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The Hurricane
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Norman Jewison
Produced by	Armyan Bernstein Norman Jewison John Ketcham
Written by	Story: Rubin "Hurricane" Carter Sam Chaiton Terry Swinton Screenplay: Dan Gordon Armyan Bernstein
Starring	Denzel Washington Vicellous Reon Shannon Deborah Unger Liev Schreiber
Music by	Christopher Young
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Editing by	Stephen E. Rivkin
Distributed by	Universal Studios (US) Buena Vista International (non-US)
Release date(s)	December 29, 1999
Running time	145 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$ 38,000,000
Gross revenue	US$ 50,668,906
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Hurricane is an American 1999 film starring Denzel Washington.

The script was adapted by Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon from the books Lazarus and the Hurricane by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton and The 16th Round by Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter. The film was directed by Norman Jewison.^[1]

The film tells the story of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, whose conviction for triple murder was set aside after he had spent almost twenty years in prison.

The movie has also been criticized for many inaccuracies by film critics and others.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Background 3 Exhibition and box office 4 Critical reception 5 Controversy 6 Cast and ratings 7 Soundtrack 8 Awards 9 Footnotes 10 External links

The film narrates the life of middleweight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, concentrating on the period between 1966 and 1985. It describes his fight against the conviction for triple murder and how he copes with nearly twenty years in prison. In a parallel plot, an underprivileged youth from Brooklyn becomes interested in Carter's destiny after reading Carter's autobiography, and convinces his Canadian friends to engage themselves in the case. The story culminates with the Carter team's successful pleas to Judge H. Lee Sarokin of the United States District Courts.

Actor Denzel Washington and Rubin Carter worked closely in making the film. He said, "He went through pots and pots of coffee and packs of cigarettes. I'd drink a little coffee. It's interesting and challenging when the person is there, alive and in the room."^[2]

Award winning director/producer Norman Jewison considers The Hurricane his best work.^[3]

Former middleweight Champion Joey Giardello sued the film's producers for libel over the depiction of his fight with Carter as a "racist fix." "This is a joke, [he told the New York Daily News] he never hit me that much in 15 rounds." Referee Polis who scored the fight in Giardello's favor, called the scene "ludicrous." Eventually, the case was settled, with the producers paying the retired champion a hefty sum (reportedly $300,000).^[4]

Filming locations
Filming locations include: East Jersey State Prison, Avenel, New Jersey; Paterson, New Jersey; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Trenton, New Jersey.

Tagline: His greatest fight was for justice.

The premiere of the film was on September 17, 1999 at the Toronto Film Festival. It also was featured at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2000.

The film opened in wide release in the United States December 29, 1999. The first week's gross was $384,640 (11 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $50,668,906. In its widest release the film was featured in 2,148 theaters. It closed the week of April 14, 2000. The motion picture was in circulation sixteen weeks.^[5]

The film received generally good film reviews.

Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun Times liked the film and the acting. He wrote, "This is one of Denzel Washington's great performances, on a par with his work in Malcolm X ...Washington as Hurricane Carter is spare, focused, filled with anger and pride...This is strong stuff, and I was amazed, after feeling some impatience in the earlier reaches of the film, to find myself so deeply absorbed in its second and third acts, until at the end I was blinking at tears. What affects me emotionally at the movies is never sadness, but goodness."

Regarding the "fictionalized" aspects of the film Ebert said, "Several people have told me dubiously that they heard the movie was 'fictionalized.' Well, of course it was. Those who seek the truth about a man from the film of his life might as well seek it from his loving grandmother. Most biopics, like most grandmothers, see the good in a man and demonize his enemies. They pass silently over his imprudent romances. In dramatizing his victories, they simplify them. And they provide the best roles to the most interesting characters. If they didn't, we wouldn't pay to see them." He added, "The Hurricane is not a documentary but a parable, in which two lives are saved by the power of the written word."^[6]

Film critic Stephen Holden, writing for The New York Times had mixed views of the film but did like the acting. He wrote, "In telling the story of Mr. Carter's protracted and ultimately successful fight for freedom and justice, The Hurricane rides to glory on an astonishing performance by Denzel Washington....That is to say, Mr. Washington leans into an otherwise schlocky movie and slams it out of the ballpark. If his Hurricane is an inspiring portrait of nobility, it is because the actor never conceals the demons of fury and despair gnawing beneath his character's forcefully articulate surface."

