December 31, 1999
Web posted at: 4:12 p.m. EST (2112 GMT)

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- Maybe Norman Jewison's 1999 Irving Thalberg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences -- while deserved -- came a bit prematurely.

With the release of his latest project, "The Hurricane," Jewison has delivered another excellent film and one that stands with two of his earlier works that also deal with racial injustice, "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) and "A Soldier's Story" (1984).

The latter, nominated for an Oscar for best picture, featured the remarkable talents of Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington (he won for 1989's "Glory"). It seems impossible now to imagine "The Hurricane" without him in the title role.

In 1966, a man named Rubin "Hurricane" Carter dreamed of winning the middleweight boxing title. Through a combination of bad police work, a nearly blind witness and racist cops, his dreams were shattered when he and another man, John Artis (played in this film by Garland Whitt), were wrongly accused and convicted of killing three white people in a New Jersey bar.

Carter used his anger about his false imprisonment as inspiration for writing his 1974 autobiographical "The Sixteenth Round," in which he made his case for his innocence. His situation inspired numerous protests over racism during the 1970s.

Celebrities including actress Ellen Burstyn rallied to his cause. Singer Bob Dylan wrote a protest song about his plight. But after a second trial, in which he was once again convicted, Carter turned away from his wife and gave up hope.

As the film shows, this wasn't the end of Carter's story. Enter an African-American teen-ager, Lesra Martin (Vicellous Reon Shannon), living in Canada with three social activists who are trying to help him get an education.

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Martin has read Carter's book and believes him to be innocent. He turns for help to his adult friends, Lisa Peters (Deborah Kara Unger), Sam Chaiton (Liev Schreiber), and Terry Swinton (John Hannah).

Wanting to encourage his social activism, they look into the case and find themselves also becoming champions of Carter's cause. Martin and the Canadians move to New Jersey and vow not to leave until Carter is freed.

The bond that grows between the teen-ager and Carter, his new father figure, provides plenty of emotional juice. The fight to gain the older man's freedom results in a profound dramatic arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Swinton and Chaiton wrote a book about their fight for Carter's freedom, "Lazarus and the Hurricane." This work, along with Carter's autobiography, form the core materials Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon have used for htis combustible script.

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Jewison loves stories about social and racial injustice, and once again he has done a great job. But the film, however well-intentioned, isn't without a few flaws.

This true story has plenty of drama in its own right, and there seems no need for Jewison to milk the moment. But both his direction and the script sometimes "gild the lily," emotionally speaking, while going for dramatic effect.

"The Hurricane" at times glamorizes the former boxer and his Canadian activist friends.

Then, too, the racist cop who makes it his lifetime mission to take Carter down -- Det. Vincent Della Pesca, played by Dan Hedaya -- comes across as a one-dimensional bad guy with no emotional shadings.

But overall, this gripping drama achieves most of its lofty goals, and there's no denying the power of this story or of Washington's performance.

"The Hurricane" opened in select cities on Wednesday and is to open in wide distribution on January 14. The film is rated R with a running time of 125 minutes.