Rubin The Hurricane Carter

640 Words2 Pages

Analysis of The Film The Hurricane The movie that was analyzed was "The Hurricane" starring Denzel Washington. The movie was based on a true story, which was about a boxer who was wrongfully accused for murders he did not commit. Rubin Carter had been a victim of racial prejudice since the age of 11. From that time on he had been haunted by the racial prejudice that would take most of his natural life away from him. At the age of fifty he ended up going to the Supreme courts to get his trial heard and at this time he was set free. This is a short summary leaving a lot to be unsaid, but I believe the portrayal will tell most of the story in itself. In the beginning of the movie one can tell that the less developed, or "slums", was where Rubin Carter was forced to grow up. This is an example of minority group status and stratification. This society was one where African Americans did not have access to wealth, power, prestige, or income. With this type of environment forces these African Americans to be more prone to violence and criminal acts. So as a kid Rubin was involved with a crime where an older white male came up to him and his friends down by the local river. This male was trying to molest one of the little boys, so Rubin threw a bottle at him and they ran. The man caught up to them and got a hold of Rubin and threatened to throw him over the edge of a cliff, so Rubin at age 11 pulled a knife and stabbed him in the arm to get away. The police caught him and since the older man was a public figure, Rubin Carter was sentenced to a juvenile detention center until the age of thirteen. This was the first time that we seen the racial prejudice from the head police chief towards Carter. The next principle t... ... middle of paper ... ...at the prejudice cops seen white people do the same thing that the blacks were doing they would make up excuses for why it was all right for them to do it. This is what is called the ultimate attribution error. The portrayal of the principles of ethnic relations was considered to be accurate for that time of the 1960's. Economic inequality was not something that was unusual for the African American culture. They were concentrated in the slums and ghettos were opportunity was not something they had a lot of. The other principles like discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes like that portrayed in this movie was much like the real life that African Americans had to live in, and even still do just not as extreme as in the 60' and in years before. So as disturbing as it maybe this video did a good job at portraying the principles analyzed in this time frame.

Open Document