Dead Man Walking Essay examples -- essays research papers

Dead Man WalkingThe direct Dead Man Walking is a film about redemption. The film is directed by Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon plays a Nun called babe HelenPrejean. She is asked by a convicted murderer to get him a lawyer, and thenlater is asked to be his spiritual advisor. The convicted grampus is namedMatthew Poncelet, and he is played by Sean Penn. The film is set in theAngola state penitentiary, in Louisiana. Matthew Poncelet first asks her to get him a lawyer so he dissolve repeal his Death sentence. Sister Helen gets him alawyer, but they fail after several good attempts to get him off death row.Sister Helen begins to come to him around every day after Poncelet asks herto be his spiritual advisor on the day of his death. During this phase of thefilm Sister Helen tries to get Poncelet to tell her about his have got life. Poncelettells her about his life and why he was put on death row. Poncelet wasconvicted along with another man in the murder of the youth and a young woman afterraping the girl. Sister Helen is very sympathetic and is also looked downupon for this reason. Though she is repressed she motionless goes on helpingPoncelet and she digs around in his feelings and soul. Sister Helen eventuallyfinds a good soul in Matthew Poncelet, a person no one else knows. Matthew constantly denies to Sister Helen, himself, and to God that he hadcommitted his horrifying crime. Poncelet continues to blame his problems onother things such as his father dying early in his life, his drug use, hisimmaturity, and that he was unable to stand up to his checkmate in the brutalcrime. Sister Helen urges Poncelet to come clean and face the part that hetook in the crime. And at nearly the last minutes of the film he tells thetruth. Though he tells the truth of his sin, he is still put to death by lethalinjection.The enjoyment of this film, I believe, was to show that capital punishmentis not right in all circumstances, but the redemption and preservation of thehuman soul being better. Tim Robbins tried to show how most concourse andeven much accurate, Christian people tend to always want vengeance for acrime. Most of them have a line from the old testament committed tomemory, An philia for an eye, is what they always want to say. But it reallyconfuses me. To me that saying is not clear, if you think about it, i... ...n church. I read the Bible,though not as much as I should, but the Eye for an Eye part has alwaysconfused me. If the Bible states, Thou shall not kill, then why does it justifythe killing of a person who has killed before. I believe that God loves all hischildren. If people are really followers of Christ, they will learn from himhow to forgive people for their faults and mistakes during life. If the peoplein the film would have stopped and though what it would be like to be inPoncelets shoes, maybe they would feel different about the death penalty.He was in jail facing lethal injection. Im sure if they thought about it theywou ld not want to be killed, but then the people who Poncelet had killed didnot have a choice, they had death forced on them. This film does a great jobof showing both sides of the capitol punishment controversy. I heap see howpeople think killing someone who has killed is a good thing. It keeps theperson off the streets and from killing again. Though is it really justice?I still believe that people can be evil, but people can also be cleansed. Ibelieve this film has a dramatic point, and the purpose is pretty clear toanyone who may watch it.