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BEYOND THE MOVIE :

The Hurricane

by Raymond Teague

This month, the author of a succesful book on inspiring movies (click here for more info) talks about a recent "boxing movie" that is, first and foremost, "a story of the triumph of the human spirit". Its main character, the unjustly convicted boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, shows us how to achieve inner peace and be released from whatever prisons we find ourselves in.

Many movies claim to be wonderful stories that illustrate the "triumph of the human spirit." Most of these deliver on the promise to some degree, at least making viewers feel good that someone has succeeded or beat the odds or "gone the distance," as Rocky would say.

That boxing allusion brings us to The Hurricane, the powerful true story of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (Denzel Washington), who unjustly received three life sentences and served almost 20 years in prison. While director Norman Jewison's film definitely fits within the genre of boxing movies, it is, first and foremost, a story of the "triumph of the human spirit."

However, this movie is not only a story of the human spirit, fueled by divine Spirit, triumphing, but also is a virtual guidebook showing how to triumph over adversities and injustice.

Carter's story is indeed one of eventual triumph and freedom. At least as depicted in the movie, Carter is an inspiring survivor whose convictions and strengths can show us how to achieve inner peace and be released from whatever prisons we find ourselves in.

Spiritual triumphing is transcending, the movie teaches. On several occasions, Carter refers to the great need to "transcend." Transcend what? "It is important to transcend the places that hold us," To triumph and let Spirit work through us, Carter says we need to figure out what types of things are holding us back from achieving our greatest good. Carter recognizes that he must transcend thoughts of hatred and victimization based largely on a childhood and an adult life of racial discrimination and prejudice.

This transcending is an inside job; it requires figuring out what is truly important in life and what truly brings peace to one's consciousness.

Often, as in Carter's case, the process of transcending involves wrestling with inner demons. One of the most electrifying scenes in the movie is Carter doing just that; in solitary confinement, Carter carries on a dialogue between his two "selves": the so-called demon or "shadow" part of his will that urges him on to further hatred and anger, and the Spirit side of him that nudges him toward hope, forgiveness and love.

Drawing upon his core spiritual strength, Carter finally is able to say to the shadow: "You can't break me because you didn't make me." Later he says to those thoughts of hate and doubt within him: "It's time for you to go."

Coming through this internal dialogue, Carter announces, "I will live only in my mind and in my spirit."

He has come to realize who is truly in charge of his destiny: himself and his thoughts. He realizes that, despite outward appearances, he has the choice of how to react to events in his life. As Will learned in Good Will Hunting, what others did or didn't do is not his fault, not his responsibility. He must choose for himself how to deal with what's going on in life.

With inner peace, Carter can affirm, "I am free in here (in his mind and spirit) because there's nothing I want out there."

A part of transcending is understanding what brings the greatest peace to you, as an individual. "You've got to find out what is true for you," Carter tells Lesra, the young black man who becomes his friend and catalyst to outward freedom, once Carter has freed himself from internal limitations.

Above all, Carter's process of transcending includes learning about the nature of true, unconditional Love (capitalized to refer to the essential nature of God-energy; you can use Love as a synonym for God).

Through his involvement with Lesra's activist white friends, Carter learns that all whites are not racist and self-serving (like Della Pesca, the New Jersey police detective largely responsible for Carter's imprisonment for crimes he didn't commit), and that the connection of Love brings one to a feeling of peace and unity. And it is love/Love that truly triumphs, Carter discovers.

"Hate put me in prison," he says. "Love's going to bust me out."

Somehow, wasn't Love working all along in Carter's journey? Was it an accident that the first book Lesra bought and read was Carter's autobiography? "Sometimes we don't pick the books we read; they pick us," says Lesra's friend Sam. Was it an accident that brought Lesra and the white activists together, and brought them to Carter? Spirit works in strange ways.

Carter declares that it was "no accident" that he and Lesra were drawn together. He connects Lesra's name, derived from Lazarus ("he who is risen"), and his own name derived from Genesis, a male born "because the Lord has looked on my affliction." Theirs is a union of Love, recognized and lived, triumphing over hate.

Copyright © 2000 Raymond Teague