An understandably angry film about a massive injustice engineered, we're told, by a bigoted cop who contrived to get boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter arraigned and convicted on a murder charge.

Despite writing a book on his own life, a retrial and campaigns by celebrities, Carter was unable to get the verdict overturned.

His past was against him: at 11 he is arrested by the same cop after wounding a (well-connected) pervert molesting a child.

After eight years in juvenile prison, he escapes and serves with distinction in the army - but is then re-arrested and imprisoned for another year.

Starting a boxing career, he comes close to winning two world titles before, at 29, the fateful shootings take place.

His alibi is destroyed when police bribe witnesses and alter the time of the murders.

Only when, after 17 years, researchers from Canada, including a deprived black youth inspired by Carter's book, begin to help the boxer's lawyers, can Rubin proclaim 'Hate put me in prison - love's gonna bust me out.'

Denzel Washington, Oscar-nominated, gives a dedicated and dignified performance as Carter, but the film's length weighs against it (despite the success of its emotional highpoints), allowing our attention to wander when we should be glued to the story.