Denzel Washington puts in a smoldering, sinewy performance as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the black boxer who was framed on a murder charge in New Jersey in the 1960s and sentenced to life in prison -- he fought a racist system of justice to get a new trial, became a '70s cause célèbre inspiring a hit song by Bob Dylan, and was finally vindicated and set free after serving 18 years. But crusty old Canadian liberal Norman Jewison has airbrushed Carter of his foibles and turned him into that hoary racial stereotype, the saintly martyred black man. What's more, the first third of The Hurricane suggests that the film was written on a stack of file cards that got dropped and put back in the wrong order. The sole unifying device is a villainous detective played by Dan Hedaya who, Javert-like, has a thing about Carter. The narrative recovers somewhat when it settles into the courtroom drama, but then the focus shifts from Carter to Lesra (Vicellous Reon Shannon), a young African-American who, inspired by Carter's autobiography, contacts him in prison. The outcome of the case, especially for those unfamiliar with it, is engrossing and occasionally rousing. But it's sobering to look back at the wit, passion, and dignity of Jewison's own In the Heat of the Night, which he made in 1967, the year Rubin Carter was convicted.