Good film that could have been better

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2001)

'The Hurricane' is the most recent cinema release by Norman
Jewison ('Cincinnati Kid', 'In The Heat of The Night', 'Thomas Crown
Affair ' (1968), 'Rollerball' etc) whose 70-odd years don't show in
this engrossing and well done true story of racism, wrongful
imprisonment and the human spirit. In one of his better roles,
Denzel Washington plays the framed boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter
and his struggle for a successful appeal after 30 years in prison.
There's something of the anger that Washington communicated in
'Malcom X', as the understandably bitter Carter traces his woes
back to a colour-prejudiced system in general and a racist cop in
general.
However Jewison's liberal credentials lead to a slight wooliness in
the background of the film where greater realism would have been
more effective. For instance Carter's stay in prison is notable for the lack of any violence, intimidation and menace (excepting his one stay in
'the hole' upon arrival.) He is allowed to keep his clothes distinct, to write books, to avoid prison fatigues and keep to his cell or watch
TV. Such slightly unbelievable events contrast with the more
sentimental and successful 'Shawshank Redemption', where one
feels the hero has something to rebel against, besides mere
containment. (In a revealing casting decision, Clancy Brown, the
sadistic Captain Byron Hadley in the earlier film, here plays an
accommodating and non-threatening prison guard). The effect is to
reduce Carter's imprisonment to something less than the inhumane
experience he claims it is.
Similarly the three Canadians who take up Carter's case have little
to do (although they are supposedly instrumental in helping
Carter's final appeal in the Federal court) except make house call,
thumb through paperwork and look concerned. The script fails to
make them interesting or give them any real dynamic, while their
relationship to each other is entirely unexplored. The romantic
attraction of one of them to Carter is hinted at and then left
undeveloped. Vicellous Reon Shannon, playing the young black
student won over by Carter's book and who first takes up his
cause, is also rather too good to be true - occasionally coming
across as chubby and gauche, rather than shocked then converted
to the boxer's plight.
In short this is a film which, despite the anger which must exist in
the original source (Carter's prison book) has led some of it slip
away except for Washington's intense and charismatic performance. This is a shame as the film is well done, with an
interesting structure. The case was sufficiently unknown to me to
make the result of the climactic court case suspenseful. The first
third in particular creates tension by juxtaposing past and present
events, establishing a true sense of time and place. Washington's
fans will want to see this, and if it proves Jewison's last hurrah on
the big screen (he's done a TV movie since) it is entirely creditable