Dead Man Walking is a moving film and given the technical

difficulties that Tim Robbins was forced to deal with, I think it is

even a greater testament to Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn's acting.

When I talk of technical difficulties I'm revering to the static shot

selection that was dictated by Penn's incarceration and the resulting

reliance on Penn and Sarandon being shot with pexi-glass or prison

bars as barriers between the two.  Robbin's austere approach

stylistically was especially appropriate during Penn's final

walk to the execution room. The conspicuous "absence" of emotion

swelling music during Penn and Sarandon's final good-bye indicated

that Robbins was'nt going to take the easy way out.

 

Given Robbin's leftist politics and any resulting expectations

based on that, Dead Man Walking is even-handed and lacking a zealous

diatribe quality that could have potentially compromised the film,

but one shot in the film continues to disturb me.

 

During the scene of Penn's death we have a montage sequence that cuts

back to a flash-back to the victims that Penn killed laying in the

field where they were left to be discovered. The main thrust of the

scene as a whole reinforced the tragic consequences of all the

victims -be it a victim of random violence or state-sanctioned, but

during the end of this sequence we see Penn's victims

reflected/superimposed on the window in the execution room.  Both

victims are attired in formal ware and are suppose to convey some

type of spectral presence.

 

This shot was particularly jarring and seemed to under-cut the film

as a whole.  It seemed cheap and implied a self-righteousness that

the film lacked as whole. It almost appeared as if Robbin's was

making an apologist gesture in light of the focus on Penn's

character.

 

Maybe, this seems like nit-picking but given the tightness and lack

of gratuitous cliches in the film as a whole, the "ghost" shot does

serious damage to the integrity of the film - even if only

aesthetically.  How does anyone else feel?

 

                                                Christian Doellner

 

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