A touching story, could have been into a better movie

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2001)

What made me look out for this movie was the song by the same name by Bob Dylan. I missed this movie in the theatre, because I took it as a movie about some black boxer. But when I heard the song, it instantly caught upon me, and I kept playing the song again and again till it was inside me, a part of me. I did some research on Rubin Carter on the net, and it was then I discovered about the movie. I rented it the same day. Making a movie on a real life story is undoubtedly walking on a tight rope. A fine balance has to be maintained between reality and drama. You run the risk of making the film too raw documentary style and dull, or too dramatic and not very true the real story. In my opinion the best director to dance such a tango is Oliver Stone. His movies run like documentaries with fact flashes, but at the same time you are involved in the drama acted out on the screen. In this movie, Norman Jewison succeeds to some extent in building the drama in the beginning, but as the film progresses it starts fizzling out. As Rubin comes into contact with his Canadian friends the story slows down. The canadians as it has been pointed out by somebody aren't convincing in the filme at all. I found the young canadian friend particularly irritating. I didn't like the way Rubin's life is been shown through the reading of this boy. It looks mushy. The way all the 4 canadians are shown to be together all the time, like a happy lil family is so synthetic. No motivation, no justification has been established for the canadians to come to Carter's rescue. Towards the end, the movie does get a lil better. Specially the courtroom scene does bring back some drama and tension, but too late. All in all the film lacks the punch, the sarcasm, and the poignancy Bob Dylan's 'Hurricane' has. Only Denzel Washington gets a chance to act, and he does an OK job.