Review of Dead Man Walking (1995) by Qieli L — 08 Oct 2015

When dead row is put to executed, the police will announce "Dead man working". Not until Poncelet were put to be executed, I didn't know where the title of movie came from. In fact, what the police did is just follow their job, but as the movie create an angle of view from the prisoner, I can clearly know how cruel this word is. Poncelet is still alive, but step closer and closer to death. By choosing this title, it helps audience get closer to this movie as well as feel the feeling of dead row.

Dead man walking was adapt from a true story between a nun and a dead row. The plot is attractive because it create a closer touch with a prisoner rather than the victims, which is quite different from other movies. However, dead man walking didn't create a very kind prisoner, but instead, it shows a young guy with bad mood and social prejudice, lying to escape from being executed. Sister Helen, who abject to dead penalty, plays a very important role here, she is not only connect with Poncelet but also help connect audience with Poncelet. She uncover the truth of young couple's dead step by step, using her kindness and sincere heart to finally touch Poncelet and audiences.

Great movie is good at dealing with details and make everything looks like real. At the beginning of the movie, camera didn't firstly shot the main character Helen, but the kids playing around. After a few shot about kids, Helen walk through the long take lens, holding things. The nature beginning is well-design to prevent stiff. One more "long take" happen when Helen listen to one of the victim's father talking about his son, "All the memories get sealed in a place, sealed like a shrine." When the camera move away twice from two characters, accompany with two "sealed", audiences can easily follow characters' feeling without shooting characters' face to express emotions. What's more, when Helen sit in the car, thinking about whether Poncelet is a murder or not, horizontal panning were used to shot from animal that Helen really see and the commit process that might happened in Poncelet, to children's pure face (using POV here), and finally to real scene in graveyard. Contact skills were used here, young couple were cruelly killed like an animal, even if Poncelet might be a cruel murder, he has have a pure eyes and heart when he was a young boy. But what face to Poncelet is dead. I can see Helen feels ambivalent. On one side, she don't want any killing happen. On the other side, she received the sorrow from victim's family, the sharp-eyed from others and the difficulty of appealing for Poncelet.

Most of the scenes in dead man walking are dialogues between Helen and Poncelet. It should be very easy for audiences to feel boring, but this narrative film has a strong theme of murder to absorb attentions, and at the same time organize the story by gradually releasing the clues and using repetition of murder scenes to stimulate audiences' vision. A good movie must have great present in Mise-en-scene, which refers to lighting, costumes, sets, and quality of the acting. Although most of the dialogues appeared in prison, the background lighting is different between Helen and Poncelet, Helen wear white suite, with relatively dark background lighting while Poncelet usually wear deep dark clothes with relatively bright background lighting. In such arrangement, audiences receive visual balance. Sister Helen is casted by Susan Sarandon, a famous actress that made character Helen become vivid. She even refuse to be the normal nun that make people feel boring. I remember a scene that when there is only 20 minutes left for Poncelet, Helen sing the hymn for Poncelet, she is facing the sunshine, tears down her face, I thought she already meet god, and pray to reduce Poncelet's painful. I think that is the most touchable scenes in this movie.

Dead man walking object to dead penalty, however, just like what shows in the movie, politics insist: "I would rather see him (Poncelect) fry." Helen's action received against from her family, from her job, and from victims' family. This controversial topic made the movie become more meaningful. It represent two different view from society and deserve to thinking about.