Complete work of fiction

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 2000)

To those who found The Hurricane informative and inspirational, you may be interested to know that virtually every source of conflict and intensity in the movie was made up by the filmmakers, for "dramatic expediency" they say. Among these are the villainous sheriff (who never existed, and certainly didn't track Rubin Carter from childhood and later threaten the Canadians), the white child molester, the rigged boxing match, the all white jury, etc. etc... Every shady element of Rubin Carter's past was either overlooked or chalked up to racist conspiracy by characters created by the screenwriters. It would be awful if this movie is to be a source of inspiration for black history month. It would be a better candidate for historical revision and simplification by self-righteous white filmmakers. You may think this is nit-picking, but when I see a movie supposedly based on a true story, I expect at the very least that the key plot elements are true. I certainly don't appreciate this dumbed-down morality play, no matter how great Denzel Washington's performance is.