I've always been a fan of Denzel Washington, and still am. When I saw the trailer for this, I was definitely hooked on seeing it, to see (at least what I believed at the time), an innocent man railroaded, then freed. Indeed, he did a great job playing as Rubin Carter. Unfortunately, the reality is, that much of it was deliberately distorted for artistic license. No matter how much one wants to believe differently, the reality doesn't change, and will not. I was disgusted to learn that I had been duped. I actually believed it, until I found out differently. (Most are not aware that the film's producers and screen writers got the story entirely from Carter himself. Only his side of it, without seeking out other peoples' side of the story. Of course he's going to twist it in his favor.) It is as follows:
Movie: Rubin Carter was a contender for the middleweight title when the murders occured. His defeat by Joey Giardiello was depicted as a racist robbery, even though Carter had defeated him fair and square. The movie seems to ask, "Why would a man with so much going for him murder innocent people?"
Reality: In 1966 (year of the murders), Carter's boxing career was dying. It was going down the tubes. He had peaked in 1964. He had fallen to number 9 in the rankings. His record for 1965-66 was a dismal 7-7-1. All of this, racially tense times, and booze may have had to do with his state of mind the night of the murders. Plus also, Giardiello's victory was not racist. The judges ruled in his favor because he beat Carter's ass fair and square.
Movie: Carter served in the Army honorably, as an ideal soldier.
Reality: Carter was discharged after 21 months with a 4F (Unfit for military service). He was, at best, a poor soldier.
Movie: Carter was a child hero who saved his friend from a child molestor by hitting the man in the head with a bottle, and then stabbing him in self defense after the man dangled him threateningly near a cliff.
Reality: Carter was a thug who attacked and robbed a man of $55 and a watch.
Movie: Cops pull over Rubin Carter and John Artis shortly after the murders. They are looking for two black men in a white car. Carter says sarcastically, "Any two will do?" The movie leads viewers to believe they were stopped more or less because they were black. Plus the surroundings create the idea that the two were far from the murders when they occured.
Reality: Carter and Artis were rounded up for one reason: their car exactly matched the description of the getaway car as provided by witnesses. In fact, they were stopped once, about 14 blocks from the scene of the murders, but police let them go because there were three individuals in the car, not two: Rubin Carter, John Artis, and John "Bucks" Royster, a local barfly. When the cops got a detailed description of the getaway car, they realized that was the car they'd let go earlier and took off to find it.
Movie: Carter and Artis, when they were stopped after the murders, Artis was driving the car, and Carter was sitting in the seat beside him, perhaps to insinuate that they were innocent and had nothing to hide by sitting in plain sight, and acting normally.
Reality: Artis was indeed driving, but Carter was laying down in the backseat. Maybe he was just tired, or was he hiding? And a third man, John "Bucks" Royster was seated beside Artis.
Movie: A vicious, racist detective named Vincent Della Pesca, who has hounded Carter since childhood, and has framed Carter, is seeing glowering in court in 1985 as the judge sets Carter free.
Reality: The detective's name was actually Vincent DeSimone. And he was actually a well-respected law enforcement officer, with a good reputation, never cursed, who was not racist. He even told his wife, that he would never be able to sleep knowing an innocent man was being wrongly accused. He was known to be "tough, but fair." The film's producers were forced to admit that their depiction of the detective never existed. In fact, he had never had any law-enforcement contact with Carter before the murders. At the time Carter and Artis were picked up by the police for the murders, DeSimone was home in bed. Plus also, unlike in the movie, he was not present in court at the time Carter was freed, in 1985. He had been dead for six years. He had died in 1979. But he was probably turning over in his grave at the thought of Carter free.
Movie: Carter was accused of murdering at that bar for racial reasons, but later, when the Canadians visited one of the black witnesses, named Louise Cockersham, she refutes this, saying she and husband were served there, and even ran a tab there.
Reality: According to Pat Valentine who lived above the bar, it did not serve blacks. The real Cockershams had to pay for their drinks and take them out the back door.
Movie: During a tape-recorded interview with the racist detective, small time criminals Al Bello and Arthur Bradley conspire to frame Carter for the murders.
Reality: No conspiracy was needed. Bello, being a witness, told a friend, "Rubin Carter shot up the whole bar!" Months later, Bello, voluntarily (reluctantly) named Carter as one of the killers in the murders in TWO interviews with the police. Three days after Bello talked, Bradley was interviewed and confirmed Bello's story. And Bradley was 75 miles away, locked in prison. So they were never together. Finally, in a third interview, with DeSimone, Bello once more named Carter as one of the killers. This time, it was tape-recorded. Bello had already talked and didn't know he was being taped. And Bradley was nowhere near the place. This is the interview falsely depicted in the film.
Movie: The gunmen run out of the front door of the bar and through the shadows to their getway car, which is waiting at the curb. Plus the street is dark, poorly lit. Al Bello is shown watching the shadowy figures from a distance from a gas station across the street. This implies Bello could never have identified the gunmen with such a fleeting glimpse of darkened figures.
Reality: The gunmen came out the front door, turned to the right, walked around the corner and walked down the sidewalk, laughing and talking loudly, according to Bello's testimony. (Bello was walking along the same sidewalk, in the opposite direction, toward the same bar.) They were so brazen that Bello at first thought they were gun-wielding cops. Only when he got to within 10 or 15 feet of them did Bello realize that they weren't cops. He turned and ran for his life. The getaway car, rather than being parked at the curb out front, was in the westbound lane of the side street that ran alongside the bar.
Movie: Carter was convicted by a "jury of his peers," all of whom were lily white. The whitest juror of them all gets up and delivers the "guilty" verdict with a subtle, self-satisfied sneer. Obviously, this implies, that Paterson New Jersey's justice system unjustly convicted Carter, because they were racist, aided and abetted by an all white jury.
Reality: Two blacks served on the jury in Carter's second trial in 1976, which is virtually ignored by the film. The jury was selected in Hudson County, not Passaic County where the crimes occurred.
Another thing the movie ignored was in 1976, Carter and Artis were given a new trial, and another chance to avoid all responsibility for the murders. In fact, in the jury, in this trial, some of the jurors were black. And again, they were both found guilty. During the months that Carter was free for his second trial, he brutally beat up a woman who was working to help set him free.
It goes on and on...
reply
share