The Hurricane – the victim or victimizer?

This post is about feeling wronged, wronged by the power of media. No other medium affects the mind more than cinema. It manipulates your thoughts, blatantly pushes you to see things intended for the audience to see. As I have mentioned before, cinema is a form of self indulgence, it’s about putting forth a personal perspective to the multi dimensional world around. But can this personal perspective surpass fact and actuality?

The venerated director Jean Luc Godard said "The cinema is truth 24 frames per second." But do we realize that there is no absolute truth? Truth is true as long as you believe it is.

The reason for this grumbling is the film “The Hurricane”. Saw it last night, and it ran me through a roller coaster of emotions. From pity, sympathy to relief and joy, I had a new idol now. The film based on the true life of Rubin Hurricane Carter, the African American middleweight boxer, whose only fault was the colour of his skin. Wrongly accused and persecuted for homicide by racist white people, it is his battle against adversity. Denzel Washington excels as the wronged prize fighter. Good wins over bad, transcending colour and race.

In reality, Rubin Carter’s innocence or guilt is highly controversial. He had support from celebrities like world champion Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan who wrote and performed ‘The Hurricane’. There are others who believe he is guilty of all three murders.

But what irks me most is the ability of film makers to conveniently exclude important facts and presenting the character in just one light. Subtle positive visual hints reinforce Carter’s heroic position, forcing the audience to feel offended by his penalty. If the film makers believed so strongly in his innocence, they should have shown all the facts with conviction.

Watch “The Hurricane” with a lump in your throat and a gush of relief for your hero, and then visit this website http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/.

Cal Deal brilliantly provides the facts in a most non-racist, no-biased fashion.

"Hurricane Carter: The Other Side of the Story"

http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter

RACISM & the Carter Case:

http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/racism.html

The Case Against Carter (Prosecutor's Brief):

http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/sarokinresponse.html

Carters Criminal, Psychiatric & Military Record

http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/threat.html

The Violent Side of Rubin Carter

http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/character.html

So is Hurricane really a hero or a villain? I will leave the judgment to you...