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Lets Go to the Movies: Crime is big on the silver screen and the tube as well. Here you need to choose two criminal justice –related movies, which you have seen to compare and contrast them both: In this essay I will compare the similarities and contrast the differences between two crime film openings. I will be comparing The Next Three Days' and 'The Hurricane'. I will analyze the two film openings and see how they establish their own crime film genre. Genre is a way of categorizing a film. From genre, producers are able to market their films to a target audience. With some films it is difficult to categorize them as a certain genre as they may contain more than one genre. A hybrid genre is a film, which contains more than one genre. An example of a hybrid genre is 'All about the Benjamin’s' the genres in this film are comedy, romance, crime and also drama. Most films nowadays are hybrid genre as they appeal to a larger audience. These films contain both genre of drama, romance, crime, suspense, and “wrongly accusations”.

A glimpse of each movie: (1) The Next Three Days: This movie stars “just to name a few” Russell Crowe as John Brennan, Elizabeth Banks as Lara Brennan, Brian Dennehy as George Brennan, and Lennie James as Lieutenant Nabulsi. This movie is about a women by the name of Lara Brennan (Banks) which is convicted of murdering her boss after an altercation at work and after a trial is sentenced to life in prison. Following the failure of her appeal, Lara's 3 husband John Brennan (Crowe), a professor at a community college, becomes obsessed with the idea of breaking her out of jail, while their son Luke ceases to acknowledge her during their prison visits. John consults Damon Pennington (Neeson), a former convict who successfully escaped from prison seven times. Damon advises John to study the prison where his wife is, saying, "every prison has a key". Damon also warns him that the initial escape from the prison will be easy compared with avoiding capture after the escape. To that end, John must obtain false passports, new social security numbers, and a "truckload of cash" to have a chance of success. Damon also suggests going to an unpopular foreign country for Americans so that authorities will be unlikely to look for them there. John learns Pittsburgh's time to lock-down the city's exits after a call is made to do so: 15 minutes for the city center and 35 minutes for all interstates, secondary roads, and stations or airports. Damon Pennington tells John to ask himself if he can really "be that guy" who knocks over an old lady or shoots a guard if it's the difference between escape or getting caught to get his innocent wife out of jail.
John contemplates several ideas that do not pan out and is defeated more than once, but he latches onto a solid plan and the necessary paperwork after some painful efforts. He robs a drug lord and sets his meth lab on fire before fleeing the scene. He then falsifies and plants blood work results indicating that his wife is in a state of hyperkalaemia, so she is transferred to the hospital. He follows the ambulance and helps her escape although she is doubtful and reluctant, motivated only by the idea of her son being without either parent.
With the police getting some lucky breaks, they are hot on John and Lara's trail through a 4 series of chases. Throughout the film, John is shown assembling maps, photographs, notes, and other papers on a wall of his house. He tears them down and stuffs them into several garbage bags before leaving to rescue Lara, leaving one bag in the trash outside his home, and the rest in a dumpster some blocks away. As it turns out, he did this selectively to misguide the detectives regarding their final destination. They have an uncomfortable moment at passport control, as a Canadian officer examines their passports and glances at the page of photographs showing people to stop. He allows them to pass. The shift changes, and as they walk down the hall, their photos are added to the list. An international flight is delayed, but the police were after the wrong destination.
At the end of the film, the family ends up safe in Caracas, Venezuela. Back in the United States, a detective who had attempted to catch Brennan returns to the scene of the crime although it had been some years since the crime occurred. Using his forensic skills, he manages to put together what really happened. It turns out that the killer of Lara's boss was really just a mugger—as she claimed in open court—and a series of coincidences led to Lara's conviction. He remembers Lara saying a button popped off as she passed the mugger, and notices that it is raining just as it had been the night of the murder. He tosses a piece of paper in the current where the button would have fallen off, and it leads into a gutter. He searches the gutter but is unable to find the button to prove Lara's innocence. It turns out the button was there, buried under grime, and the detective just missed it. The last shot of this detective shows him turning back to think, implying that there is a possibility of him taking a second look and locating the button, which would've led to the exoneration of Lara. However, that is left open to audience speculation. 5

(2) The Hurricane: This movie stars “ just to name a few” Denzel Washington as Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter, Vicellous Reon Shannon as Lesra Martin, Deborah Kara Unger as Lisa Peters, Liev Schreiber as Sam Chaiton, John Hannah as Terry Swinton, Dan Hedaya as Det. Sgt. , and Della Pesca, based on Vincent DeSimone just to name a few. This movie is about a man by the name of Rubin Hurricane Carter that was also wrongly convicted. On July 17, 1966, in Paterson, NJ, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was contending for the heavyweight boxing title, when, one night, he was pulled over and suspected of a murder. There was no evidence or witnesses to prove the Hurricane guilty, but the cops needed somebody to blame; so they fixed the trial, and Rubin received the short end of the stick. He was put away for life for a crime he didn’t commit. This is a true story. The song was written by Bob Dylan to bring Rubin’s situation to the public. Rubin Carter was a black man; so many people, including judges and cops, just turned their head. The Hurricane’s verdict was changed after nineteen years in prison. He is now trying to live the life that was taken from him. Dylan’s song, “The Hurricane” explains how Rubin Carter was proven innocent, but found guilty.

