I’ve never been called a son of God before.
Why it’s a left-wing film
Writer/director Tim Robbins has never made any secret of the fact that his masterpiece (and like every film in my Top 10, this is a masterpiece) “Dead Man Walking” was produced in the hopes of turning people against the death penalty, and the way he goes about it is ingenious. Combining two true stories involving Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and anti-death penalty activist, Robbins makes his case from a strictly Christian point of view. But first he resolutely overcomes every possible objection those who disagree with him might have as far as how he presents his side of the argument.
Nothing in the story is manipulated. The man being executed, Matthew Poncelot (an amazing Sean Penn), is guilty as hell. For kicks, after finding them innocently necking in the woods, he and a buddy rape a teenage girl and then viciously murder both her and her boyfriend in cold blood. Covered in swastika tattoos, Poncelot rants about his love for Hitler, his desire to be an anti-American terrorist, and openly taunts the victims’ families. It’s hard to imagine a better candidate for execution.
Robbins also doesn’t shy away from showing us the raw anguish, anger and personal fallout the parents of the two victims still live with a full six-years after the loss of their beloved children. All four want this man executed and the film gives them every opportunity they deserve to make intelligent, compassionate, and logical arguments for why capital punishment is just and necessary. This isn’t about bloodlust. This is about justice and knowing that the man who punched a permanent hole in their lives, a hole that will never heal, is no longer allowed to enjoy what he ruthlessly took from others — life. These decent, everyday people have also thought well beyond the notion of an eye for an eye. When Robbins allows Clyde Percy (R. Lee Ermey, in a small but memorable role), the father of the murdered girl, to make the irrefutable argument that giving a death row inmate life in prison puts other inmates and prison guards at risk, you know this isn’t Hollywood’s typical shallow, one-sided approach to the issue du jour.
Poncelot is never presented to us as any kind of victim. Sure, he grew up poor and for the most part fatherless, but the point is clearly made that the millions who grow up under similar circumstances don’t end up rapists and murderers. Furthermore, Robbins goes so far as to inter-cut Poncelot’s rather peaceful-looking death by lethal injection with the horrific scenes that finally reveal the true monstrosity of the crime this man committed.
What Robbins is doing here is making sure no one can argue that he didn’t present every reasonable argument for and against, or in any way whitewashed the emotional and intellectual position of the victims. No one can say the film underplays the heinousness of the crime or even attempts to ring that tired left-wing bell about the possibility of an innocent man being executed. In fact, I’ve read that the two executions upon which the film is based were actually done with the electric chair but the decision was made to use lethal injection in the film in order to take away the objection that the death penalty is now more humane.
To trump the other side’s compelling and convincing case for the death penalty, Robbins plays the Christian Card and demands that we recognize the humanity of this monster. Sister Prejean (Susan Sarandon) has one goal, to save Poncelot’s soul. He must confess to his crime, take full responsibility, and show sincere remorse if he is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
And in the end, he does, and we are left to watch a repentant man lose his life.
By approaching the issue through a Christian point of view and not in any way giving those who disagree the excuse that the film isn’t objective, in my opinion, Robbins more than earns the right to ask whether or not it’s moral for the State to take a man’s life. And the message he respectfully sends to we Christians goes well beyond the simplistic bumper stickerism of What Would Jesus Do? The film simply asks a complicated question that lingers long after the film ends: Is it Christian to intervene and cut short the life of a man who, if given the time and ministry, might someday repent and save his own soul?
Why it’s a great film
I was blown away by “Dead Man Walking” and afterwards expected great things from Robbins. The maturity he showed as a storyteller and the courage he obviously had in his convictions — meaning, the courage to objectively present the facts on all sides and still believe his point of view would prevail — seemed to announce the arrival of an important filmmaker. Unfortunately, that ended up not being the case, and not only for Robbins, but for Hollywood as a whole. We are now in the year 2011 and “Dead Man Walking” is the last true classic left-wing film produced in 16 long years.
And all credit goes to Robbins, who not only wrote a script that miraculously avoids even a hint of sanctimony or melodrama, but he also directed Sarandon to a completely convincing, subtle, and moving Oscar-winning performance and does the same for Penn, who should’ve won. You also get a very good sense of what life is like on Death Row in a Louisiana prison, and as the execution nears, feel time closing in. The drama, and there’s plenty of it, is all a product of believable relationships and situations. You keep waiting for the clichéd last second reprieve. But it never comes. Robbins seems to understand that we’ve been conditioned by Hollywood to expect such things but still he refuses to use anything artificial to heighten the tension.
At its core, this is a fight of good against evil, something like an exorcism involving a Jesus-loving, Bible-quoting, accessible and down to earth nun in a race against the clock to free the humanity buried deep within a truly wicked man capable of unspeakable evil. The stakes couldn’t be higher. She must save his eternal soul, and when she does, thanks to two amazing actors at the top of their game, it is a profoundly moving statement that reinforces and reminds us of why God sent his only Son to die on our behalf. Jesus didn’t come to save the holy, He came to save the sinners.
The film is also a success in the arena of pure storytelling. The story is compelling, well-structured, beautifully shot, and contains a haunting score courtesy of David Robbins, the director’s brother. Closing things out is Bruce Springsteen’s Oscar-winning song. Dialogue, pacing, and all of the supporting players are top notch, especially Scott Wilson as the prison Chaplain; someone you at first think will be revealed as the stereotyped rigid, right-wing Priest, but once again Robbins avoids the traps so many other left-wing filmmakers never fail to fall into.
As a movie fanatic of the highest order, I personally love the casting of Wilson in that role, an obvious tribute to Richard Brooks’ legendary “In Cold Blood,” where Wilson played Dick to Robert Blake’s Perry, the spree killers responsible for the heinous true-life murder of a Kansas farm family. Another similar touch is the casting of Clancy Brown in a cameo role as a State Trooper who lets Sister Prejean off on a speeding ticket. Brown played Penn’s chief antagonist in the 1983 juvenile prison film “Bad Boys.”
Personally, I believe in the death penalty but I’d be lying if I said that, as a Christian, Robbins’ film didn’t create an ongoing conflict with that belief. Part of me wants to oppose cutting short a man’s opportunity to repent and save his soul. But a bigger part reads about these crimes and wants to pull the switch myself. And quite frankly, despite the other side’s insistence to the contrary, I find the idea that execution is not a deterrent absurd.
Who knows, maybe on Judgment Day I’ll discover I was wrong. But if the Almighty is at least handing out points for taking the time to struggle with the issue, of all people, I’ll have Tim Robbins to thank.
P.S. The image above is not a director pushing his Christ symbolism too far. It’s an accurate depiction of the lethal injection procedure.
What’s not on the list
Do the Right Thing (1989) — An outstanding film but one that is surprisingly — considering the race-baiting idiocy director Spike Lee is never above spouting — even handed in its presentation of race issues. The fact that Paul Haggis won an Oscar for the retarded version of “Do the Right Thing” and the real one wasn’t even nominated leaves me speechless.
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