Word: washingtonization
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...movie, despite it being overcrowded with too many themes, despite it having so little moral ambiguity that there never was any doubt as to its conclusion, despite every other character being a nonentity revolving around Washington, when Carter's release is announced, you cheer with everyone else in the courtroom simply because, well, this is Denzel Washington...
When the movie begins, it is America in the 1960's, and the ugly realities of racial politics are flaring up all over again. Rubin Carter, played by Denzel Washington, is a poor black boy made good as a professional boxer, "Hurricane" Carter. As a street urchin growing up in racist New Jersey, he defends a friend against a white pedophile and is unjustly sent to a correction home by a sinister police officer, Depalowski (Dan Hedaya). Escaping from the home, he makes it good as an army officer until Depalowski, hell-bent on persecuting Carter, sends him back...
...this a horrible movie then? Surprisingly, the end result is actually an excellent movie precisely because all the flaws of the movie help to bring out the very best in Denzel Washington. Who cares if the other characters are two-dimensional? Washington's portrayal of Carter is as multi-faceted and nuanced as it can get. Who cares if there are too many ambitious themes? All the better to let Washington demonstrate his versatility in every range of emotion known...
...Already being touted as an Oscar contender for Best Actor, it is not difficult to see why. Washington just radiates in this film. From being a cocky young fighter with a past, to an embittered prisoner, to a wise guru, there is no transformation that Washington cannot effect in this movie. He has the deepest subtleties of acting to break your heart--such as his expression that seems to encapsulate all the injustice in this world when it is announced in the courtroom that he has been sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. He explodes with the rawest of emotions...
...uncompromising clarity of moral vision that is apparent in her best fiction: but these glimpses of Gordimer at her best only serve in this context to accentuate the reader's disappointment in the rest of the compilation. In 1959: What is Apartheid?, a transcript of a seminar given in Washington DC, we see the Gordimer who we know and admire. Her prose rings pure and true, like good crystal: simple and clear, but heavy with a kind of unexpected weight. This is the Gordimer who spoke because her words demanded to be heard, and these words deserve reprinting because they...