Dead Man Walking - His last walk
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Dead Man Walking - His last walk |
| Original title | Dead man walking |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1995 |
| length | 122 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tim Robbins |
| script | Tim Robbins |
| production |
Jon Kilik Tim Robbins Rudd Simmons |
| music | David Robbins |
| camera | Roger Deakins |
| cut |
Lisa Zeno Churgin Ray Hubley |
| occupation | |
| |
Dead Man Walking - His Last Walk is a 1995 American film that deals with the subject of the death penalty . The drama, directed by Tim Robbins and with a budget of 11 million US dollars , was released in German cinemas on April 11, 1996.
The film is based on authentic events that the nun Helen Prejean describes in her book Dead Man Walking - His last walk . The film combines two real criminal cases in order to achieve a deeper plot.
action
Matthew Poncelet had been on death row for six years for the murder of a teenage couple with an accomplice when he turned to the nun Helen Prejean for a new judicial investigation , given the approaching execution date. Helen contacts him and visits him. To her surprise, she finds an arrogant, sexist, racist person who is far removed from any remorse and who continues to assert his innocence. An increasingly intense relationship develops between the two, and Helen tries to have the sentence reduced to life imprisonment . In her efforts, she gets to know the relatives of both the victim and the perpetrator better. Thereby people are shown who demand justice and view the efforts of the nun with incomprehension and rejection, but also the life of the people connected with the perpetrator is illuminated. Poncelet embarks on a long, extremely painful path of finding his own truth, at the end of which is the admission of his own deed and, at the moment of death by lethal injection, the request for forgiveness is made to the relatives of the victims.
background
Dead Man Walking was the call used by American prison guards when a man sentenced to death was led from his cell to the execution room. The translation in the German film version is "Toter Mann geht"; however, the original US term was retained in the film title. In the USA the motif of the term "Dead Man Walking / Toter Mann geht" was already used in songs by many bands, for example the music group Body Count named one of their songs "Dead Man Walking".
The fictional character of Matthew Poncelet is modeled after two American murderers, Elmo Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie, who both committed a similar crime and were executed on the electric chair for it in 1984 . Poncelet's appearance is clearly based on Willie's.
The film was often understood as an appeal against the death penalty - however, Poncelet's extreme confrontation with his deed is ultimately only reached with the inevitable consequence of his execution. So the film dismisses the viewer without a simple answer.
The book was also the template for the opera version Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally , which premiered in San Francisco in 2000. The European premiere took place on May 7, 2006 in the Dresden Semperoper .
Reviews
| source | rating |
|---|---|
| Rotten tomatoes | |
| critic |
 
|
| audience |
|
| Metacritic | |
| critic |
|
| audience |
|
| IMDb |
|
“No polemics for or against the death penalty, but an awareness of the intellectual and spiritual need for help on both sides, that of the perpetrator and that of his victims , achieved with extreme artistic concentration and economical cinematic means . The attempt to get closer to the 'complexity of things' leads imperceptibly into a spiritual dimension that distinguishes the film from most of what comes out of Hollywood in our cinemas today. "
“The convincing plea against the death penalty allows its proponents to have their say. [...] Conclusion: Smart, differentiated and extremely intense. "
“Technology should guarantee that the person you kill will certainly not be hurt in the process. [...] Anyone who watches the film knows how to do it once and for all. [...] "
"The renouncement of allegedly charging what is happening in a cinematic manner, rather following the discussion and conversations of those involved objectively in mostly static camera positions, creates the high degree of intensity."
“'This film ennobles filmmaking.' [...] The acting performances in this film are beyond comparison, [...] "
“The stupendous quality of the film [...] was not to make an offer to dissolve the empathy with the murderer on death row and with those who were horribly murdered by him and their relatives in any overall perspective. The film was aporetic in the most intelligent way, so it was a really good starting point for the question of what the death penalty is actually about. "
Awards
- Award in the Best Actress category for Susan Sarandon
- Nomination for Best Actor for Sean Penn
- Nomination for Best Director for Tim Robbins
- Nomination in the category of best movie song : Dead Man Walking for Bruce Springsteen
- Nomination for Best Actor - Drama for Sean Penn
- Nomination for Best Actress - Drama for Susan Sarandon
- Nomination for Best Screenplay for Tim Robbins
Screen Actors Guild Awards 1996
- Award in the Best Actress category for Susan Sarandon
- Nomination for Best Actor for Sean Penn
Berlinale 1996 The film took part in the Berlinale 1996 competition. Sean Penn received a Silver Bear for his acting performance. Tim Robbins received the Ecumenical Jury Prize (competition).
David di Donatello Awards 1996
- Best Foreign Actress: Susan Sarandon
Independent Spirit Awards 1996
- Best Actor: Sean Penn
Humanitas Prize 1996
- Feature film category: Tim Robbins
Chlotrudis Awards 1996
- Best movie
- Best Actor: Sean Penn
- Best Actress: Susan Sarandon
literature
- Helen Prejean : Dead man walking. His last course . Goldmann, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-442-55265-6 (from the American by Susanne Walter).
- Christiane Peitz: It was murder . In: Die Zeit , 16/1996, p. 46; Review.
Web links
- Dead Man Walking - His last walk in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Dead Man Walking - His last walk at Metacritic (English)
- Dead Man Walking - His last walk at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Dead Man Walking - His last walk in the online movie database
- Dead Man Walking - His last walk in the German dubbing file
Individual evidence
- ↑ spiegel.de
- ↑ a b Film on Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on November 8, 2014.
- ↑ a b film at Metacritic , accessed on November 8, 2014.
- ↑ Dead Man Walking - His last walk in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Dead Man Walking - His last walk. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Dead Man Walking. In: Cinema . Retrieved March 27, 2008 .
- ↑ You shouldn't kill . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1996, pp. 218-219 ( online ).
- ↑ Berlinale Yearbook 1996
- ↑ Roger Ebert : Dead Man Walking. In: rogerebert.com. January 12, 1996, accessed on March 27, 2008 : “'This film ennobles filmmaking.' [...] The performances in this film are beyond comparison, [...] "
- ↑ Jan Philipp Reemtsma: The victim's right to punish the perpetrator - as a problem [1998]. In: Ders .: The violence does not speak. Three speeches (= RUB No. 18192). Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-018192-5 , pp. 49-83, here p. 69.