It was released just in time to be eligible for 1999 Oscar consideration and The Hurricane entered with the full force of the type of storm that the film's central character was nicknamed after.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter earned the moniker for his whirlwind movement and powerful punches during his boxing career. He was a contender for the middleweight championship until 1966 when he was accused of, tried and convicted for a multiple murder that he didn't commit.

Director Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof) manages to take this very complex tale, based on the true story, from the pages of two books and brings it to the screen. The two books, for those of a literary mind, are The Sixteenth Round by Carter himself (written while he was in prison, some of it on toilet paper at first) and Lazarus and the Hurricane by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton.

A black teen named Lezra buys Carter's book at a book sale, and upon reading it, becomes enamored of Carter. He asks permission of the adults who have taken him into their home to educate him to write to Carter. His honest, heartfelt words reach out to Carter, who has sunk into a funk in prison after his appeals have failed. After he meets Carter in a prison visit, his Canadian mentors also become emotionally involved in Carter's plight and they relocate to New Jersey with the goal of not leaving until they can take Rubin with him.

In the film version, there are three adults. In reality there were nine, and they didn't exactly engage in the grunt-type detective footwork that we're shown in the film. But the result is the same in art as in real life, when on November 8, 1985, Rubin Carter was released from prison.

Denzel Washington has spent years preparing for this role, wanting to play it. He met with Carter for hours and hours, and his efforts are visible on the screen for all to see. Washington IS Carter, with all the power, magnetism and self-taught erudition of the man who became the focal point of a struggle to free a wrongly imprisoned victim of police corruption and racial prejudice. Washington is as close to a "lock" for a Best Actor nomination as is any other actor for 1999 and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him walking down the aisle to collect the golden statue for his performance.

The movie may not win any awards itself, but it is well-done, manages to tell us the stories of Carter and Lezra, doesn't take too much creative license with the facts (although the racist detective portrayed by Dan Hedaya in a decent display of angry acting is a fictional creation), and doesn't bog down anywhere in giving us the facts as a documentary might.

Don't miss The Hurricane.