by lemony glitchet

Created on: August 30, 2007   Last Updated: January 31, 2008

The Hurricane Essay
A tale of racism which leads to injustice was a common thin in the 1960's America
but none is equal to the story of the Hurricane. To help set the dramatic life of
Hurricane the director, Norman Jewison employs lighting, sound, camera angles,
parallel editing and most important, the script. The start opens up with haunting
music foreshadowing that this is going to be a path full of controversy and trouble.

The starting scene (where he is boxing) is in black and white to show the racial
discrimination between both nationalities and that Hurricane is seen with enormous boxing potential. The parallel editing goes straight to the present inside a jail where the Hurricane says "For what 3 times life for a crime I didn't commit", this is where the script proves injustice and a man wrongly accused.

Lighting and script introduces the antagonist, De La Pesca in a dark void moving into the light because he is a character not to be trusted, whereas Hurricane often moves from the light into darkness due to the fact he had his dreams shattered. In the scene where Rubin was being identified as the murderer, De La Pesca emerges from darkness into light where he has a semi lit face to show again that he is the antagonist in this movie. Also during a heated conversation he said to Hurricane," I'm gonna take your black ass down, Mr ####### Champion of the World. Again the script supports the De la Pesca is racially motivated.

Parallel editing cuts to the court room where he was sentenced. A low shot and a close up was present on the Judge for two reasons. Firstly to show that he was in charge and that he had more power than anyone inside the court. Secondly when he made his judgement a close up proved this was also racially motivated because he had hatred in his eyes when convicting Hurricane. Also a close up on Hurricane showed his disbelief followed by a mid shot showing the White jury. This scene is cut to jail where he is writing his manuscript. In the background you can hear Bob Dylan's famous protest song and Number 1 hit "The Hurricane". In this song the lyrics tell us the hardships faced and the injustice that was place upon him. This song was made in the 1970's and was world recognised.

In his childhood you will see him being interrogated by two policemen, one of them being De La Pesca at a police station accused of stabbing a local businessman. Being young, Hurricane as a high shot placed upon him. "It's a nigger with a knife", De la Pesca says with a low

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