boxers in two genres - killers kiss. the hurricane

how co-incidence works, i wonder? just today i was pulled into the first year where they were watching stanley kubricks film ‘killers kiss’ about an over the hill boxing champ who gets caught up in a web of love and murder when he saves a woman from a gangster; while in the afternoon i got home to watch ‘the hurricane’ on star movies in which denzel washington plays hurricane carter, a man wrongly convicted of murder who spent thirty year in a prison until he was finally acquitted.

both films were so generic that the formulas became what i was watching for rather than the story. the film noir black and white heavy shadowed light play with smoky interiors in ‘killers kiss’ or the grey prison walls with soul music blaring, the soft focus good guys who inspire and are inspired in turn, the easy good/bad generalizations, the making of a hero and the strings soaring in all the right places in ’the hurricane’. still, in both, there was much to redeem them from being bad.

in ‘killers kiss’ it must be the action sequences in the boxing ring and the long chase on the desolation of the roofscapes and back alleys of new york. added to that was the climax fight in the mannequin makers room. clumsy, energetic and great fun. i could have done with a little less of the kubrick patented long shots in the rest of the film, but as a genre film it was fun.

in ‘’the hurricane” it is the real life story of the man that makes it watchable, though he is painted in such a saintly light, washington still manages to humanize the man as he fights his own racism. its quite a story and great biopic material. all in all, not unwatchable at all.