"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine!"
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Denzel gives knockout performance
by Herb Kane
February 11, 2000
(R)
CRITIC DOCTOR EXAMINES:
Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Harvey S. Karten (Compuserve), Jeff Vice (Deseret News), Bob Longino (Cox News Service), Mike Antonucci (San Jose Mercury News), David Elliott (San Diego Union), M.V. Moorhead (New Times Los Angeles), Susan Stark (Detroit News), Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly), Chuck Walton (hollywood.com), and Susan Wloszczyna (USA TODAY).
I went to "The Hurricane" with the notion I was going to see an average movie. I don't know why, I just did. Like in the ring, Denzel Washington gave a knockout performance; and the movie delivered a powerful punch, packed with a meaningful story, that caused FOUR STARS to circle my head. Watching "The Hurricane" gave me a good warm-up and now I'm going to step into the ring with some "negative" movie critics.
ROUND 1: Harvey S. Karten (Compuserve) vs The Critic Doctor
Harvey approaches me, the Critic Doctor, and says "The Hurricane" is "more suited to HBO television than to the big screen." Now wait a minute, Harvey. We're not talking about a HURRICANE HBO COMEBACK BOXING SPECIAL here. This is a movie with Oscar potential, and one of Denzel's finest performances of his life. I'd knock ya silly, bud, but you've demonstrated that condition with your own words. Harvey walks out of the ring, his head hung low like a hurt puppy.
ROUND 2: Jeff Vice (Deseret News) vs The Critic Doctor
Jeff jumps in the ring and swings hard at me saying the movie "preys to creeping Hollywoodisms - such as annoying plot contrivances and a tendency to play fast-and-loose with the facts - that lessen the film's overall impact." I looked at him perplexed. What facts are ever totally accurate in movies, Jeff? Bob Longino (Cox News Service) got it right, "It's fashioned with the kind of classic Hollywood professionalism that 's fast becoming a rarity at the movies. Like 'In the Heat of the Night,' it knows racial injustice when it sees it - and lays it bare for all the world to see." I manipulate Jeff to the corner of the ring, trapping him. Perhaps, Mr. Vice, you should have taken advice from film critic Mike Antonucci (San Jose Mercury News) who suggested, "Your best chance to enjoy 'The Hurricane' will be if you don't know many facts about Carter's case. Deal with the movie on its own terms first; read about the true story afterward, if you are so inclined." I nail Jeff with a right hook. In a matter of seconds - he fades to black.
ROUND 3: David Elliot (San Diego Union) vs The Critic Doctor
David steps into the ring and taunts me with, "And yet this wonderful performer [Denzel] appears mostly in films that fall well below his talent." Huh? Wait a minute, David. Denzel Washington is in this movie, not Ashley Judd. David's face turns red with anger and he swings awkwardly and trips falling to the floor and mumbles with spit flying from his mouth, "The last half of the film is clogged with legal discussions and scenes of Carter looking like a trapped, resentful patsy who is being turned into an icon." I look down at the out of shape critic with pity. David. This is not a boxing movie. This is a movie about a boxer trying to fight racial injustice in a corrupt legal system and this does require legal discussions. Duh? POW! The movie critic is jolted out of the ring.
ROUND 4: M.V. Moorhead (New Times Los Angeles) vs The Critic Doctor
Moorhead walks right up to me, eyes focused on mine, and says,
"The screenwriters, Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon, and
the director, Norman Jewison, couldn't find a focused structure
out of which to deliver emotional payoffs to the audience."
I take one step closer, nudging M.V.'s chest with mine: Oh, yeah.
Tell that to Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), I say pointing to
the teary-eyed film critic sitting by himself in the front row
seats outside the ring. Ebert stands and says, "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." Moorhead spits on Ebert, and the film critic breaks
out in an uncontrollable crying frenzy. I look back at Moorhead,
feeling the way Michael J Fox did in "Back to the Future"
when anyone called him "yella." Energy beamed from my
very being. My right fist clenched and coiled back, like a rattler
ready to strike, and I declared, "You're lucky Siskel's not
here." POW! A punch lands on Moorhead's dead head. TKO!
Well, I could go round and round with these punch drunk critics,
but I have to really commend those who made sense. Susan Stark
(Detroit News) said, "Arguably the most powerful passages
in the picture show Washington's Carter suffering the hell of
"the hole" - isolation, darkness, no bathing facilities,
minimal food - for 90 days after he arrives in prison and refuses
to trade his fine suit for jailhouse garb. When he comes up, stinking
from the ordeal and blinking at the light, and still refuses to
wear prison stripes, you know for sure you are watching a truly
heroic character."
A powerful passage indeed. You'll never want to go to this place after watching this scene. It was refreshing to see Clancy Brown play the guard in this movie.Brown seems to always get the creepy roles in prison movies (i.e., "Shawshank Redemption" & "Bad Boys"). I was waiting for him to taunt and torture Carter, but instead - he was a light of hope to a man who had just spent 90 days in darkness. A nice touch in casting.
Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly) observes, "This movie about the nightmare of incarceration makes you taste the meaning of freedom." Personally, I don't know what I'd do if I was ever convicted for something I never did. What a nightmare to think about. When you leave the movie theater, you are thankful for your freedom, indeed.
Though the movie wasn't about boxing, Bob Longino (Cox News Service) said, "The film's early boxing scenes, shot in glorious black and white, are precise, inspired re-creations, with a crowd of shouting extras whose performances are as mesmerizing and convincing as the powerful pugilism in the ring." This wasn't a "Rocky" or a "Raging Bull," but then again it wasn't intentended to be. What they did show was sufficient to move the real story along and convincingly so.
The acting in this movie was superb. The cast not only captured their characters, but made the two hour plus film a pleasure to watch. I was moved by the relationship of Carter (Denzel Washington) and Lesra (Vicellous Reon Shannon). This was the magic of the movie. Both characters displayed courage and fed off of each other in a way only a father and son could. Chuck Walton (hollywood.com) said, "The surrogate father-son relationship they develop is fraught with emotions and genuinely moving. The Canadians are also well cast. Although the movie features a lot of sentimental moments, the actors, story and filmmakers earn them all." Earned, indeed! Roger Ebert doesn't "blink tears" for just any movie.
Susan Wloszczyna (USA TODAY) said the movie "ultimately does what the legal system failed to do for far too long: It gives justice to Rubin Carter." Injustice, no matter what form it comes in, is an issue we must fight to the end. "The Hurricane" was a perfect example of what people can do when they set their mind to it.
Walton summed up "The Hurricane" best: "Like the boxer it depicts, it's a true champion."
You'll go to this movie and come out feeling like a winner.
--THE CRITIC DOCTOR
Movie: The Hurricane MPAA Rating: R (Violence and Profanity) Starring: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Liev Schreiber, Deborah Unger, John Hannah, Dan Hedaya, Clancy Brown, David Paymer and Rod Steiger Directed by: Norman Jewison Screenplay: Armyan Berbstein and Dan Gordon, based on Lazarus and The Hurricane by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton, and The 16th Round by Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter Running time: 125 minutes Distributor: Universal Pictures Cinematography: Roger Deakins Music: Christopher Young Release Date: 01/14/00
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