Dead Man Walking

Borrowed this because 1) Sean Penn is in it and 2) It won Susan Sarandon her Best Actress Oscar. Didn’t really know what it was about except that it involves a nun and a man on death row. (Hence the title)

This movie felt extremely long to me, and at first, it was super hard to know what they were saying as there were no English subtitles on the DVD and the characters all had a clipped accent that made it hard to pick up on words. The pace at first was extremely fast, getting all the characters set up and showing their obvious relations to each other, then when it got down to the heart of the story, it slowed down a lot, and much of the time was spent focusing on emotional reactions and less focus on dialogue.

I personally loved the premise of the story and the issues and conflicts it dealt with, but for me, the pace was too slow, and was a little too undramatic for me, which resulted in developing a little apathy for the characters and events. I felt pity, but there was no strong emotion reaction. Sarandon did a good job acting out her role, but she failed to move me, and I thought some of her actions were foolish, but plausible and understandable. Sean Penn did a really good job, and really had the mannerisms of a man who doesn’t care for most things. He also had a very convincing gaze. I just really, really wish he appeared more.

All in all, a thought-provoking but slow-moving movie that has the ability to evoke an emotional response from its audience, but failed to do so for me. Sarandon was convincing and in character, but I didn’t feel much from her. There was also a severe lack of Sean Penn. 78/100