Review of Dead Man Walking (1995) by Jangwon S — 08 Oct 2015

"Dead Man Walking" (1995) Review.

Dead Man Walking is an emotionally powerful film that explores deep themes of redemption, forgiveness and love that sometimes touches on religious levels. It is both a faithful adaption of the memoirs penned by real life Helen Prejeans in its spirit, and a piece of powerful film on its own merits. The film remains engaging due to the powerful portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean by actress Susan Sarandon and Matthew Poncelet by Sean Penn, as the interaction of these two characters drive the entire plot of the film.

The film chronicles the experiences of the Catholic nun Sister Helen Prejeans and her interactions with the fictional condemned murderer and rapist Matthew Poncelet, who was on death row. While the Poncelet character had been fictional, he nonetheless displays traits and characteristics of the two real-life death row inmates the real life Helen Prejeans had visited as spiritual adviser, carrying on the spirit of the book. However, one flaw I found with this film would be the false hope scenarios introduced that suggests that Poncelet could live, these false hope scenarios such as pardons and appeals appeared fairly weak and it was very obvious that Poncelet was going to die no matter what.

These two characters and their interactions were the focus of the entire film, so it was essential that the characters are well-written and complex, a feat Robbins thankfully achieved spectacularly. Helen's character, despite having no prior experience with such matters, and despite her celibacy keeping her from deeply understanding men, stayed strong throughout the film in her duties to Poncelet despite the numerous emotional turmoil she faced as well as discouragement from her own community and family. She was not timid or submissive to Poncelet, and heeded the advice of Chaplain Farley, who warned the manipulative nature of death row convicts before Helen even met Poncelet. Farley's warnings proved correct, as Poncelet appeared to be deceptive, disrespectful, rude, sexist, racist and generally unlikeable, but with just enough trinkets of humanity portrayed that the audience could still sympathize with him. In fact, Poncelet's deception sometimes proved so masterful in his interactions with Prejeans that some audience may be inclined to take his side in the very beginning, until cracks show in his facade and the audience is reminded of his true motives, before he genuinely finds his own humanity at the very end. In fact, this entire film could be a subverted version of "Beauty and the Beast" where Prejeans slowly makes the monster Poncelet more and more human with her unconditional love in a religious and spiritual sense.

In addition, the film takes an arguably better approach than the book in that the themes of redemption and forgiveness are the focus of the film, while the debate regarding capital punishment took a backseat, a stark contrast to the book. In fact, the film does not take any particularly stance on any side of the debate, showing strong arguments for both and leaving it up to the audience's own interpretation. For example, the film implied that Poncelet only learned to seek forgiveness and take responsibility because of his impending death, and that perhaps if he was only given a life sentence instead, that all the compassion and love from Helen Prejeans wouldn't be able to save his soul. The book, on the other hand, took a strong stance against the death sentence, evident in the real life Helen Prejean forming her own organization for that cause.

As such, this film stirs powerful emotions in the audience, humanizes the most despicable person society would normally find, and provides a great allegory to the famous "Beauty and the Beast" narrative. In addition, the film respects the audience's intelligence, offering no clear stances on the debate surrounding the death penalty, while suggesting strong arguments for both sides.