One-sided and manipulative, but Denzel Washington makes it worth your time

Rating: 8/10 (27 August 2016)

The Hurricane tells the story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (Denzel Washington) an African-American boxer whose boxing career comes to an unexpected end when Carter and his friend John Artis are both convicted for murdering 3 people at a nightclub. Carter has always maintained his innocence and has fought unsuccessfully for a retrial for several years. Lesra (Vicellous Shannon) strikes up a friendship with Carter after being inspired by what he read in Carter's own book and also happens to believe in Carter's innocence. With the help of his three mentors; Lisa, Sam and Terry they all set about gathering as much evidence as possible to prove Carter's innocence and in getting him the retrial that they all feel that he deserves.
The opening credits for this film clearly state that this film is "based upon a true story but that some characters have been invented and some incidents have been fictionalised". This statement probably exists to try to counter-balance those 1 star reviews from people that claim that it's rubbish because it's historically inaccurate. Well from what I've seen this is certainly not a rubbish film; in fact it's actually a very good film.
The first thing that needs to be acknowledged here is Denzel Washington's performance; this is probably the best that I've seen from him and sometimes when watching a film I get the impression that some film roles mean much more to some actors than some of their other projects (Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland is a good example). Likewise Washington really gets into character and brings Rubin "Hurricane" Carter to life, his multi-layered performance always makes Washington fascinating to watch here and coupled with an interesting character such as Rubin Carter the film is never less than compelling. The time and effort that Washington has invested in his role as Rubin Carter really shows here; he looks tough and it's evident that he has spent considerable amounts of time training for this role (one year with a boxing coach according to IMDb Trivia). It's a shame that he wasn't awarded with an Oscar for his performance as he definitely deserved one (he was nominated however).
Aside from a fabulous turn from Washington what you also get here is an interesting and engaging story about a black man's fight for freedom against a police department with somewhat racist tendencies. The only real flaw with the story is that it is shamelessly one-sided and I get the feeling that some of the fictionalised incidents and characters exist to represent Carter being the victim and the police as the villains. It probably would have been a better film if Carter was represented in a good and bad light which at least would have allowed us to judge him for ourselves (even when he does something bad the film seems to try and make excuses for him). Whilst these things didn't take away my enjoyment of the film, they do make the film feel rather manipulative and I can imagine that this may leave some viewers feeling a little dissatisfied.
The 'fictionalised' story is certainly presented professionally; the boxing footage is good, the story unfolds fairly well (although the way that the story jumps back and forwards is a little distracting and unfortunately makes the film feel a little episodic and repetitive). Despite being well-presented and interesting, the storyline is a little old hat now, predictable and rather clichéd, but the strong acting and the way the whole thing is mounted easily cover over most of the cracks.
In order to enjoy this film you really have to see it as a story; the film makes out that Carter was proved to be innocent at the end (in reality his case was thrown out on a technicality due to the prosecution mishandling evidence). The film is one-sided and manipulative which will cause problems for some people, but as for me I still enjoyed the story that was presented to me and thought that Denzel Washington was magnificent and it's worth a look for Washington's performance alone.