Is the death penalty right or wrong? This movie doesn’t give an answer to that question, but it’ll make anyone rethink their position on the issue. To put it simply, this movie is stunning and I recommend it to anyone.

##Time Robbins Delivers

[[dead*man*walking]]

I love movies that make me think. I love movies that make me
feel. I love movies that make me question. Rarely do I get all three types
of movies all in one.

##So what about the penaltly anyway?

I’m a firm believer in the death penalty. Not just for the mundane reason
of justice (although I think it is just for peoples lives to be forfeit if
they commit particularly heinous crimes), but also for pragmatic reasons.
People say that the death penalty isn’t a deterant to crime, but it surely
deters the receiver of further crimes.

I believed that this movie was going to be just an attempt by a liberal
Hollywood star to make a statement about the injustice of the death
penalty. I thought that the movie would portray a clearly innocent man being sent to his death by a government bent on proving that it supported
the will of the people to enforce such a penalty. But that would have been
too easy.

##Sarandon and Penn are wonderful

The antagonist (played wonderfully by Sean Penn, one of Hollywood’s best
actors in my opinion) was guilty. He was also someone that I believe
deserved to die for his crimes. But he was not a monster (that
would have made it too easy to cheer his execution). He was a person afraid
to die, with feelings and a family who cared for him.

The protagonist (played by Susan Sarandan, earning her an oscar) was a nun
who decided to be the spiritual leader of a killer on his way to death.
I’ve always believed that Susan Sarandan was a great actress, but now I
believe that she can be nothing short of brilliant.

Tim Robbins did a masterful job directing his first time out. Sure there
were some rough spots, and at times his directing was heavy handed. But
there were also some beautiful subtleties. For instance, during the
execution, seeing the reflections of the victims in the window of the
death chamber as the killer breaths his final breaths was brilliant. If you weren’t paying attention (how could you not be?) you’d miss it. But if you
saw it it could bring tears to your eyes (it did mine).

This movie did not change my opinion about the death penalty, but it did
make me question it and help me to realize that it is actually
people that area awaiting judgement in death row today.