Dead Man Walking Certificate: 
- Duration:
- 122 mins
- Year produced:
- 1995
- Director:
- Tim Robbins
- Cast:
- Susan Sarandon
- Sean Penn
- Robert Prosky
This is a sober and balanced drama looking at the death penalty, explored through the conversations between a nun, Sister Helen Prejean, and Matthew Poncelet, a man waiting his execution. While it’s easy to make an anti-death penalty film about an wrongly convicted person, this film is about an unappealing man who was responsible for a brutal murder, and pays attentions to the feelings of the victims’ family and their desire for what they feel would be justice, too.
When he tries to fight his death sentence from his Louisiana prison cell, convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet (brilliantly played by Sean Penn) writes a moving letter to Sister Prejean, a nun who opposes the death penalty, asking for her help and spiritual guidance. The two plead with the government to drop the sentence, campaigning for Poncelet to serve life instead. Rather than portray Poncelet as a monster who deserves to die (or, indeed, a wrongly-convicted innocent), Dead Man Walking presents a well-rounded view of him as it does every one of its characters – and the issue of the death penalty as a whole.
- Average rating:
(3 votes)
Fascinating facts
Dead Man Walking is the slang term used by prison guards to describe the final journey death row prisoners make from their cells to the place of their execution.
There is a real Sister Helen Prejean - but Matthew Poncelet is a fictional composite based on some of the prisoners she has worked with over the years.