The problem with this movie is summed up in the very first scene where Rubin " Hurricane " Carter fights Emile Griffith for the world welterweight championship in 1963 . You might be surprised when I point out that Carter never fought Griffith for a world championship in 1963 though he did fight for the middlewight championship a year later against champion Joey Giardello who beat him on points with plenty to spare . You might also be shocked to know that Carter was never in fact much more than an average fighter who was well past his prime when arrested for murder so why this movie is making out that Rubin Carter would have been a boxing great if it wasn't for being WRONGLY convicted of murder I have no idea . At the very best Carter was a very mediocre journeyman fighter at best . Robinson , Hagler , Ali or Hearns he was not

Oh yes he was WRONGLY convicted of murder and just to lay it on with a trowel a very early scene has the sadistic warder from THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION telling the wronged but noble Rubin to keep calm because he knows a cruel injustice has been done but there's nothing he can do to help . Meekly Rubin forgives his captor because that's who Rubin is - A noble forgiving paragon of humility , we're only three scenes into this movie and we're weeping tears for the guy , in fact you have to wonder why such a great guy was ever convicted of murder when he was a decorated war hero with a chest full of medals and we don't have to wait too long because it transpires that the cops are racist . We know they're racist because the arresting officer states " Your black ass is going down " , but that doesn't worry Rubin because he defiantly replies " I know I'm innocent " and he is , such a pity that the twelve jurors were all white and all racist and decided he was guilty simply because he was black . Thankfully justice is served though be it belatedly when a bunch of Canadians expose this terrible miscarriage of justice and Rubin is set free . Despite having his best years taken away from him Rubin bares no hatred towards the people who set him up . Compared to Rubin Carter Jesus Christ was a bitter and twisted man . It makes Washington's performance as Steve Biko in CRY FREEDOM look like an amateur performance in a school play . Or so we're led to believe

This film is a total disgrace . It doesn't play hard and fast with the facts because there's little in the way of facts . As I pointed out he was never a contender for a world title so forget all the boxing scenes that suggest he was . You can also forget all about the racist arresting officer investigating the murder case because he's a composite character that includes at least one black detective so racism wasn't at the heart of the case . Rubin Carter was dishonourably charged from the army and never had a distinguished military career , the jurors in the case included two blacks and he was found guilty by a unanimous decision so having " a black ass " wasn't a motive for finding him guilty , he was finally released on a technicality not because he was innocent and there's umpteen other revisionist aspects to the story . If you read the FACTS ( Something the producers of this movie clearly haven't done ) of the Carter case you might not think he's guilty but you'll instantly realise that this story is entirely fictional . It's Hollywood rewriting history in the worst possible way . Okay there's an opening disclaimer pointing out that some of the characters are composites and some scenes are dramatized but people with no prior knowledge of the facts won't realise just how disgraceful this film is at changing facts into something entirely different

I have awarded THE HURRICANE three out of ten and it would have got even less if it wasn't for the good performances and some technical achievements in editing and cinematography

This is the story of a world-famous boxer unjustly imprisoned for more than two decades for felony murders he did not commit. His conviction, upheld in a second trial, before he is finally released by a federal court, is practically an operational definition of the term "railroaded." Rubin "Hurricane" Carter would still be in Trenton State Prison, a hell hole if there ever was one, if it hadn't been for the altruistic efforts of three adults and one adolescent member of a Canadian commune, who became amateur sleuths by accident.

The film isn't particularly complicated. In fact, it's dumbed down to a point beyond which a lack of comprehension would be attributed to pathology. Almost all the frissons that might have made this more than a simple tale of moral strength and fortitude have been left out or shaped to fit a familiar mold. Dan Hedaya, for instance, is Paterson, New Jersey's Detective Della Pesci, the personification of racist-motivated darkness. The only reason he's in the movie is to snarl, threaten, make foul racist remarks, chivvy Carter, and see to it that he spends as much time in the slams as possible. Now, imagine that the movie gives him edge and adds other dimensions. Imagine, instead of Detective Della Pesci, Inspector Javert of "Les Miserables," another police officer who simply cannot give up his persecution and yet is recognizably human rather than another familiar stereotype. It would have been so EASY to give the heavy a family and a dog or at least a social context -- rising black crime in the cities of the 1960s and the panic associated with it. Yet the writers and the director throw away any chance to turn the film into something other than a condemnation of racism and the white people infected by it. As a kid, Hurricane stabs a middle-aged white guy only to save his chum from an oily child molester. Does anyone believe this? Ho hum.

Not to diminish the heinous effects of racism (or, more generally, prejudice) in our justice system. It's an imperfect machine, and Carter suffered abominably for every fourteen-year-old black kid who ever decorated a brick wall with graffiti from a can of spray paint. During one of his trials, the prosecution refers to his having been convicted by "a jury of his peers" and Jewison gives us a long shot of the all-white jury, in case we might otherwise miss the point. We can't help being relieved when Carter is ultimately released, and can't help thinking somewhere in the back of our minds about those twenty years of imprisonment.

Nobody really has much to do as far as acting is concerned. Denzel Washington is pretty good at projecting pent-up anger and defiance. And the writers have his character develop too. At first he concentrates on turning his body into an instrument of power. But after reading some inspirational books he develops his mind as well, and in practical ways. He resists being swept up in the prison system by rejecting what sociologists have called "the small reward system" of total institutions. If favors are returned by cigarettes, Carter doesn't smoke. If submission leads to protection, Carter can do without the protection. His career in the Army, however, was not quite the smooth ride the movie gives us, but let's not dabble in too many discrepancies between art and life.

The other characters are rather blank. Life in the Canadian commune was evidently not lastingly satisfying. (Carter and Deborah Kara Unger's blond altruist were married, then divorced.) But we don't really get to know much about them. They -- and Carter's legal defense team -- are played mostly as bland do-gooders who would have failed if not pushed to the wall by the power of Carter's will.

There's a good movie around this story, lurking someplace, unorganized, entropic, waiting for someone to write it and put it on the screen. It's a parable of good and evil. Not of good people and evil people, but of people who are each, within themselves, good and evil, just like all the rest of us. But this isn't that movie.

My rating for the picture has to do with the way the story was conveyed on film, irrelevant of the actual facts of the Rubin Carter murder case. In that respect, the movie is a pretty compelling one even if it runs a bit long. However on the flip side, as I read some other reviewers here and dip into some of the facts surrounding the murders, I have a real sense of disappointment that this turned into just another Hollywood 'treatment' of a controversial figure. Even the scene of Carter's match against Joey Giardello in which he was 'robbed' of the middleweight title can be fact checked against the actual footage of the fight, so where's the percentage in going against reality? I was ready to go all out about Carter's perseverance and the injustice of his situation, racism and corrupt cops, the whole nine yards, but now I have to over compensate for the picture's opening remarks stating that 'some characters have been composited or invented, and a number of incidents fictionalized'. Really? Composited, invented? That's a real downer.

I'll give Denzel Washington his due - his portrayal here proves he's a master of his craft. Dan Hedaya made you hate him as the corrupt Sergeant Detective, and he was a compelling figure too, but then again he was one of those invented characters. That Dylan song went a long way to inspire celebrity talent to take up the cause at the time, but I wonder how they feel now, Dylan, Ellen Burstyn, if in fact they bothered to learn more about the case than a surface treatment would suggest. I've always been suspect of films that billed themselves as 'based on a true story'. Now I have more reason than ever to be suspicious.