DEAD MAN WALKING
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Tim Robbins gives us a three-
dimensional view of the issues raised by the death
penalty as a nun tries to help a convicted killer
on Death Row. What sets this film apart is that it
presents multiple and conflicting sides of the
issue seemingly fairly and does not try to force
any particular point of view. This is a complex
film about a complex issue. Rating: high +2 (-4 to
+4)
I like a film that gives me questions rather than answers. I like a film that can show conflict without making one side the villain. I like a film that fairly shows two or more sides of an issue without telling me which side I should choose. There were two films like that this year, curiously both about dedicated but independent-minded members of the Catholic clergy who come into conflict with their communities. The earlier one was Antonia Bird's PRIEST and now comes a film that is in some ways similar, Tim Robbins's DEAD MAN WALKING. The newer film is based on Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 book of the same title, an account of her relationship with a Death Row inmate.
Sister Helen (played by Susan Sarandon) is a nun who lives among the poor of the St. Thomas Housing Project of New Orleans doing her view of good. Her order does not wear the habit in spite of occasional disapproval and pressure from other members of the Catholic clergy. Sister Helen receives a request from death row inmate Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) to help him submit an appeal of his death sentence. Poncelet was convicted of the murders of a dating couple committed while he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. While taking a dislike to the man's bigoted views, Sister Helen offers him help. When his execution date is actually scheduled, she agrees to be his spiritual advisor and becomes the first woman ever to take on that role in the prison. But her support of Poncelet brings her into conflict with the parents of the victims of the crime. Sister Helen determines to visit them, to try to offer them solace, and to try to understand their point of view. Only then does she get an understanding for the degree of the damage that the crime has done.
Sister Helen finds herself embroiled in more controversy. To the Catholic chaplain of the prison, her mission is to convince Poncelet to take the holy sacraments. She is startled to realize that this is what the chaplain means when he talks about saving Poncelet and that her definition of saving him is quite different. The film has Sister Helen follow the proceedings until they are resolved. Her efforts to help the racist are detested by the victims' parents and by the community.
Tim Robbins, who scripted as well as directed, has captured many different viewpoints in the film, an approach much more common in documentaries than in narrative films. He shows the effect the planned execution has on the family of the of the inmate and the effect of the crime on the families of the victims. He shows the Church's perspective and that of the community. Occasionally there are little digs at one point of view or another, but they are far more mild than one would expect from the creator of the film BOB ROBERTS. In the end perhaps the strongest opinion he expresses is that capital punishment does little to help the people who have been most hurt by the crime.
Susan Sarandon is a good actor though not one of what I would consider to be our first rank of powerful actors. She does, however, choose her roles carefully and wisely and then contributes a lot to the films in which she is cast. She has Orson Welles's ability to lend respectability to a film just by being in it. This role was not a real stretch for her or for Sean Penn, but both play their roles with genuine authenticity. The real surprise is Raymond J. Barry as the murdered boy's father who gives the most moving performance of the film. R. Lee Ermey, as the woman victim's father, can add one more insensitive, angry male to his portfolio. It is a part that he plays well, but too often. You may remember him yelling his way through the first sequence of FULL METAL JACKET. He played almost the same role in the TV series "Space: Above and Beyond," as well as voicing the leader of the little green soldiers in TOY STORY. A few other cameos are present, including Clancy Brown as a traffic cop who seems in the film only to deliver one joke.
DEAD MAN WALKING is a provocative, well-made film on a surprisingly intelligent level. Rate it high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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