Regarding the film proper Holden wrote, "The film is so eager to stir us up that it thinks little of bending the facts for dramatic effect. Among its most egregious distortions is its depiction of Mr. Carter's 1964 middleweight title match with Joey Giardello. The movie (which has fine, naturalistic boxing sequences) inaccurately portrays the fight as lost by Carter solely because of the judges' racism.

The taking of such license, of course, adds an extra jolt of drama. But when these and other distortions and exaggerations are added up, it's worth wondering if that self-congratulatory glow the movie leaves us with has been gotten far too easily and at what cost."^[7]

Currently, the film has an 85% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 96 reviews.^[8]

The film was criticized for misrepresenting many of the facts of Carter's life and the case itself, which are well documented in both his criminal and military records, police reports and court documentation. Such critics include Herald-News reporter Cal Deal; Larry Elder;^[9] Thomas Clough; Barbara Burns, the daughter of victim Hazel Tanis; George Kimball of The Irish Times[1], Milan Simonich of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Lona Manning;^[10] The New York Times reporter Selwyn Raab; Paul Mulshine of The Newark Star-Ledger; and Jack Newfield of the New York Post, who stated, "I knew Rubin Carter, attended his fights, covered his retrial and I didn't see much reality on the screen." For example:

• The 1940s and 50s was a prosperous time for Paterson and not a time of poverty and violence. By all accounts, Rubin Carter's father provided well for his family.
• He didn't stab a pedophile to protect himself and a friend; it was an assault and robbery.[2]
• Carter was not sent to juvenile detention when he was a small boy, but when he was 14 years old.
• He served only 3 years in juvenile prison before he escaped and joined the military, not 8 years.
• During his military service, he was court-martialed four times and discharged "unfit for military service," well-short of his scheduled date of separation. He had served only 21 months of his three-year term of enlistment.[3]
• The film depicts him returning as a decorated soldier, though Carter never distinguished himself in the Army.[4]
• Carter was a savage street fighter and leader of a gang called The Apaches.
• He was actually convicted of three muggings prior to his professional boxing career, including the mugging of a middle aged African Amercian woman. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was imprisoned in Trenton State Prison for four years.[5]
• On the night of the murders, his car was stopped twice, but only at the second stop was he arrested.
• Carter did not ride in the front seat when his car was first stopped, he was lying down in the back.[6]
• The film places Carter in a Dodge Monaco instead of a Polara.
• The Lafayette Grill did not welcome African Americans.
• Shooting victim Willie Marins was not lying on a hospital bed and did not shake his head to indicate that Carter was not responsible for the shootings. He was sitting upright in a chair and stated: "I don't know, I can't tell" when asked if Carter was one of the shooters.[7]
• The Cockershams did not run a tab at The Lafayette Grill, and never drank inside the bar.
• Avery Cockersham did not move away or die before Carter's trials.
• Patricia Valentine's testimony is falsely given as: "the tail-lights lit up all across the back". She testified that the tail-lights did not light up all across the back.
• Patricia Valentine did not change her testimony as is stated by the Canadian investigator played by John Hannah.
• Patricia Valentine was 23 years old at the time of the murders, not a middle-aged woman.
• The film incorrectly states that Carter was tried by two all-white juries.
• The police emergency call log was not faked to frame Carter.[8]
• Police did not use heavy-handed tactics to arrest Carter.
• The Canadians did not discover new evidence.
• Detectives did not threaten the Canadians or tamper with their car.[9]
• The racist detective who, according to the film, hounded Carter from childhood, known as "Detective Dellapesca" portrayed by Dan Hedaya, did not exist.[10]
• Carter was not the number 1 contender for the middleweight title.[11]
• Burglars depicted as "conspiring" to frame Carter were really seventy-five miles apart, and one of them was in prison at the time.[12]
• The getaway scene is misleading in Carter's favor.[13]
• There was no speech given by Carter in Federal Court.
• The Canadians did not find the diary of a dead investigator.
• Prison authorities at no time tried to deprive Carter of the manuscript of his autobiography.
• Carter's "90 days in the hole" isn't documented in his prison record or in his autobiography.
• His release from prison had nothing to do with "proving the case was built on forgeries and lies", as the lawyers for Carter claim in the final courtroom scene.

