Dead Man Walking
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Movie Reviews of Dead Man Walking
Movie Review: An Outstanding Movie With Stirring Performances
Summary: 4 Stars
Regardless of your stance on the death penalty, this remains a difficult movie to watch, and perhaps that's exactly what makes Dead Man Walking a great movie. The movie centers around a nun named Sister Helen Prejean (played by Susan Sarandon) who befriends a convicted murderer and rapist named Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the State of Louisiana. Poncelet first seeks Sister Helen's help in filing his appeal and obtaining legal representation. She is at his side through all the legal proceedings, and once Poncelet's chances for clemency are exhausted, she then helps him prepare for the execution by giving him spiritual guidance. Sister Helen must also try and allay the hurt and betrayal felt by the parents of the children that Poncelet was convicted of murdering.
This movie's greatest strength is the tremendous performances by Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Both were given Academy Award nominations for their roles, and Sarandon actually won the Oscar for Best Actress. I would have given this movie a 5 star rating, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the way in which the friendship between Sister Helen and Matthew Poncelet developed. In movies where two people from opposite walks of life come together for a given purpose, both usually walk away a little wiser and with a broader perspective. Sean Penn's character showed these changes, but Susan Sarandon's character was the same at the end of the movie as it was at the beginning. According to this movie, Sister Helen had learned nothing valuable or life-altering from her friendship with Matthew Poncelet.
When it first came out, this movie generated a great deal of public discussion about the death penalty. Those who support capital punishment believe that, in theory, there are certain crimes so heinous that those who commit them should be required to forfeit their life as restitution. This movie shows the huge difference between theory and reality. I think people might change their minds about capital punishment once they see that carrying out this theory requires strapping a guy onto a gurney, sticking a needle into his arm, and injecting him with lethal chemicals. I'll probably think about this movie for a long time to come, and it's entirely possible that it may sway my opinion on the death penalty.
Regardless of your stance on this controversial subject, this movie is guaranteed entertainment, and a definite must-see!
Movie Review: Sarandon--riding along into the sunset--with Sean Penn...
Summary: 4 Stars
It's easy to kill a monster, but it's hard to kill a human being.'
Set in St. Thomas Housing Project and Angola Prison in New Orleans, "Dead Man Walking" is the true story of Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon), a Louisiana nun Sister who befriended Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), a murderer and a rapist bound for a lethal injection machine for killing a teenage couple... Sister Helen agrees to help the convict and to remain with him till the end--an act never before attempted by a woman...
At their first meeting, Poncelet swears to the nun that his accomplice was the one who shot both of the kids and pleads her help for a new trial in order to convince the pardon board hearing to spare his life...
The film challenges the audience to actually give some thought to the human consequences of the death penalty, but gives voice to angry bereaved parents whose kids were shot, stabbed, raped, and left in the woods to die alone...
As Poncelet's execution looms closer and closer, his character is seen deceptively complex, harboring doubts about the rightness of what they were doing to him... In one moment, we hear him sensitive asking for a lie detector test to let his mother know that he is innocent, in another we see him furious playing the victim, blaming the government, drugs, blacks, the kids for being there... Poncelet never understood that he has robbed the Percys and the Delacroixs so much, giving them nothing but sorrow... They are never going to see their children again, never going to hold them, to love them, to laugh with them...
In the scenes leading up to his execution, the death-row inmate drops his terrible facade and reveals his identity... Luckily both Sarandon and Penn are here exceptional--carrying out successfully an exquisite, tangible harmony of souls... When Sarandon was looking at Penn, she was projecting compassionate eyes brimming with tears... She asks him to visualize her as he dies-- ''I want the last thing you see in this world to be the face of love''--in that moment, we truly believed that she'll be the face of love for him...
Movie Review: Morality Play About a Desperate Man
Summary: 4 Stars
Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is working to improve the lives of the poor in New Orleans. She receives a request to visit a prisoner on death row. Her compassionate nature makes her visit the man.
When she meets Matthew Poncellete (Sean Penn), he is a humble man who is desperate to have some one help him out. But the man she met is not the man who committed the crimes or is his humility just an act? Through the movie she finds out it's a little of both.
When she attends an appeal hearing, she meets the parents of the two kids he killed and realizes that there are two sides to every story. These parents are still feeling the pain and cannot understand why she is giving the killer any sympathy. She realizes that to understand Matthew, she needs to understand the crime. She meets with both sets of parents to understand their pain. These are very effective scenes.
In the end, Matthew comes to term with his fate and Sister brings him together with his family.
Tim Robbins once again proves that he knows how to direct a film. This film is definitely an actors' film. His wife Sarandon wins an Oscar for her textured performance. Sean Penn finally starts to show what he is capable of and receives his first Oscar nomination. But it is Robbins' casting of the supporting players that makes the film great. Stage star Roberta Maxwell is compelling as Poncellete's mother. While Celia Weston was best know for her TV role on Alice, proves that she can manipulate an audience as on the victim's mother. And look for Jack Black in a very subdued performance - it would be nice if he repeated this more often.
This is definitely an anti-death penalty film but it does show that there are two points of view to every controversy.
DVD EXTRAS:
Commentary by Tim Robbins
Movie Review: Visually and artistically excellent...
Summary: 4 Stars
Here is a film which really makes you think... About Religion, Social disparity, Political pork-barreling and about the Death Penalty... about our modern way of Life and the way we deal - or don't deal - with issues that for some of us are better hidden away from public view, managed by "experts" whom we are happy to pay to do our dirty work...For me this film raised a storm of emotion... The brilliant portrayal of the different characters involved - massaged by an empathetic direction - really allowed all sides of the story to be seen, felt and experienced... The result was deeply disturbing and from both an ethical and moral point of view left me with more questions than answers.
The sound track is deeply evocative and the mixture of Indian traditional Classical Sitar interwoven with the equally classical sounds of the "Deep South" wore exceptionally well.
As a non-American, there were times when understanding the idiom was quite difficult: this was exacerbated by the fact that in certain parts of the Audio on this DVD, the lip-synch dialogue was out by at least 6-8 frames. Finally - were it not for the crackles, pops and other idiosyncrasies of the Sound-track - I would have rated this film a 5-Star PLUS! If you don't mind an indifferently synched and technically poor audio track, then this film is a MUST of the genre to be included in any serious collection.
Movie Review: A film to contemplate and to change your way of thinking
Summary: 4 Stars
Tim Robbins presents in his movie "Dead Man Walking" the subject capital punishment. But compared to many other directors who have also dealed with this matter Tim Robbins does not give the audience a didactic message. By using flashbacks and changes of perspectives he presents every side of the crime Poncelet commited. Showing the cruelty of the crime and the grief of the victim's families on the one hand and the development of Matt Poncelet and the sorrow of his family after the execution on the other hand makes the viewer contemplate. Do you have to atone for a murder by another murder?! These are the major aspects which make the viewer think. Think about his own opinion concerning the death penalty. The main reason why I gave this movie four stars is that Tim Robbins provides changes of perspective and does not try to push the audience in one direction. Consequently every viewer of the film gets the chance to change his opinion about the death penalty. Besides the great performances by Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon the film is worth seeing because it gives you the opportunity to see the matter capital punishment with other eyes.