Dead Man Walking

This is one of the best scripts to study for a film student This is the best filmscript to study for Roman Catholic moral theology. Please see as well: The Culture of Life & the Penalty of Death The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United States But read this script learn to write learn to live learn to fight for the right for others to live learn to get pro-life Pope Benedict XVI's Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace declared one year ago the Death Penalty Homicide and a sin. Read this film script. Work for life. from the script, excerpts from Hilton speaking in VO (voice over) starting at page 47 Ladies and gentlemen imagine this scenario: Man takes another man, puts him in a locked room, says to him: You're gonna die. I ain't gonna tell you when, could be tomorrow, could be in a week, but you're gonna die. Man Stays in that room, terrified, his life on a wire. (page 48) Hilton (VO) Six years pass. Man comes into the room, says, you're gonna die in a week. Plead your case. In any court in the land this would be considered torture, cruel and unusual mental torture. This man that kept the other in the room would be considered a psycho, a madman. This man is the State, ladies and gentlemen. (several compelling passages later go to page 50) Hilton (VO) This man is locked away for the rest of his days at Angola Prison. He's not getting out. We can protect society without imitating the very violence we seek to eliminate. Let us have dignity. Please, let us not be complicit in the butchery of another human life. Pope John Paul II said the same when he said in modern society there is no imaginable reason, no just reason, no moral reason, for the death penalty. I met Sister Prejean in person in Los Alamos August 2nd. She is so much more real than Susan Sarandon's portrayal, hard as nails and joyful as all daylight. Read this filmscript. Learn to write them. Learn to fight for nonviolence. Take the vow. Disarming the Heart: Toward a Vow of Nonviolence

Tim Robbins presents both points of view. On the one hand he makes us feel sorry for the victims and their families but on the other hand he makes us feel sorry for the murderer himself Matt Poncelet. There is too little action but too much religious stuff in the book. But still it is a very well written book since it makes people think about the death penalty and if there is any sense for killing a murderer. The course of the story was very realistic so you can identify with the characters.

The script of Tim Robbins' outstanding film includes footnotes that detail some of inner workings of filmmaking: why some scenes don't work, why some scenes are cut, etc. If you love the movie, certainly one of the best of the 1990's, check this one out, and seek out Sister Helen's original "Dead Man Walking" which inspired the movie.