The Hurricane (1999)

Directed by Norman Jewison
Written by Armyan Bernstein & Dan Gordon, based on the novels The 16^th Round by Rubin Carter and Lazarus and the Hurricane by Sam Chaiton & Terry Swinton
Starring Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Dan Hedaya, Deborah Unger, Liev Schreiber

My Advice: Matinee.

Rubin Carter (Washington) was seemingly unstoppable.  Despite being born into less than optimal circumstances and being targeted by the local police force at an early age—simply due to his skin color—he would not let it break him.  He served in the military as a member of Airborne (a feat in itself) and went on to become a "hurricane" in the boxing ring, flat out punishing his opponents until they simply keeled over.  Carter's nemesis on the police force (Hedaya) isn't through with him yet though, and when a convenient triple murder takes place, committed by two black men, Carter and another young man (Garland Whitt) are setup to take the fall.  Years later, Carter has written a book with his life story.  This book finds its way into a young man named Lesra (Shannon), who becomes inspired to write to the former boxer, and eventually to redeem the man with justice and love.

Based on a true story, it's certainly not lacking in raw power.  That power is delivered beautifully by Denzel, who is always just damn good in every role he takes on.  He brings to the part of Carter buckets of rage and fear, hatred and love.  The scene in which he tells his wife to divorce him, consider him dead, simply bury him—it's devastating.  Definitely worth an Oscar nod.  Also of note is the young Shannon, transitioning between illiterate but eager student to well-spoken champion of Carter's cause.  It's always fun to see Rod Steiger working too, especially when it's not a movie about dogs.

Another thing to sit back and enjoy is the film's soundtrack, with not only the Bob Dylan song about Carter used a few times, but also Gil Scott-Heron and Etta James to name a couple. 

If the film is lacking anything, it's in the scenes where Lesra's friends from Canada (Schreiber, Unger and John Hannah) run around trying to uncover new evidence which will get Carter freed.  It almost seems like they're from a different movie, something by Grisham maybe.  And if you're not careful you'd expect Hedaya to say, "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling Canadians and that book!"  Those parts without Denzel to provide force seem to fall flat.

But Denzel's presence is never gone for long, and pushes the film over the top, making it definitely worth viewing on the big screen.  Catch it in the afternoon to save a few bucks, but don't miss it.