Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon in her Oscar-winning performance) is a New Orleans nun working with the local penal system. After meeting death-row inmate Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn, in what should've been his first), incarcerated for the rape and murder of a teenage couple, Prejean agrees to become his spiritual advisor to help him achieve redemption. When not meeting with Poncelet, she tries to connect with his casualties' parents, Clyde and Mary Beth Percy (R. Lee Ermey and Celia Weston) and Earl Delacroix (Raymond J. Barry), and Poncelet's mother Lucille (Roberta Maxwell). All these interactions make her fully aware of just how much he needs her help and whether his life can be spared.
Dead Man Walking is surely one of the most profound and moving films I have ever seen. My first viewing of it was rather embarrassing, actually, as it was in my university's library and by the end I was a mess. Writer-director Tim Robbins (of course Sarandon's then-partner) was nominated for the Best Director Oscar himself, and I think he should've won it (he lost to Mel Gibson for Braveheart). His approach is weirdly but suitably dichotomous: he doesn't try to sway opinion on capital punishment either way, treating that issue rather neutrally, but he infuses the intimate scenes between Helen and Matthew with such beautiful tenderness and grace that the emotional wallop is absolutely palpable, and the rape and murder are depicted unflinchingly. His screenplay, based on Prejean's book, is also intelligently constructed.
Sarandon expertly brings dignity and a quiet authority to Prejean, but for me Penn, in his bravest role ever, is all-time great here. To go from an openly racist, bloodthirsty country-boy child killer and rapist whom Prejean initially finds secretive to a very vulnerable, remorseful man (although the film asserts his guilt from the start) is about as hard as character arcs come, and he delivers a miracle. As great as Nicolas Cage is in Leaving Las Vegas, for me Penn topped him and Sean has had a much better career since. Roberta Maxwell is also very solid as Lucille Poncelet, and keep an eye out for a young Jack Black as one of Poncelet's brothers and a young Peter Sarsgaard as Walter Delacroix.
Dead Man Walking is surely one of the most profound and moving films I have ever seen. My first viewing of it was rather embarrassing, actually, as it was in my university's library and by the end I was a mess. Writer-director Tim Robbins (of course Sarandon's then-partner) was nominated for the Best Director Oscar himself, and I think he should've won it (he lost to Mel Gibson for Braveheart). His approach is weirdly but suitably dichotomous: he doesn't try to sway opinion on capital punishment either way, treating that issue rather neutrally, but he infuses the intimate scenes between Helen and Matthew with such beautiful tenderness and grace that the emotional wallop is absolutely palpable, and the rape and murder are depicted unflinchingly. His screenplay, based on Prejean's book, is also intelligently constructed.
Sarandon expertly brings dignity and a quiet authority to Prejean, but for me Penn, in his bravest role ever, is all-time great here. To go from an openly racist, bloodthirsty country-boy child killer and rapist whom Prejean initially finds secretive to a very vulnerable, remorseful man (although the film asserts his guilt from the start) is about as hard as character arcs come, and he delivers a miracle. As great as Nicolas Cage is in Leaving Las Vegas, for me Penn topped him and Sean has had a much better career since. Roberta Maxwell is also very solid as Lucille Poncelet, and keep an eye out for a young Jack Black as one of Poncelet's brothers and a young Peter Sarsgaard as Walter Delacroix.
Dead Man Walking is absorbing, sincere, brave, compassionate and exceptionally powerful; arguably the best movie of 1995. It will never, ever leave you.
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