The Hurricane

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.

The Hurricane as emotionally gripping as the "film" is, is an outright a lie and a complete fabrication of the real events and occurrences that took place on that fateful night in Patterson, New Jersey. First off, I believe it is the job of a responsible filmmaker and a storyteller to educate the public, not mislead them and purposely cover up the true facts and evidence as Norman Jewison has in his film. I too was caught up in the Rubin Carter hysteria upon seeing this film, in fact I loved this film, but I dug a little deeper and what I found was both shocking and disgraceful. Dramatic license is one thing but to falsify and ignore so many details pertaining to this case is unforgivable and deceptive. Here are some true facts of the Rubin Carter case, which somehow didn't make the final cut of the film. (I wonder why) for those who are interested here are just some of the many facts. Racist pig cop never existed. - Both Bello and Patty Valentine identified Carters car less than an hour after the crime. - The Police did not stop Carter and Artis because they were black, as the film would have you believe. They were rounded up because their car matched the description of the killer's getaway car. At first, just 14 blocks from the murder scene the cops let them go. When the same two cops got a description of the getaway car, they immediately recognized it as Carters car and were in pursuit. - When police searched Carter's car shortly after the murders, they found a live shotgun shell and a live .32 caliber bullet rolling around inside. The live rounds are significant because they fit the murder weapons and were found long before the caliber of the handgun used in the crime was determined. - No conspiracy was needed to frame Carter. On the day of the murders Bello told a friend "Rubin Carter shot up the whole bar". Months later he voluntarily (and reluctantly) names Carter as one of the two killers in two police interviews. Three days after Bello talked Bradley was interviewed, confirming Bello's story while he was incarcerated in a reformatory 75 miles away. Bello names Carter again in a tape-recorded interview, falsely depicted in the film. In actual fact Bello had already talked and didn't know he was being taped while Bradley was nowhere near the place. - In jail awaiting his first trial, Rubin Carter writes to his main alibi witness and tells her the story "I want you to remember." He runs through the alibi story point by point. - Contrary to the film, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter failed a lie detector test just hours after the Lafayette Grill triple murder in 1966, according to the man who gave him the test, John J. McGuire, a former police polygraph examiner. McGuire said the results showed that Carter lied when he denied being involved in the crime. He refused to take a second test. Artis also failed his lie detector test. - On the 8/3/76 the Prosecutor told Carter, "Pass a lie test and go free". Carter refused. - There was never any attempt to falsify the time of the murders and no evidence to claim it. - Hurricane Carter and his co-accused, John Artis, have never been found "not guilty" of the Lafayette Grill Murders. They were twice convicted, and twice the convictions were set-aside on the grounds that they didn't get a fair trial. The State of New Jersey decided not to re-try them a third time because so much time had passed, and withdrew the indictments against them. What a disgrace of a film. What an outright lie, I can't believe they got away with this propaganda.

I need to warn people who watch this film, even though Denzel is a great actor who always gives a fine performance, to say the least this film needs to be taken with a grain of salt because its basically biased fiction with extensive "dramatic license". I have done some research and there are some facts you need to be aware of. First of all, Carter had an extensive criminal record, he was 29 years old when arrested for the Lafayette murders and had spent 11 of those years in confinement of some sort! The film shows him as a child rescuing a friend from a child molester and then stabbing him in self defense! Wrong! Carter actually beat a defenseless man over the head and stole his watch. He was always getting in trouble for fighting and beating up people, that was why he was sent to juvenile hall. He escaped in 1954 and spent two years in the Army (he was dismissed for unfitness after four court martials). He then went to jail for four years for assaulting and robbing three people. This film makes it look like he was pursued by a Javeat-like, bigoted detective named Della Pesca who "set him up" for the murders. There was no such person. Vincent De Simone was the real detective assigned to the case. According to all accounts he was a very nice man and an outstanding police officer who was not a racist or had anything against Carter. Also, contrary to what this film would have you believe, Carter was not unfairly robbed when he lost a decision when he fought for the title. Carter himself admitted this in an interview. Bob Dylans song The Hurricane said "they put him in a prison cell but he could have been the champion of the world". Carter lost eight of his last fifteen fights and wasn't even rated when he was arrested. In a 1964 Saturday Evening Post article Carter talked about going up to Watts and shooting cops (I could get about four or five). He owned an extensive gun collection and was feared by the people in Paterson. Is it any wonder he was considered a suspect! Like I said, this is a good film, but its just not true.

