THE HURRICANE
Italian Title :
The same
Origin and year : USA ; 1999
Direction : Norman Jewison
Runtime : 140 minutes
Robin
Carter: the Man. The black, grown up in Paterson, New Jersey.
Robin
“Hurricane” carter, the box champion.
Robin
Carter, the person whose right were often violated by racial injustices. The
man whose decision of changing life leaded him to the Box. Box like a way of
expressing his hate for injustices, a way of expressing that he’s got a place
in this society, a place and a way too many times forbidden by this
environment.
Apartheid:
unquestionably a problem in this work. Life of a Black, especially in the 60th
Year America, was hard, a strong weight to be brought. And justice was very
different for a black or for a white one!
Robin,
condemned to jail when he was only 11. For a fault he wasn’t guilty. But he was
black. And the one who tried to make him violence a white (“a very influent
member of this community”). Robin tested upon him the sour taste of being
unequal. He used hate to get a box champion. And, thanks this hate, he gained
the World Title.
But,
thanks hate he was prisoned, and thanks
love he was liberated.
Hate
and love. Maybe, two poles in Human life. Like Eros and Thanathos. Two poles
that attract themselves each other. Hate attracts hate. If you hate, you can
obtain only hate in your life.
Robin
Carter experienced it. By hating whites for this he obtained hate. And nothing
more.
An
important experience. We often try to answer the hate, the aggressivity, in the
same way.
But,
with such an approach, we cause the
other person get more aggressive. And, we don’t solve our problem, but we get it
worse!
So,
which way can we use to interrupt this module? We are required to change! To
convert our hate in love. Robin was “lost” by hate, and found again by love. By
discovering not every white person is bad. He was helped by some whites, and
the judge at the end was white.
Love
is the strength. But the strength is in ourselves. Like Oriental Methods and
Theories are used to say. We can, for a moment, look at the cover of a book by
Krishnamurti, a great Indian Philosopher. His theories aim to show men the
opportunity of being themselves, by changing their destiny into true joy. The
problem is what we expect. If you expect nothing, there is no problem.
True
freedom is not in being free “outside”, but in being free “inside” us. True
Freedom is the one we have in our spirit. The jail may disappear if we change
our mind state. Maybe, this philosophy allowed Robin to survive his terrible
and dramatic situation. Changing his Mind State may get free, everywhere we
are.
Philosophy,
but also belief. True faith in the Human Being. Or, better, in those man that
may get life worth to be lived. White or black ones: no matters. It’s not
important. The most important thing is being ourselves, struggling for
building-up a new humanity. Starting from people.
With
an hope, in this way a reality: love can win. The strength of Love and
believing in something may make the life different, really different.
Way
of describing. The film is long. More than two hours. Sometimes we can feel it
a bit prolix. Some sequences might have been shortened. Like in some American
Films. The tendency of making a sort of “celebration” of Robin Carter
“Hurricane” is present. And this celebrative way makes some pieces of the work
a bit boring. A problem, but not so severe. Celebration, sometimes, may be
fine, and we can’t judge Director for this way. He desired to make so. It was
his choose. We shall accept it.
Very
interesting may appear the way of telling. Starting from the victory of
Hurricane (1963), we shift to his life in jail (1973), till the fact that
changed his life (1966).
Three
moments joined in one moment. Maybe to show, at a moment, his life, his topical
moments, happy and sad. Or, maybe, to show that violence and hate, in every
way, is never a positive behavior. An interesting way of starting, giving a
good rhythm to the whole work, an intense atmosphere, starting to pilot us in
this celebrative atmosphere that is a leitmotiv of the whole work.
Long,
maybe a bit prolix, some falls of rhythm, some problems. But a lesson for the
spectator.
A
lesson about love, life. A lesson about the true main of friendship and
capacity of giving all for what we believe.
Nothing,
for the Author, may pay ourselves like the satisfaction of seeing the values
which one believe in to affirm against every circumstance.