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Dead Man Walking (1995) Between the sprawling, showy Bob Roberts and Cradle Will Rock, actor-turned-director Tim Robbins turned out this small-scale drama, perhaps as an excuse to give his longtime companion, the criminally underused Susan Sarandon, a meaty role she could spin into a Best Actress Oscar. The sort of 'based on a true story' subject that usually makes for a made-for-TV straight-to-video release starring a woman who had a hit show in the 70s and Bruce Boxleitner or Armand Assante, it gets a careful treatment from Robbins (who doesn't take an acting role) and emerges as a political film that contributes to a debate (capital punishment -- is it any use?) but doesn't settle for easy answers. Though she deservedly won a statuette as the non-habit-wearing nun who takes in interest in life on Death Row, Sarandon plays the secondary role in the movie, which highlights Sean Penn as a goateed murderer with a mean streak but a flicker of soul. This marked the end of Penn's 'ex-Mr Madonna' phase, when tabloid headlines rather than review quotes filled his cuttings file, as the actor seized on the gutsy, unstereotyped role and showed he still had the acting chops which made him a star in the first place. Sarandon helps Penn with his hopeless appeal against the death sentence, but as the title suggests the outcome is never in doubt. The real achievement of their relationship is that the nun makes a human connection with the angry caged animal and forces him to sit in judgement on himself, so that his death by lethal injection is intercut with the ghastly crimes that have led him to this fate. Not a soft movie - Sarandon's snarl when Penn dares to compare himself
to Jesus is a startling moment - this makes you think harder about crime
and punishment than, say, The Shawshank Redemption
or The Green Mile, delivering uneasy truths rather
than comforting melodrama. First Published In: Empire no.135 (September 2000) p.124 Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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