A powerful and compelling drama

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2000)

This is a powerful and compelling look at the life of Rubin Hurricane Carter (Denzel Washington) and his highly publicized fight for freedom from imprisonment. Based on a true story, the film is an in-depth character study including Carter's early life, the murders for which he was incarcerated, his coping with prison and his court battles.
Veteran director Norman Jewison creates a tight weave of factors affecting Carter's life; his childhood, the turbulent civil rights movement of the 1960's, and the people who came to his defense. It is an impressive panoply of the forces that swept over his life like a tidal wave. The period props and costumes were well done and accurate in the 1960's scenes. I loved the fact that all the fight fans in the arena were wearing suits and ties. Strange as it seems, that's the way it really was in the early 1960's. The camera work was very good and I particularly liked the use of black and white for the fight scenes. Unfortunately, Jewison made a few choices that bogged the film down in the middle and detracted somewhat from the story.
The film presents some good historical footage of the civil rights movement, but gets a little too preachy at times. The character development of Carter and Lesra was good, but the film would have benefited from a little less of Carter's internment angst and more time in character development of the Canadians. Jewison also presented Detective Della Pesca (Dan Hedaya) as an evil character of superhuman proportions, an inconceivable depiction.
This was a superb performance by Denzel Washington, perhaps his best to date. His portrayal of the internal struggle to use his seething anger to help him survive was sensational. He got himself into tremendous shape for the boxing scenes and handled himself well in the ring.
I was also impressed with Vicellous Reon Shannon who played Lesra. He exuded sincerity, toughness and genuine empathy, and had very good chemistry with Washington.
This strong drama grabs you like a boa and doesn't let up. I rated it an 8/10. It is worth seeing for Denzel Washington's performance alone.