Shots were fired, and a triple murder was committed. Two people were at the scene, Patty Valentine and a man, but there were no witnesses. The man next to the bodies said, “I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand.” Somehow this burglar is not suspected of the murder. The number one contender for the heavyweight title is not even near the shootings. It 6 says “Meanwhile, far away in another part of town, Rubin and a couple of friends are drivn’ around.” But he was pulled over anyway “just like the before and the time before that. In Paterson, that’s just the way things go. If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street ‘less you wanna draw the heat.” People were very racist back then, and therefore a black man was always suspected before a white man. The police are at the scene gathering information. The burglar and his partner said they saw two middleweights running, and Patty Valentine agreed with them. A cop sees that the bartenders not dead, “and though this man could hardly see they told him he could identify the guilty man. The cops have to find a person to blame, and even though it doesn’t say it in the song, Rubin has had trouble with the Chief of Police when he was younger. Rubin is hauled to the hospital, so that the bartender could identify him. “The wounded man looks up through his one dyin’ eye, says, wha’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!” Rubin should no longer be involved in this murder. He was cleared by the only witness, and he had no reason to kill anyone. Four months later Rubin is in South America, and the burglar and his friend are in trouble. The cops are looking for someone to blame. “Remember that murder that happened in a bar? Remember you said you saw the getaway car? You think you’d like to play ball with the law? Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin’ that night? Don’t forget that you are white.” This is a big part of the song. If the cops don’t force these men to lie, Rubin would have never even gone to court. The cops keep harassing the burglars. “Now you don’t wanta have to go back to jail, 7 be a nice fellow.” They are afraid that Rubin will get away from a conviction. “That sonofabitch is brave and getting’ braver. We want to put his ass in stir. We want to pin this triple murder on him.” The chief thinks the Hurricane is a trouble maker, and he is determined to put Rubin away for this crime. Rubin was a great boxer, but he wanted to get somewhere with his life. “Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice, and ride a horse along a trail.” This was his dream and his dream was taken from him during this time. Rubin’s verdict was set. The trial “was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.” “No one doubted that he pulled the trigger” “The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed, and the all-white jury agreed.” Besides the fact that there was no evidence, it was hard for Rubin to defend himself because everyone was against him. The Hurricane got screwed. He received murder “one”. The burglars testified. The songwriter then gives his views on the subject. “How can the life of such a man be in the palm of some fool’s hand? To see him obviously framed. Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game.” This was a great part to put in the song, because now Rubin has people on his side and this might have been a factor of him being released from prison. As Rubin is in jail, all the real criminals, such as the burglars, the cops, and the judges, are free to do as they please while the Hurricane is stuck “like a Budda” in prison for something he didn’t do. The refrain just summarizes the story. “the man the authorities came to blame, for somethin’ that he never done” (as said on the movie) is what happened but no one back then saw it that way, and therefore ruined a man’s life and 8 dreams. This is the story of a falsely accused man that was well known. No evidence was presented, and the witnesses that were still alive were forced to testify against the accused. This man received no justice in America, in the land of the free. Bob Dylan explains in good detail, during this song, why Rubin “Hurricane” Carter is in prison and not holding the Heavyweight Crown. The big question is was he ever freed? Yes, rubin “hurricane’ Carter was freed after serving nearly 25+ years in prison. His freedom came about from an underprivileged youth from Brooklyn, Lesra Martin (Vicellous Reon Shannon), who became interested in Carter's life and destiny after reading Carter's autobiography, and convinces his Canadian foster family to commit themselves to his case. The story culminates with Carter's legal team's successful pleas to Judge H. Lee Sarokin (Rod Steiger) of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Carter had the option due to 4 people who would not give up on him to present the new information and have it approved or for it to get denied and close the case forever. Carter figured since he was already in jail most of his life due to this that he had nothing to loose. Though many people had tried to help carter in the past years “ as I stated above” they were always slamming some other issues that would prevent them hearing the real truth, because truthfully the judges, police, courts, jury had no interest what so ever in hearing anything from the jump, which cause everyone to eventually give up on his case.

Comparing and Contrasting the two (2) movies:

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The Next Three Days vs. The Hurricane
These movies both included two people that were wrongly convicted. They both included cases and trials that were pro longed over 10+ years for both innocent people. Both were based on true stories, and both were over looked from simple uninterest in the courts. Both prisoners were instead of innocent until proven guilty, guilty until proven innocent. One prisoner was a female and one was a male. One prisoner was black and one was white. This is said, because I really want to focus the attention on how in the 1800’s when “The Hurricane” was filmed was a time where blacks were; in fact, accused and serving time for crimes that they actually didn’t commit. Now in present day of the movie the “Next Three Days”, which was in 2000’s is when a white person was wrongly convicted, drastic differences, from the 1990’s where they would have, in fact; taken the time to investigate a crime for a white person rather right or wrong, as clearly seen and stated in the view of “ The Hurricane”. Major differences was that in “ The Next Three Days” the lady had some clues to courts believing she was innocent simply because of the drastic argument that was take with her boos hrs. before her death. Might I add everyone in the office heard the argument, which not only made courts believe this was in fact the killer but also fellow coworkers. With the movie “The Hurricane” there was absolutely no true evidence of anything that was said in the courthouse in year 1889. It was simply a charge by racism and word of mouth. In both these movies it really touched me , because our court system is all we a\have at the end of the day. If they cant take the time to make sure we are in fact guilty and or innocent and try harder and harder, then

10 who will? At times attorneys cant even seem to get it right as seen in both occurring cases.

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Reference:

#1 source: The movie: “The Hurricane” “The Next Three Days” http://www.americaswrongfullyconvicted.com/ http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/hurricane-1974/ http://www.fandango.com/thehurricane_v181297/plotsummary http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/next_three_days/