The Hurricane Review by Tim Wick

Four out of Five Beakers

I have to preface my review of this movie with a brief rant about trailers. I have now seen the trailer for "Mission to Mars" about 500 times. I think I could recite it from memory. I am sick of it. I saw two movies last night and both had this trailer preceding it. Overall, I find trailers annoying. Most trailers these days give away parts of the movie that the director and writer never intended you to see. I haven't seen "Snake Eyes" yet because the trailer told me who did it. "Mission to Mars" gives me a similar feeling. I've got a pretty good idea what is going to happen, so why see the movie? Someday, I hope that people in Hollywood read this site, read this rant and STOP PRODUCING LOUSY TRAILERS!!!! I could have cut a trailer for "The Iron Giant" that would have packed 'em in! Give me a call, show me the movie and the trailer and I'll tell you how to fix it, becase you people don't have a clue!

Here endeth my rant.

Let me start my review by saying this review will have some "spoilers" in it. I believe the outcome of the movie is no mystery, so I'm not going to try to mask it. If you don't want to know, skip this review.

"The Hurricane" is a movie about a boxer who is (we are led to believe) wrongfully imprisoned for murder. It is a story of man who slowly has his spirit stripped from him because he is black and he is successful. His entire life he has been dogged by a system that wants to believe he is a criminal when in fact he is no such thing.

A great deal has been written about Denzel Washingtons portrayal of Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter. They say he is likely to get an Oscar nomination for his performance in this movie. He'd better.

Washington is one of the best actors in Hollywood today. I say that without calling him a "black actor" because that would suggest that all white actors are better than him. Not true. Washington brings and intensity and passion to every character he plays and Rubin Carter is no exception.

As Carter is sent to jail again and again, we can see his spirit slowly wither even as he insists that he is just "retreating into himself" so he can endure. He wants to believe his spirit is intact, that they can't touch it, but they have. Carter is locked in his empty world until a letter from a young black man reminds him there is a world beyond the prison he languishes in.

Vicellous Reon Shannon plays Lesra, the young man who reads a book Carter wrote in prison and becomes entralled. Through his relationship with Carter, we see Carter once again gain the will to fight. The movie does not put a lot into making us wonder if Carter will eventually be set free. What would be the point of the movie if this was in doubt?

The real issue is that even if Carter gets free, he will still be a prisoner of himself. Lesra is the catalyst to bring Carter back to life, so he can enjoy his freedom when he finally gets it.

The movie is solid and in a year that produced so many excellent films, it does not fail to live up to the standards that have been set. I had some minor issues with the soundtrack, which reminded me too much of "The Shawshank Redemption". It was distracting because I felt like I was supposed to remember that prison movie despite the very different tone of this one. The casting of Clancy Brown as a prison guard kept that parrallel alive, though his character here is a far cry from the sadistic captain of the guard in "Shawshank".

At times, I found the narrative a bit too slow. The movie is only a little over 2 hours, but there were points where it dragged. I am of the firm belief that a film should be as long as it needs to be and I don't object to the length at all, just the use of some of that time.

Overall, however, this is a fine film that has a lot of good lessons to teach us. Carter learns that not all white people are bad, Lesra learns how to become a man and we learn that every once in a while, justice does win out over prejudice.