Lacked courage

Rating: 5/10 (29 October 2001)

Despite a fine performance by Denzel Washington, the writers and director have too little regard for the audience to make this a really great film.
Some dramatic license is understood and expected, especially since a story of this nature is difficult to fit into a single movie. But too much of the license taken is unnecessary and pedantic. One would imagine from watching this Rubin Carter is just about the most terrific guy that ever was. It's not so much that it's not true, it's that it makes for a less interesting story. The filmmakers seem to imagine that audiences can't accept that injustice done to a flawed man is still injustice. Washington brings out the intensity of Carter and gives him as much dimension as possible given the constraints of the script. But it still feels like we are shown only a piece of the man and not the whole.
Embodying the evils of the system in a single man--the Javert-like detective, as others have noted--is just lazy. The real problem of the system is its Kafkaesque nature, labyrinthine, monolithic and shadowy, filled with faceless bureaucrats who cannot singly be held accountable. Taking this approach would not only have made for a better story, but I suspect would have been more accurate.
5/10, mostly for a good soundtrack, nice production, and largely good performances, particularly Denzel Washington, who has better movies out there.