Hurricane_Essay

YAHYA. MINSIF ESSAY Norman Jewison's 'The Hurricane' is a drama and action film which explores the discrimination African-Americans faced in the United States. The movie is about a boxer called Rubin Hurricane Carter who gets placed in prison for racist reasons. Jewison uses this character to show the fight between good and evil in the United States. He uses the techniques of music, lightning and script in order to portray Rubin Carter as a hero in the racist culture. Music is one of the techniques that the director Jewish has used to show the Hurricane as a hero. Music is one of the main techniques in the movie that attracted the audience to the character of the Hurricane and especially represents him as a hero. An example that showed us The Hurricane as a hero is when Hurricane gets placed in jail in the third time and the song by Bob Dylan, in which he sings about the Hurricane, is played as background to the action. Dylan used phrases and words which represented Rubin as a hero. some of them were: “The man the authorities came to blame for something that he never done”, “ An innocent man in a living hell”,”But it won't be over till they clear his name”, “And give him back the time he's done”, “Put in a prison cell but one time he could've been the champion of the world”. These words show how Rubin was represented as a hero inside his cell and how the world outside thinks that he is innocent and did not commit any crimes. Music had a strong influence on the movie especially showing Hurricane as a hero, and the director has made a point of highlighting it. Another technique which the director used was lighting. Lighting is so important for showing the difference between hero and villain. A key scene which shows Hurricane as a hero is when he is in gaol for the second time and he is training in his cell. One of shots show Hurricane is his cell doing dips and all the surroundings is in dark color and his cell is lighting up in a bright color, which shows how he is trying to fight for his freedom by training and being strong. Another example which shows Hurricane as a hero is when he gets placed in a underground cell in his third time in prison. Because he refused to wear the prison clothes he had to be placed in a dark cold and scary cell for a punishment. This scene is very significant because it shows how Rubin stays calm and doesn't die instead he fights for his life and even in a dark cell there was light shinning from him showing us how strong he is. Lighting was another strong inspiration on Hurricane because there were a lot of scene which represented Hurricane in a bright image and all the surrounding is dark. The third technique that Jewison used was script. Script is used to show also the battle between good and evil as well as racial barriers. When Rubin was in prison the second he started training and he said “I made up my mind to turn my body into a weapon that would eventually set me free or kill anyone who sought to keep me in prison”. This quote shows that he is fearless and wants to do anything to get out of prison. It also shows how strong he is inside him, all attributes of a hero. Another example which uses scripts to show Rubin is at the end of the movie when a reporter asks a question to the Hurricane. “Now that you're out, are you still gonna be the Hurricane' Oh, I'll always be the Hurricane. And the Hurricane is beautiful”. This quote shows how the Hurricane thinks of himself as a hero and as a beautiful and strong hearted man which fought for his freedom until he was released from prison. In conclusion the director Jewison used all these techniques and much more to deliberately makes us focus on Rubin Hurricane Carter as a hero. He used the music, lighting and script. He used the song of Bob Dylan which talks about the Hurricane himself and picked special phrases like “An innocent man living in hell” and much more to show Rubin carter as a hero. He also used the technique of lightning to show Hurricane as a hero. He had scenes where most of the surroundings where black and in the middle is Rubin and light is shining on him or predicted at him. One of the scenes which shows that is when he is in his cell in gaol the second time and he is training and doing dips. The third and final technique that jewison use was script. Script must be the most important technique in the whole movie. Because he directs Rubin to say things which makes people believe that he is a hero and innocent. For example in the end of the movie, the Hurricane said, “Now that you're out, are you still gonna be the Hurricane' Oh, I'll always be the Hurricane. And the Hurricane is beautiful”. This sentence makes people absolutely believe that Hurricane is a hero and innocent. In the final the audience is happy to see that rubin wins over evil and gets out of gaol for something he never did.