One of my main problems with films depicting the death penalty (which I couldn't be more against) is that they have a tendency to try and force the viewer into sympathizing with this character sentenced to death. Furthermore, they tell us that this person is guilty and continue to try and get us to sympathize with them. I may be against the death penalty, but that in no way means that I'm going to feel for a man who raped a teenage girl and savagely murdered a teenage boy. It felt almost like an insult that Tim Robbins shoves this sympathy and religion down the viewers through in an attempt to make me feel for this character.
On the other side of the film is it's huge religious method, which only furthered my disconnection with it. It's just the same old preachy, sentimental stuff we've seen a thousand times before mixed with an attempt at forced sympathy for a rapist/murderer. The entire film felt like some kind of bizarre joke, because I couldn't even sympathize with the families of the victims. They were just blood-hungry, despicable human beings as well. Add that to what is potentially the worst score I've heard my entire life and the film is close to torture.
I don't understand how Susan Surandon won an Oscar for her performance but maybe that's just because I loathed her character. Another thing that displeased me is the fact that the film moves like a snail. It drags constantly and every scene without Sean Penn felt like a chore to watch. In fact the only thing that keeps this film from being among the worst I've ever seen is Sean Penn's absolutely ingenious performance. It's such a shame that it couldn't have been in a film that actually deserved such brilliance.
On the other side of the film is it's huge religious method, which only furthered my disconnection with it. It's just the same old preachy, sentimental stuff we've seen a thousand times before mixed with an attempt at forced sympathy for a rapist/murderer. The entire film felt like some kind of bizarre joke, because I couldn't even sympathize with the families of the victims. They were just blood-hungry, despicable human beings as well. Add that to what is potentially the worst score I've heard my entire life and the film is close to torture.
I don't understand how Susan Surandon won an Oscar for her performance but maybe that's just because I loathed her character. Another thing that displeased me is the fact that the film moves like a snail. It drags constantly and every scene without Sean Penn felt like a chore to watch. In fact the only thing that keeps this film from being among the worst I've ever seen is Sean Penn's absolutely ingenious performance. It's such a shame that it couldn't have been in a film that actually deserved such brilliance.