Time Is Not On My Side

"Dead Man Walking"

 

Every year there are films that have some sort of political agenda that's either going to play to your sympathies or make your blood boil.  The topic of Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking has to do with the death penalty, enough said.  Now given the fact that Mr. Robbins and his two lead actors, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, are of a certain political persuasion one would think that this film would be rather one-sided.  When Louisiana convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet (Penn) reaches out to a  nun, Sister Helen Prejean (Sarandon) during his final week on death row and tells her he was only an accomplice to the crime, we get the feeling it's going to be "another one of those movies."  The court system is broken; a man is put to death for a crime he didn't commit.  These big time Hollywood movie stars are bringing out their soap boxes and just trying to push their liberal agenda down our throats.

These assumptions are for the most part though incorrect.  Robbins gives us both sides of the coin.  All the pain and anguish suffered by the families of the two slain teenagers are also brought to our attention. This allows our convictions towards the characters and the overall subject matter to really go either way.  Sister Helen is caught in the middle.  Everything is told through her pure, innocent eyes as she looks at the matter as more than just an issue of life and death but more a question of salvation of the soul.  There's no question that Matthew's crime (regardless of the lengths of his involvement) was truly monstrous.  Is he however able to accept what he did and understand all the pain and suffering he caused on to others?

All the performances from every actor are emotionally investing.  There are so many layers and complexities to each character that each scene slowly begins to creep under the skin.  Robbins is another one of those filmmakers who's an actor first and a director second.  The work that he and Penn do to create the character of Matthew is interesting because on first impressions we think we've got his character pegged.  As the film progresses his character wants us to feel any sort of sympathy towards him by revealing more about himself, his family, and the night of the murders.  Sister Helen is there to remind us though that Matthew  got to where he is because he was convicted of the brutal crime. 

The screenplay attempts to get inside the head of a cold blooded killer and find out what makes him tick, kind of like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.  The film is a great character piece that delves into a controversial issue that leads us to believe the death penalty is more than just a black and white issue.  Dead Man Walking allows its audience to feel a range of emotions including the faith and spiritual based but never being overly pious.  It also shows the compulsive, animalistic nature that can lead a man to a life on death row.   

Robbins and his actors put together an emotionally powerful piece that is going to strike a chord in you one way or the other.  The film walks a very fine line with its handling of such a disputed topic.  And that's a pretty good reason to like it for that it never cushions the blow or leads you down one particular path.  Robbins' work here as director pays off because he has a capital understanding of how to present material this heated material.  As a director he never punishes the audience into thinking there is only one right and wrong way of thinking.