The Hurricane (1999) - Terrific performances in Jewison's long racism drama

♥♥♥

 

An intense still of a knuckle-wielding star Denzel Washington captures the viewer's attention on this classy poster for Norman Jewison's The Hurricane

Rubin 'The Hurricane' Carter is a boxing champ, when his life in 1966 is put on pause, because he is convicted of a double homicide, which he did not commit.

 

The Hurricane is written by Armyan Bernstein (Windy City (1984)) and Dan Gordon (Rambo: Last Blood (2019)), based on Rubin Carter's autobiography The Sixteenth Round (1974) and Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton's Lazarus and the Hurricane (1991), and directed by great Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison (40 Pounds of Trouble (1962)).

A miscarriage of justice in a racist system is treated with refinement here and a framing story of a young black man, who gives an aged version of Carter back his optimism through the iron bars. This lifts what would otherwise have been something of a long ordeal to sit through.

Denzel Washington (Fallen (1998)) is outstanding; Rod Steiger (Duck, You Sucker! (1971)) is fitting, and excellent, as the judge who finally brings justice forth. The Hurricane is good but feels a bit like sitting through a long triple hour home study class. 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 73.9 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.47 times its cost)

[The Hurricane premiered 17 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 146 minutes. Washington was paid 10 mil. $ for his performance, which reportedly required that he did boxing training for a year prior to production. Shooting took place from November 1998 - February 1999 in New Jersey and Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #21 to a 384k $ first weekend in 11 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #2, behind new release Scream 3, and spent a total of 5 weekends in the top 5 (#3-#3-#3-#2-#5), grossing 50.6 mil. $ (68.5 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, lost to Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. It won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Jewison returned with The 20th Century: Funny Is Money (1999, TV movie), Dinner with Friends (2001, TV movie) and theatrically with The Statement (2003). Washington returned in Remember the Titans (2000). The Hurricane is certified fresh at 82 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hurricane?