Well why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Rating: 5/10 (19 June 2015)

People have asked why didn't Denzel get the Oscar for this performance? Well first off it wasn't because the acting was bad by any means, he gives a very strong performance, which is why he was nominated to begin with. So why the Oscar went somewhere else was because of the distortion of the events this movie was based on. Lets start with the main man himself, the movie depicts Ruben Carter as a noble person who was the victim of racism and injustice, were as the real Carter was an unstable violent character with an extensive criminal record. Now the events the movie got wrong, Carter did not stab a child molester as a juvenile, it was assault and robbery. Carter was dishonourably discharged from the army and declared unfit for service, he was not the highly decorated solider depicted here. Carter was not robbed of the middleweight crown, Joey Giardello won the fight fairly, even Carter himself admitted this. Carter's boxing career was in decline at the time of his arrest, he was not about to challenge for the title. The main detective was not the foul mouthed racist who was obsessed with getting Carter, in reality he never met Carter before the murders, he rarely swore and was a sensitive individual due to a facial wound received during WW2, he couldn't have been present at the Federal Court hearing, he died years before. The Canadians did not find new evidence, neither did anyone else and nobody tampered with their car. Carter WAS tried by an all white jury in his first trial, but the second jury had two black members. I could go on and on about what the movie got wrong but there isn't enough space, this movie butchers so many facts and ruins the reputations of people, some of whom are not around to defend themselves. As I said before it's not a bad movie to be sure, however this is not a true telling of the story, by all means watch it but don't accept of what you see as fact.