The Hurricane Movie

The Hurricane
Rating:
Run Time: 146 min
MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1999
Directors: Norman Jewison
Genre/Type: Drama
Courtroom Drama
Biopic [feature]
Prison Film
Message Movie
Producers: Armyan Bernstein
Norman Jewison
John Ketcham
Plot Synopsis by Mark Deming
In 1966, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was a top-ranked middleweight boxer whom many fight fans expected to become world champion. When three people were shot to death in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey, Carter and his friend John Artis, driving home from another club in Paterson, were stopped and questioned by police. Although the police asserted that Carter and Artis "were never suspects," a man named Alfred Bello, himself a suspect in the killings, claimed that Carter and Artis were present at the time of the murders. On the basis of Bello's testimony, Carter and Artis were convicted of murder, and Carter was given three consecutive life sentences. Throughout the trial, Carter proclaimed his innocence, saying that his African-American race and work as a civil rights activist were the real reasons for his conviction. In 1974, Bello and Arthur Bradley, who also claimed that Carter was present at the scene of the crimes, recanted their testimony, but Carter and Artis were reconvicted. In the early 1980s, Brooklyn teenager Lesra Martin worked with a trio of Canadian activists to push the State of New Jersey to reinvestigate Carter's case; in 1985, a Federal District Court ruled that the prosecution in Carter's second trial committed "grave constitutional violations" and that his conviction was based on racism rather than facts. Carter was finally freed, and he summed up his story by saying, "Hate got me into this place, love got me out." The Hurricane is based on Carter's incredible true story and stars Denzel Washington as Carter, Vicellous Shannon as Lesra Martin, and John Hannah, Liev Schreiber and Deborah Unger as the Canadian activists. Veteran filmmaker Norman Jewison directed.

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Cast

Actors Character Born
Denzel Washington Rubin "Hurricane" Carter Dec 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, NY
Vicellous Shannon Lesra Martin
Deborah Kara Unger Lisa
Liev Schreiber Sam Oct 4, 1967 in San Francisco, CA
John Hannah Terry Apr 23, 1962 in East Kilbride, Scotland
Dan Hedaya Della Pesca Jul 24, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York City, NY
Debbi Morgan Mae Thelma Carter Sep 20, 1956 in Dunn, NC
Clancy Brown Lt. Jimmy Williams Jan 5, 1959 in Urbana, OH
David Paymer Myron Bedlock Aug 30, 1954 in Long Island, NY
Harris Yulin Leon Friedman Nov 5, 1937 in Los Angeles, CA
Rod Steiger Judge Sarokin Apr 14, 1925 in West Hampton, NY
Garland Whitt John Artis

Back to the topReview

Review by Karl Williams
The true-life story of an up-and-coming boxer convicted of a bloody crime he probably didn't commit, this drama has more heart than the stereotypical prison drama because it's cleverly told from a unique perspective: that of an inspired youth attempting to get his jailed hero freed. The script by Dan Gordon, who successfully mapped unjustly imprisoned territory once before with Murder in the First (1995), is a top-notch affair that keeps the pace moving -- an admirable bit of work considering the film's rather dour subject matter. Denzel Washington is a mask of pride and barely contained rage in a role that will likely stand as a career highlight for the intense actor and his left-leaning, socially conscious director Norman Jewison. While playing at times like a narrative goulash into which a little bit of every drama genre is thrown (including sports, courtroom, ghetto, and prison), The Hurricane is a moving, powerful story that's stylishly told on every level: visually, emotionally, and intellectually.
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