Movies To History.com

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, who at the height of his career and on the cusp of becoming “Champion of the World” in boxing, Carter was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for murder serving a life imprisonment, until almost 20 years into that life sentence Carter was released following a petition of habeas corpus.

In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. The killings occurred shortly after 2:30 am, when a car carrying Carter, Artis, and a third man, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way but, after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped and arrested while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later.

Carter and Artis were then interrogated for 17 hours, released and then re-arrested a few weeks later. They were convicted of all three murders in 1967, and given life imprisonment to be served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but they were overturned with the habeas corpus in 1985. Prosecutors appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but declined to try the case for a third time after that appeal failed.

Carter‘s autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender to Number 45472, was published in 1974, and was written while he was in prison. Carter‘s story was the inspiration for the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane“ and the 1999 film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington as Carter. From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada).

The 1999 film inspiration is the Featured Blog for the month, therefore my critique will look at the man, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and the crime that put him in prison for most of his adult life, as well as his release under habeas corpus. I will also explain what exactly a case of habeas corpus is and how it freed Carter from a wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Meanwhile, my recommendation will take a look at the two books that inspired the film, the Carter autobiography and Lazarus and the Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. And then my review will look at the 1999 film starring Denzel Washington and his transformation into a real-life civil rights cause in the late 1970s, as well as the transformation into the career boxer that Carter was prior to his arrest. Washington‘s transformation into Rubin “Hurricane” Carter earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2000 as well as a number of other Actor nominations that year. As usual with my Featured Blog for the month, along with the critique, recommendation, and review are an interview with the cast and crew of the film being featured, and a Top Ten List inspired by the film’s theme or genre.

But before we get to all that, I always provide an Official Trailer from the year of the films release, so without further ado, I give you The Hurricane…

You can watch the 1999 Official Trailer for The Hurricane below: