Details

Release year: 1999

Storyline

The story of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

Top credits

Directors

Norman Jewison

Writers

Cast

Denzel Washington — Rubin Carter
Vicellous Shannon — Lesra
Deborah Kara Unger — Lisa
Liev Schreiber — Sam

See all 96 credits →

Awards

0 wins & 1 nomination

See all awards →

Did you know

• Denzel Washington trained for over a year with a boxing coach.

• Denzel Washington lost 60 pounds to play the lead role.

• Some plot and character points were fictionalized or ignored. Before his murder trial, Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter was convicted of three muggings, and served four years in prison. Carter and Lisa Peters eventually married, and later divorced. Carter did not give a speech in the courtroom when his conviction was overturned, and Lesra was not in attendance. Carter was actually out of prison for four years between his two trial convictions. Carter's conviction was overturned because the prosecution mishandled much of the evidence. The real Detective Della Pesca, Vincent DeSimone, never met Carter before the Lafayette Grill incident. He also died in 1979, so he never met the Canadian couple, nor did he attend the trial in 1985.