Hurricane Analyitical Essay
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There are few physical forces on this earth as powerful of that of a hurricane. It is therefore fitting that a movie, which carries its name, is as impacting and devastatingly effective as the meteorological event
Beginning on the night of June 17th 1966, several shots ring out from the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, claiming the lives of two men and a woman. In the aftermath of the shooting, the police arrest two Negroes in a white car, based on eyewitness accounts of two men seen speeding away from the crime scene. The two men are Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the current number one contender for the middleweight boxing crown, and a young fan, John Artis, who are on their way home. An all-white jury later convicts Carter and Artis to three consecutive life sentences each.
Fast-forwarding to the early 1980s, Lesra Martin, a troubled Brooklyn teenager studying in Toronto, Canada, picks up a copy of Carter's Biography, "The Sixteenth Round" from a used book sale. Inspired by what he reads, Lesra begins writing letters to Carter, and eventually finds the courage and travels to New Jersey to meet his new role model face-to-face. Convinced that he is innocent of the three murders that he had been accused of, Lesra and his three Canadian friends slowly begin to uncover the truth hidden within the New Jersey judicial system. Carter however, finds it hard to trust Lesra's white friends, since the real reason for his being in prison is the malevolence of Della Pesca, a detective who framed him for the murders. The group discover that they are dealing with a case in which tainted evidence is firmly buried in the past...