{"id":1406,"date":"2009-06-30T05:01:30","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T10:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2009-06-30T05:29:07","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T10:29:07","slug":"dead-man-walking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=1406","title":{"rendered":"Dead Man Walking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend I saw a very thought-provoking movie, one that I’d wanted to see for a while but always found an excuse to postpone because I knew it would be heavy: Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking<\/a>. The book by the same name had rocked my world several years before, so I was curious. It tells the story of Sister Helen Prejean, a Louisiana nun (played by the fabulous Susan Sarandon) who reluctantly serves as a spiritual advisor to a death row inmate (played by the equally fabulous Sean Penn). Given writer-director Robbins’ far-left political views, I was surprised at how even-handedly he treated one of the toughest social questions we have: the death penalty. With great finesse he shows many sides of the issue: the inmate who is nearly impossible to love, even for a nun, the inmate’s relatives who understand his crime but don’t want him to die, the victims’ families who would gladly inject the poison themselves, the outside observers who are horrified that a nun would even talk to a convicted murderer. <\/p>\n

With her typical brilliance, Sarandon subtly weaves a very complex and conflicted character, a nun who wants to serve God and help a man in great need but who is also disgusted by the inmate’s attitude and crimes. Penn’s convict hides behind a rough, barely endurable exterior but over time starts to crack, revealing glimpses of his own fear and pain. <\/p>\n

Most of you probably have your minds made up regarding the death penalty. If you do, watching this film probably won’t change your mind, nor is that the film’s point<\/em>. Robbins and crew want you to think about all sides of the debate and the impact on all the people involved. It comes down to the age-old question of justice versus mercy, a question with which I struggle constantly. The Old Testament advocates eye-for-an-eye justice, so many Christians who support the death penalty use the OT to justify their position. I think the New Testament, especially Jesus, advocate mercy, as Jesus did when the Pharisees brought him the woman caught in adultery whom the Law said should be stoned to death. I still haven’t decided which side is right as a matter of public policy, but I strongly recommend watching the movie and wrestling further with this question yourself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend I saw a very thought-provoking movie, one that I’d wanted to see for a while but always found an excuse to postpone because I knew it would be heavy: Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking. The book by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}