Too manipulative, even with Denzel

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2000)

I finished watching The Hurricane on video last night and felt vaguely uncomfortable. What was the problem?
After some thought, I realize that I felt highly manipulated by a poor script.
I am not a racist, but I don't like Hollywood's manipulation of a movie into what is really a racist view. The movie script makes almost all the characters out as caricatures of racism. The whites are either so purely evil or so purely altruistic that I found myself very discomforted. They're not real characters at all, with mixed motivations and feelings. The movie, in a sense, is racist in it's presentation of a difficult subject. It missed an opportunity to tell a deeper, more thought provoking story.
Hurricane Carter is played well by Denzel. Not Oscar material, but good.
What's disappointing is the degree to which the general population is easily manipulated by Hollywood's view of what should sell, what is Politically Correct and what we should feel and think.
Why couldn't a more realistic story be told, leaving viewers with more serious questions, like: What would I have done? Was there racism or was there judicial incompetence? Where was the truth? Who else would have had motivation for the murders?
Why is there so little criticism of this script and manipulation?