Dead Man Walking (film)

Dead Man Walking is a 1995 film based on the book of the same name, which tells the story of Sister Helen Prejean (played by Susan Sarandon), who establishes a special relationship with Matthew Poncelet, a prisoner on death row (played by Sean Penn).

Cast and awards

Susan Sarandon won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. Sean Penn was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Tim Robbins for Best Director and its main track, "Dead Man Walking" by Bruce Springsteen for Best Music, Song.

The movie also stars Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry and R. Lee Ermey. Robbins adapted the story himself from Sister Prejean's autobiographical account.

Adaptation

The film takes many liberties with the story that is presented in Prejean's book. For example, it consolidates two different people who Prejean counseled on Death Row into one character, as well as merging their crimes and their victims' families into one event. Lesser details were also removed to shorten the length of the film.

In reality, Elmo Patrick Sonnier (Poncelet in the adaptation), was executed in the electric chair. Director Tim Robbins opted to use lethal injection in the adaptation because, as stated by Sister Helen in an interview found linked below, "He took away the electric chair and said we need to use lethal injection because we don't want to give people the moral out whereby people could say 'oh well, we used to do electrocution but that's too barbaric so now we are humane and inject them'".

Other versions

In 2002, Tim Robbins, who adapted the book for the film, also wrote a stage version of Dead Man Walking.

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