of leavening and apology, for every bad white guy there is a good white guy; for every believer in Carter's innocence there is a sceptic.

Film demands a necessary telescoping, but it is dishonest to suggest Carter was acquitted at the final trial depicted (Steiger now doing his de rigeur turn as the judge). His acquittal came four years later after a further series of appeals.

By most accounts, Carter was a vehement black nationalist with a contempt for whites but this is barely suggested in the film other than having iconic Black Panther pictures on his cell wall.

At many levels, this is a film which pulls its punches.

So while Washington gives a fine performance, these more knotty matters may explain why in the States, where many people are intimately acquainted with Carter's struggle, the film's only Oscar nomination is for Washington's portrayal.

The complexity of Carter's story has been distilled to dimensions Hollywood is comfortable with, but the greater truths have been sacrificed.

At almost two-and-a-half hours, The Hurricane is long, although it certainly doesn't feel like it. However, as Rubin Carter spent 22 years in prison "for somethin' that he never done," it might seem churlish to deny him the time to have his story told, even if it isn't quite as accurate and honest as it deserves to be.

n.e.w@journalist.com

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Page Updated Wed Mar 29, 2000 4:23am EST