i saw the "spectral visions" as symbolic of penn's character finally accepting that he wronged not only the parents of his victims, but the victims themselves. their presence indicated not that they wished to view the execution, but rather that they, too, were a part of the story. given the spiritual nature of the film, i also viewed their presence as an indication to penn that his victims were indeed eternal creatures whose pain didn't necessarily end with their death. most importantly, i assumed that the "ghosts" were not actual spiritual manifestations, but were what penn's character viewed as he looked upon the victims of his crime. in this sense, their appearance was a final demonstration of penn's admission of guilt (or the final demonstration of his retrieval of "dignity," if you will.) of course, this scene can be viewed in several ways, and therein lies of the beauty of robbin's filmmaking. i have never seen such a fine example of "reader response" criticism in film. both dead man walking and bob roberts allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions based primarily on the belief systems they held before entering the theater. for example, both bob roberts and his democratic opponent are accused of moral crimes, who you believe depends on whether you are a democrat or a republican. is bob robert's toe tapping a sign of his ultimate treachery or a divine sign that he is being healed? you make the call. ______________________________________________________________________________ Rand Bellavia [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] --sigh-- "I'm familiar with the work of Pablo Neruda." - Bart Simpson ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]