Dead Man WalkingThe film “Dead Man Walking” is a film about redemption. The film is directed by Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon plays a nun named Sister Helen Prejean. A convicted murderer asks him to find him a lawyer, then later asks him to be his spiritual advisor. The convicted killer is named Matthew Poncelet and he is played by Sean Penn. The film takes place in the Angola State Penitentiary, Louisiana. Matthieu Poncelet first asks him to find him a lawyer so that he can cancel his death sentence. Sister Hélène finds him a lawyer, but they fail after several good attempts to get him off death row. Sister Hélène begins coming to see him almost every day after Poncelet asks her to be his spiritual advisor on the day of his death. During this phase of the film, Sister Hélène tries to convince Poncelet to tell her about her own life. Poncelet tells him about his life and why he was sentenced to death. Poncelet was convicted along with another man of murdering the youth and a young girl after raping the girl. Sister Helen is very likeable and is also looked down upon for this reason. Even though she is repressed, she continues to help Poncelet and digs into his feelings and his soul. Sister Helen ends up finding a good soul in Matthew Poncelet, a person no one else knows. Matthew constantly denies to Sister Helen, himself, and God that he committed his horrible crime. Poncelet continues to attribute his problems to other factors, such as his father's early death, his drug use, his immaturity, and his inability to stand up to his partner in this brutal crime. Sister Helen urges Poncelet to tell the truth and face the role he played in the crime. And almost in the last minutes of the film, he tells the truth. Although he tells the truth about his sin, he is still put to death by lethal injection. The purpose of this film, I believe, was to show that capital punishment is not a good thing in all circumstances, but that redemption and preservation of the human soul is preferable. Tim Robbins tried to show how most people, and even more specifically, Christians, tend to always want revenge for a crime. Most of them have a phrase from the Old Testament memorized: “An eye for an eye” is what they always mean. But this really confuses me. For me this saying is not clear, if you think about it, I...... middle of paper ...... in a church. I've read the Bible, but not as much as I should, but the "an eye for an eye" part has always confused me. If the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill,” then why does it justify the killing of a person who has already killed? I believe that God loves all of his children. If people are truly followers of Christ, they will learn from Him how to forgive people for their faults and mistakes throughout their lives. If the characters in the film had stopped and imagined what it would have been like to be in Poncelet's place, they might have felt differently about the death penalty. He was in prison, threatened with lethal injection. I'm sure if they thought about it, they wouldn't want to be killed, but the people Poncelet killed had no choice, death was imposed on them. This film does a great job of showing both sides of the Capitol sentencing controversy. I understand that people think that killing someone who has killed is a good thing. This prevents the person from going out into the street and killing again. But is this really justice? I always believe that people can be evil, but people can also be purified. I think this film has a dramatic side to it and its objective is quite clear to anyone watching it..