RE: Dead Man Walking & 12 Monkeys Thanks again for all who responded to my call for 12 Monkeys reactions. We had our Film Forum discussion of it here last Fri. and I mentioned some of your comments--especially the one about "nostalgia for the present." One of the students at the Forum also pointed out how Cole's 1990s prison/asylum experiences were just as (or more) dystopic than his future situation. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get to a discussion of how two female characters "save" Cole in both time periods: the psychiatrist and the "insurance" scientist. I just saw Dead Man Walking and find an intriguing parallel with Sister Prejean. Both films (though one radically fictional, the other disturbingly factual) show men trapped by perverse/ethical systems, who need women, as romantic, maternal figures, to help them find sanity, ethical responsibility, and spiritual hope (if not physical freedom). Is this a trend in current film? Would anyone like to trace precedents? Does this popular depiction of a cinematic pieta show a stale archetype, an oppressive stereotype, or a new power for women in mainstream film? One more question about Dead Man. There's been much discussion on this list about the politics of the film. But I was amazed (and gut-wrenched) by how well Robbins played the edge of conservative/liberal, victims' vengeance vs. sympathy for scapegoat (or just wrongness of state killing)--and kept both sides in play. I even felt a very ironic justification for capital punishment in the film's redemptive conclusion: if Penn's character had not been sentenced to death, would he ever have come to the confessional, ethical point which he resists until the last minutes with Sister P? Mark Pizzato U of St. Thomas (though I'm not a Thomist) ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]