Ratings
Argentina:	Atp
Australia:	M
Chile:	TE
Finland:	K-12
France:	U
Germany:	12
Hong Kong:	IIB
Iceland:	14
Malaysia:	U
Mexico:	B
Netherlands:	12
New Zealand:	M
Philippines:	PG-13
Singapore:	NC-16
South Korea:	12
Sweden:	11
Switzerland:	12
United Kingdom:	15
United States:	R

• Denzel Washington as Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter
• Vicellous Reon Shannon as Lesra Martin
• Deborah Kara Unger as Lisa Peters
• Liev Schreiber as Sam Chaiton
• John Hannah as Terry Swinton
• Dan Hedaya as Det. Sgt. Della Pesca
• Debbi Morgan as Mae Thelma Carter
• Clancy Brown as Jimmy Williams
• David Paymer as Myron Bedlock
• Harris Yulin as Leon Friedman
• Rod Steiger as Judge Sarokin
• Badja Djola as Mobutu
• Vincent Pastore as Alfred Bello
• Al Waxman as Warden at Rahway Penitentiary
• David Lansbury as U.S. Court Prosecutor

The following celebrities appear in archive footage included in the film as themselves:

• Muhammad Ali
• Ellen Burstyn
• Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
• Bob Dylan
• Joe Frazier

A CD of the soundtrack inspired by the film was released on January 11, 2000 on the MCA label. The CD contains fourteen tracks including "Hurricane," by Bob Dylan, "Hard Times No One Knows", by Ray Charles, "In The Basement" by Etta James, "Isolation", by Meshell Ndegeocello, "Still I Rise", by Melky Sedeck, and others.^[11]

A CD of the original motion picture instrumental score was released on February 15, 2000 on the MCA label. The CD contains fifteen tracks and was composed by Christopher Young. It also includes the song "So Amazing", by Boyz II Men.^[12]

Wins

• Berlin International Film Festival: Prize of the Guild of German rt House Cinemas, Norman Jewison; Silver Berlin Bear, Best Actor, Denzel Washington' 2000.
• Black Reel Awards: Black Reel; Theatrical, Best Actor; Denzel Washington; 2000.
• Golden Globes: Golden Globe; Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama; Denzel Washington; 2000.
• Image Awards: Image Award; Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, Denzel Washington; 2000.

Nominations

• Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Denzel Washington; 2000.
• Berlin International Film Festival: Golden Berlin Bear, Norman Jewison; 2000.
• Blockbuster Entertainment Awards: Blockbuster Entertainment Award, Favorite Actor, Drama, Denzel Washington; 2000.
• Chicago Film Critics Association Awards: CFCA Award; Best Actor; Denzel Washington; 2000.
• Golden Globes: Golden Globe; Best Director, Motion Picture, Norman Jewison; Best Motion Picture - Drama; 2000.
• Image Awards: Image Award; Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Debbi Morgan, Outstanding Motion Picture; 2000.
• Political Film Society: PFS Award; Democracy, Exposé, Human Rights; 2001

• The Hurricane at Box Office Mojo
• The Hurricane at Yahoo! Movies
• The Hurricane at Metacritic