Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

nafps There have been a spate of right wing reviews of this film, all repeating the same talking points. Right wing in this case means either racist, or those determined to take down an icon among the 70s counterculture, Mr. Carter.So determined are they to take down Carter's image, they resort to easily disproved and almost trivial falsehoods. It takes quite a bit of obsessiveness to dismiss Carter's boxing career as either "failed" or "mediocre." Two pairs of reviews repeat those talking points. Anyone can easily look up that Carter was ranked third as a contender against the champion.Another falsehood is the claim that there was no all white jury, that two Black jurors were on it. This one is harder to disprove without knowing where to look. Most links require some digging. The easiest one is The Guardian's article by a lawyer for Carter. Yes, it was an all white jury. And no, Carter was not a Black Panther, the silliest of all the claims in the negative reviews.Yes, this film does have quite a few falsehoods. About the only one the negative wing reviews get right is that Carter did lose the fight featured at the film's start. Nearly all the falsehoods in the film DIMINISH, DOWNPLAY, or LESSEN the amount of racism in his case.Why would supposedly liberal Hollywood remove much of the racism Carter faced in his case? First, Hollywood is not all that liberal, not in a genuine way. Openly racist recent films like American Sniper and Green Hell show that. The film makers for The Hurricane altered the facts because the real history is pretty complicated.The film lays blame for Carter's imprisonment on one crooked racist cop. In truth, there were multiple racist cops who framed Carter. The main witness against Carter, a mob connected thief, is here shown testifying to get his sentence reduced. Actually, he was heavily bribed by police too.A whole series of attorneys for the DA's office also took part in setting up Carter. But the film makers likely thought white viewers wouldn't believe the actual massive conspiracy with over a dozen police and lawyers. So they chose to make it just one fictional man.Even the anti racist activists are diminished. The film depicts Carter's realize as coming from three "Canadians." Actually it was a vast network of dozens of supporters. The film also leaves out Carter's own violent past. Surprisingly, none of the right wing reviews mention this. Carter did have a juvenile record of assault and theft. He also had court martials while in the military. Here the film makers could have done what Dead Man Walking did, admit the main subject was a deeply flawed criminal who still got railroaded and a punishment he did not deserve.Another model the film makers could have used is the far older Birdman of Alcatraz. Burt Lancaster played real life murder Robert Stroud, one who showed himself to be reformed. (The big difference, of course, is that most evidence shows Carter was never a murderer.) Rubin Carter, despite his criminal past, did great things after being released. He headed the Ass'n in Defence of the Wrongly Accused, which helped 21 others gain their freedom. He received awards, honorary degrees, and was in great demands as a motivational speaker.But none of the right wing/racist reviews mention any of that. They also don't mention that police falsely arrested him yet again, this time falsely accusing him of dealing drugs. Hollywood doesn't mention it either. Again, white audiences might have a hard time understanding just how constant police harassment is for Blacks...and Latinos and American Indians, as I can tell from personal experience.The Hurricane is a moving film. It's a shame the film makers believed some whites wouldn't find the actual amount of racism in this case believable. Al Carroll Author of Medicine Bags and Dog Tags, Presidents' Body Count, and A Proposed New Constitution.

Fletcher Conner Denzel Washington gives an excellent performance as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer who was imprisoned for 20 years in connection to a triple homicide. There is significant controversy surrounding both Carter's possible involvement and the film's portrayal. The film takes the stance that Carter was completely innocent of all of charges against him, including his childhood assault and robbery, which they frame as him protecting his friend from a child molester. They also imply that his title bout loss to Joey Giardello was due to racist scoring, though Carter himself has admitted that Giardello beat him fair and square. Ignoring all that, there was little draw to the film besides Washington's outstanding performance. There was a significant portion of the film devoted to Lesra (Vicellous Shannon) and his adopted family working to free Carter from his wrongful imprisonment. While what they did was very important and made an impact on Carter's life, there was far too much screen time devoted to them given how long the runtime already was. There were no important people shown in Carter's life besides Lesra, with Carter's wife given just a few brief scenes. The Hurricane couldn't decide if it wanted to be a courtroom drama, a boxing movie, or a character study and just dabbled in all of them without devoting enough time to thrive in any of the genres. It is disappointing to see a great director like Norman Jewison do so little with such a high quality performance like Denzel gives here.

Sebastian Sindermann There is a lot of controversy about this movie. There are people on both sides of the spectrum that will argue for innocence and guilt... and that's ultimately what makes this story so interesting.I've watched the film, I've read plenty afterwards and I cannot tell you if the man actually committed the crime of which he was accused. People will always pull the race card on both sides. People will always have an emotional opinion about guilt, innocence, race, and perception. Let's be honest, truth is not really part of judicial system on either side.If you get right down to it, that is truly what this film is about. It's the human spirit. It's about redemption and condemnation regardless of right and wrong in a legal sense and the bottom line it's a good story. That is why it's a great movie.Do yourself a favor and watch this movie, not as a documentary. Enjoy every moment that Denzel and all the other amazing actors are on screen. Enjoy the fantastic screenplay for what it is. A story. A drama that inspires us to be better human beings.

goreilly40 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.