D. Maass,
Jan 22, 2008
I'm going to be up front here: I oppose the death penalty for all the common-sense reasons that bleeding hearts espouse. It's a broken system, a human-rights violation and too damned expensive. Last week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of lethal injection (Is it cruel? Is it inhumane? Is it properly administered?) and the attorneys are expecting a result sometime between March and June. While I'd like to see them overturn the method, that's not without its drawbacks for film critics. Capital punishment has captured Hollywood's imagination. What would crime films be without it?
This weekend's rental recommendations highlight the best (and worst) in the genre. Enjoy, and prepare for heartbreak.
Dead Man Walking (1995)
The quintessential death-row film is based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, the Cajun nun who's spearheading the Catholic church's campaign against the death penalty. Susan Sarandon plays Prejean in the Oscar-winning film and befriends Sean Penn's (with the sexiest facial hair of his career) Matthew Poncelet, a young man convicted of a brutal murder. The film is a tearjerker. Though, now that Penn, Sarandon and director Tim Robbins have become activist media-whores (and backdrops for John Edwards' political speeches), it actually might be more obnoxious than emotional.
The Life of David Gale (2003)
Director Alan Parker (Pink Floyd The Wall and Angela's Ashes) slams home the issues of innocence and injustice in the context of a crime thriller. Maybe it's an unrealistic film and maybe also a bit melodramatic in its agenda, but David Gale certainly has one of the most shocking twist endings in recent memory. Kevin Spacey plays Gale, a professor and anti-death-penalty activist, who finds himself, willingly, on death row. Kate Winslet, meanwhile, is an investigative journalist with four days to prove his innocence.
True Crime (1999)
You can't go wrong with Clint Eastwood, not anymore. It might not have been an Oscar winner, but it sure was a decent suspense film. In many ways, the film is a precursor to the David Gale formula: Eastwood directs and stars (of course, he does) as an over-the-hill journalist with a literal deadline: he's only got a few hours to prove the innocence of a death row inmate played by Isaiah Washington.
The Condemned (2007)
What ingredients do a lovable B-movie make? Steve "Stone Cold" Austin and Vinnie Jones. Last years tour-de-crap follows a group of
cliché death row inmates who are exiled to a remote island, where they and the rest of the cast have to fight to the death in a sick reality-show style game. Action, action, action, cheese, cheese, action. What more could you want?
Oz: Episodes "Capital P" and "Plan B" (1997)
History will remember Oz as the HBO series that broadened how Americans think of prime time television. These two episodes deal specifically with the death penalty, first as the impetus for redemption, second as a means of escape from a painful life. In "Capital P," Jefferson Keane (played by an actor only known as "Leon") pays the piper for murdering another inmate, while "Plan B" focuses on loveable Jeffrey-Dahmer composite Donald Groves (played by Sean Whitesell) and his decision to face a firing squad.
The Green Mile (1999)
If you can still stomach films by repeat Stephen King offender Frank Darabont and you've got a scholar's attention span, The Green Mile is certainly worth a second watch. Sure, it's an over-the-top messiah film, but it's also got some of the most gruesome execution scenes and heart-wrenching moral dilemmas ever dealt with in the genre. Plus, Sam Rockwell is brilliant (best use of urine in a film since Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever and The Boy Who Could Fly).
