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 60^th 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.

Sergio Ragaini