I am not going to get into details regarding how true an account this is or not. I have read a lot that seems to indicate he was guilty and others that he was innocent, both accounts seeing to contradict themselves. I guess we may never really know, but as someone who believes that racism infects a lot of society including organisations like Sporting bodies and the police I can well believe that being black would not guarantee a fair trial. However I also find it hard to believe that Mr Carter was as peaceful a person as depicted in this film. But this is down to the way the film was written and directed and in no way detracts from a truly remarkable piece of acting by Mr Denzel Washington. It seems in every part he plays, you believe that he IS that character and this film was no exception. In the boxing scenes or the prison scenes and in every scene you believe that you are watching Rubin 'The Hurricane' Carter. A truly outstanding performance.

Why was this man not canonized? Granted, he wasn't Catholic but wasn't Reuben Carter just about the greatest guy on the planet? Or at least, this movie would have you believe. What could have been a great, Oscar worthy film about a flawed, tortured HUMAN being is given the "Men of Honor" treatment. Contrary to what the filmakers would want you to believe, Carter was NO saint. He was a thug, a low life and from some accounts, quite a dangerous person. He may or may not have been guilty of murder (the film leaves no doubt he wasn't) but that is beside the point, because there was not enough evidence to convict him (notice he was never pardoned, never exonerated he was retried and the case was thrown out)and as regards to his boxing career, this "warrior-poet" was a journeyman at best (go see his record at cyberboxingzone.com) and he NEVER beat Joey Giardello decisively, it never happened! He was not robbed, it was a close fight. Perhaps this is the films greatest injustice. Good acting from Denzel though as usual. He almost saves this over hyped piece of tripe.

There might be *SPOILERS* ahead... The movie itself is a solid Hollywood picture, but after reading some comments and checking out info about the case, I felt confused. First of all, I'm still not sure if Carter and Artis committed these murders, but there seems to be a lot of documents and articles which proves they did. I'm not going to go to details here, but check out for starters www.graphicwitness.com/carter if you are interested. One example: In movie Carter is sent to jail as a boy for stabbing a man implied to be a pedophile. In reality, he stabbed somebody in the face with a beer bottle while robbing them. One thing I don't understand is why they changed the facts so much in this movie and still this was marketed as based on true story. This might have been a good movie if they'd just make it completely fictional, but probably it wouldn't have sold as much. The championship fight scene seems also to be completely wrong, (from the Herald Sun) The Hurricane typically claims racist boxing judges robbed him, but every sportswriter who covered the fight agreed he was beaten by a better man. On the other hand, if they'd make this movie true to the facts, imo this movie would have been much more interesting. I think it's a shame that Hollywood takes out a tragedy where 4 people were murdered and makes a disgrace towards them and their grieving friends and families by twisting the truth to make this movie better selling and getting more profit. All in all, if ignoring this, the movie was pretty ok, although a bit too long (there was many scenes that could have been cut out) and some characters were just plain ridiculous, Canadians and of course Lt. Vincent Della Pesca, who was almost the opposite of the real detective). Denzel was good, maybe not Oscar nominee-good, but isn't the Oscars usually awarded to those who make most money, not those who have the most talent :) One more quote from Herald Sun By ANDREW BOLT: Of course, it's quite possible Carter is innocent. But is he still the right man to preach to us about reconciliation? While on bail for his second trial, he beat Carolyn Kelley, the (black) head of his Carter Defence Fund, so badly that she took a month to recover. ``He's Satan, and Satan can fool a lot of people,'' she says.

This movie was absolutely terrible. It is a fictionalized account of some events that actually happened. This movie in many ways is like the old Scooby Doo cartoons. The "medling kids" set out to solve a mystery. After they gather some clues and start getting close to solving the mystery, the bad guy shows up wearing a beige trench coat and fedora (just like they always did in the cartoon) and warns them to back off. Of course, they don't, so the bad guy sabotages their car (Mystery Machine) and as they are driving, the wheel falls off! There are so many similarities to the old Scooby Doo cartoons that I find it very difficult to believe the director did not parody the cartoon on purpose. Further more, most of the the movie is done via Denzel's narration, as his character recounts the story of Hurrican Carter's life. This movie drags on and on and ON! It is extremely boring. I found myself interested in the movie when it first started, but soon I was seeing through the over-dramatic bull crap and I was repulsed. This is a terrible movie and should be avoided at all costs. I gave this one a one out of 10 possible points, only because I cannot vote in negative integers.

