Dead Man Walking (1995)

Dead man walking was a movie that I was not excited to watch. I was worried it would be an extremely depressing movie that wasn’t going to even get me close to feeling any emotions and I would've just wasted two hours of my life as I never really have emotional responses to movies. However, this feeling of dread soon left as the movie began. I instantly got into the story and was left constantly guessing what on earth was going to happen and how it would all end. In the film we follow the story of Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) as she gets closer and closer to Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) a man in death row who has been charged with rape and murder who claims innocence. Over the film we see both character grow to like and respect one another as they get closer and closer to the day Matthew will be executed. The first thing that really stood out to me was the fact that by the very end of this film you really like the murderer and actually dislike the parents of the murdered teens. This complete switch of who you should be rooting for makes the viewing experience, especially the final scene, feel very strange as the man who you would normally see as a monster you feel sympathy and see him as the most human person in the film. This is because the two main characters are likeable and are acted just amazingly, they defiantly deserved the oscars they won. The first hour and forty minutes are great, you are left in the same position as Sister Helen as we are constantly guessing on his innocents and whether or not. But the last 20 minutes were just amazing, I was constantly questioning my own morality, I was constantly going back an forth on what I wanted to happen to the character. Without going into too much detail there was a huge twist that shocked and changed everything I knew about my own morality, almost shedding a tear for this man who had done unspeakable things. My only problem is that there is no way to rewatch this movie and go through the same experience that you go through on the first time. The main thing i took away from this movie was that it made me completely made me take a good look at myself in the mirror and question what believed to be right or wrong. I would recommend this movie to absolutely anyone, i think everyone should experience this movie and see how it changes themselves.