1 | | As a social issue and a | | | | electric chair, the gas chamber) | | | | punishment, the important thing |
| | source of exciting drama, | | | | on offer in the 37 other | | | | about this patient, unsensational, |
| | capital punishment has | | | | American states that still practise | | | | richly detailed film is that it |
| | been on the cinematic agenda for | | | | capital punishment. The film’s | | | | speaks quietly to and for both |
| | 80 years. It was firmly placed | | | | resonant title is what the chief | | | | sides of the question, preaching |
| | there when D.W. Griffith chose a | | | | guard shouts as he leads a | | | | neither to the converted nor the |
| | wrongfully condemned man | | | | condemned man down the | | | | unconverted. Rightly, capital |
| | awaiting the gallows as the hero | | | | corridor to the place of execution. | | | | punishment is put in its present |
| | of the modern strand of | | 4 | | Based on a true story, | | | | American context - a conser- |
| | Intolerance, his epic study of | | | | Dead Man Walking centres on | | | | vative US Supreme Court has |
| | injustice through the ages. | | | | the relationship between | | | | handed the issue over to the |
| | Following Griffith’s example, | | | | Sister Helen Prejean (Susan | | | | local politicians to be used as a |
| | most subsequent pictures have | | | | Sarandon), a nun from a well-off | | | | football; death row is exclusively |
| | dealt with miscarriages of justice | | | | New Orleans Catholic family, | | | | populated by the inadequately |
| | both real and fictional, and with | | | | and Matthew Poncelet (Sean | | | | defended poor, most of them |
| | sad victims of society. | | | | Penn), a confused, preening | | | | black; and a lottery-like system |
2 | | No one nowadays believes | | | | working-class criminal who’s | | | | determines who will end up |
| | that Timothy Evans was guilty or | | | | been on death row for five years | | | | there. |
| | that Ruth Ellis deserved to hang. | | | | and asks her to be his spiritual | | 6 | | The film never loses sight of |
| | Yet to avoid special pleading and | | | | adviser in the final week before | | | | the devastating effects of an |
| | to confront supporters of capital | | | | his execution. Sarandon with her | | | | appalling crime on the victims’ |
| | punishment at their strongest | | | | large expressive brown eyes and | | | | families. Some of the best scenes |
| | point, total abolitionists must | | | | Penn with his large, expressive | | | | are between Helen and the |
| | address themselves to cases | | | | blue eyes face each other | | | | murdered girl’s bereft parents |
| | where the crime is unspeakably | | | | through the bars that separate | | | | (R. Lee Ermey, Celia Weston) |
| | brutal, the guilt proven beyond | | | | visitor from prisoner and across | | | | and the murdered boy’s |
| | doubt and the convicted person | | | | the moral and social chasm that | | | | distraught father (Raymond J. |
| | does not invite our easy | | | | lies between them. Their | | | | Barry), whose wife, anxious to |
| | sympathy. Such a case was | | | | astonishing performances chart | | | | start a new life, has left him. |
| | invented by Krzysztof Kieslowski | | | | the uneasy growth of a complex | | | | Even the conventional prison |
| | in A Short Film About Killing | | | | bond as Helen first tries to | | | | chaplain, who takes a dim view |
| | (1988), a film so graphic in its | | | | secure a reprieve for him, then | | | | of Sister Helen’s refusal to wear |
| | depiction of judicial hanging that | | | | prepares him to accept his guilt | | | | her habit, is treated sympa- |
| | within weeks of its opening there | | | | and die with dignity. As she says, | | | | thetically, though one assumes it |
| | was a moratorium on capital | | | | what truly links them is their | | | | was not by chance that he is |
| | punishment in Poland. | | | | common humanity as children of | | | | played by Scott Wilson, still best |
3 | | In his equally devastating | | | | God. | | | | known for his role as Dick |
| | Dead Man Walking, the writer- | | | | | | | | Hickock, one of the young |
| | director Tim Robbins has gone | | | | | | | | murderers sent to the gallows in |
| | even further than Kieslowski. | | | | The film never loses | | | | the film version of Truman |
| | Not only is the crime (the rape | | | | sight of the | | | | Capote’s In Cold Blood. |
| | and double murder of two New | | | | devastating effects | | | | Ultimately, Dead Man Walking is |
| | Orleans teenagers) even worse, | | | | of an appalling | | | | concerned with issues that lie |
| | and the killer an articulate neo- | | | | crime on the | | | | behind the debate on capital |
| | Nazi redneck, but the form of | | | | victims’ families | | | | punishment: it’s about society, |
| | execution awaiting him in the | | | | | | | | personal responsibility and what |
| | Louisiana state penitentiary | | | | | | | | St Paul meant when he wrote |
| | (lethal injection) is more humane | | 5 | | While one knows where | | | | that ‘we are members one of |
| | than the various alternatives | | | | Helen Prejean and Tim Robbins | | | | another’. |
| | (hanging, firing squad, the | | | | stand on the issue of capital | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | ‘The Observer Review’, |
| | | | | | | | | | March 31, 1996 |