This is the greatest true story I've ever seen. I love the emotion in this movie. I really think that the delivery of the performances are what makes it great along with the direction. It's beautiful. I recommend it to any and everyone. The struggle that Ruben Carter endured just puts light on the way things used to be, and makes really grateful that things have improved. Denzel's great! I completely felt in love with this movie, in which you can find extreme endurance, strong courage, ultimate love and a very realistic character starred by Washington. The character not only shows how powerful spirit a human being can be to survive in harsh situations, how persistent should a man in desperate circumstances, but also bring strong feeling to watchers, who wanna do something better, something higher than what he is currently doing. The Hurricane is simply one of my best top10 movies of all time. for Entertainment: 10/10 Overall Score: 10/10

When I saw this movie I heard all the hype, and I heard how people said that Denzel deserved the Oscar alongside his Golden Globe and I believed he must have done an outstanding job considering Kevin Spacey was excellent. I was wrong. I realize that people say this not to anger the African American community (if they are not African Americans themselves). I always hear complaints on how African Americans are never nominated and how they should have won. Sometimes this is true (not as much nowadays) because Whoppi Goldberg should have won best actress for The Color Purple and the movie should have won best picture. The only reason this movie was so blown up the way it was, is because people see a movie about the (*SEMI-SPOILER*) hardships of an African American during a very racist time period and they automatically label it as a masterpiece. Denzel Washington is an outstanding actor, but his role in this movie did not affect me whatsoever. I was bored with him in the movie, and his acting here was quite similar to his role in Malcolm X but not as good. The audience is supposed to leave believing this man, Rubin Carter, is a saint. People left the movies worshipping this man, this hero, and they went out and bought his book, making this hero of a man rich. *SPOILERS* This movie tells the tale of a man who spent the majority of his life in prison mainly for crimes he did not commit. Of course the crimes he did commit (stealing mostly) was only to survive, nothing more. People felt sorry for him, even though the drug dealers and thieves probably amounted to as much for the same reasons but are looked down upon in society. Everything in this movie tries to portray this man as a saint (except for the obvious infidelity he had towards his wife and the aggression he showed the other man when he met his wife) but why wouldn't it-after all, it is his point of view. I do not like movies (especially Hollywood interpretations) that are based on "true" stories because they usually distort the "true" parts into something else, something not so true. This was his point of view and a Hollywood construction, yet everyone believed it was the truth unquestionably. Well I researched his past a bit before making any assumptions, and he was a very violent man. Not only that, there is still a possibility that he did murder those people. If you do not believe me, search for him on the internet, and read the articles some people have of him. The boxing match he claimed to have won so easily, was actually won by his opponent Joey Giardello and there are tapes to prove it. Besides that, there are many twisted and purposely left out facts in this movie. The supporting cast were the nicest people I have ever seen on the face of the Earth and their "nice and perfect" persona looked difficult to keep up. This movie was a Hollywood version of yet another unfortunate true story that is still left to be told truthfully. Denzel's acting is stale, and the supporting cast's Mickey Mouse attitudes are annoying. The movie also begins very slow paced and is boring.

If this movie was about a fictional character, the movie could stand on its own and be judged objectively. Unfortunately for the viewer, the movie is based on "facts" that are shaded very unfairly toward Ruben Carter. Many of the smaller facts were disregarded (Carter was NOT number one contender at the time of the murders, there is no proof at all that he saved a friend from a child molester in his youth), but some of the larger facts, like apparently being robbed of a decision to Joey Giardello because of "racist" judges, is inexcusable to those of us who have seen the fight on tape, and completely disrespectful to Giardello. Why Hollywood feels the need to make a hero out of someone who, at best, was in trouble and around trouble much more than any normal person should be (was arrested multiple times for beating women) is strange to me. Ruben Carter was never, by viewing his actions in the 60's and even now, when he refuses to speak to his son, a person that people can look up to. Everyone knows that Jewison can direct, and Washington can act, but why they chose this story as their vehicle is beyond me. Is Hollywood so much in need of a black hero that they need to bend the truth in all of their bio pics to make them believable? (Heres a suggestion How about Denzel playing a movie about himself? Now thats inspirational) Based on all of the inaccuracies in the movie, I would suggest passing on this one.