Review of Dead Man Walking (1995) by Zach E — 18 Sep 2008

Beautiful portrayal of a murderer awaiting his execution. In the week preceding his execution date, the killer, Poncelet, develops a strong bond with a nun name Sister Helen Prejean who is open enough to visit with him. Poncelet is an inmate on death row convicted of brutally raping and murdering a young girl and murdering her boyfriend. As doom begins to pound louder and louder for Poncelet, his psychological defenses/barriers crumble and we get a glimpse into the heart of a man who has been plagued by confusion, rejection, and a lifetime of dysfunction.

The film is an amalgamation of the real-life events which Sister Prejean details in her book Dead Man Walking.

When someone commits a horrible crime, it is natural that everyone else will call him an animal. They have to, at some level, because to recognize him as a monster instead of a fellow human puts his actions removed from those possible by regular people. But this is a falsehood. It may be uncomfortable to recognize killers as real people, albeit severely damaged ones, yet when you delve deeper you come to understand why people can do the things they do.

The film plays all sides of the story excellently, with Sr. Prejean meeting with both victim's families as well as the killer and his family. The film drives the viewer to think more deeply about their stance on capital punishment (although I came into the film already against capital punishment).

Overall, this is one of the best films about a moral problem I've ever seen. It is definitely recommended to those interested in the subject.