Rating: 
Summary: excellent! Wonderful performances by Penn and Sarandon
Review: Regardless of your opinion about capital punishment, this is a movie that everyone should see. Sean Penn SHOULD HAVE received that Oscar for Best Actor! Everyone in this movie was fabulous. Sean was so convincing as condemned prisoner Matt Poncelet, it was as if he really was a Death Row inmate instead of an actor. Great movie!
Rating:
Summary: Spiritually Enlightening
Review: Not many movies make my emotions show more than this one. It is beyond words that I can explain on how this film has hit me. I think it is everyone's moral duty to see this film and to look at it as a wake up call that people are actually being put through the barbaric ritual of the death penalty. The performances by Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon are extremely moving, and I must say that both of them shine brighter than they ever have. This is a serious film that does not hold back, and for you to understand it, you must not hold back either.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: I'm not the biggest Sean Penn fan, but his performance in this film is incredible. Half an hour into the film you'll forget that he's an actor and not the real convict. The film presents both sides of the capital punishment debate; one minute Penn's character should be left alive, the next minute you'd flip the switch yourself. An intense, extremely well acted film.
Rating:
Summary: It will make you think!
Review: An amazing film that made me seriously consider my views on capital punishment. Penn and Sarandon are extraordinary.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult, But Rewarding
Review: This film presents the human sides of a murder, its effects and the condemnation to death of a prison inmate. It's a harrowing look at the death penalty, one which retains clarity by focusing on the people instead of the issues... which is not to say this is an unemotional movie, just that it's objective. Penn and Sarandon are amazing. Rarely do movie stars transcend their celebrity as the two do here.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT MOVIE
Review: This movie actually changed my opinion of the Death Penalty. It paints both sides of the story so perfectly and is very good at sending sutile metaphoric messages that deliver powerfully. Extremly thought provoking, poweful movie. END
Rating: 
Summary: ROBBINS, SARANDON AT THEIR BEST
Review: Tim Robbins made another "political" film." "Dead Man Walking" stayed on an even keel. Starring Sean Penn in a bravura performance as a murderer getting ready for his execution, it takes a surprisingly Catholic point of view, in which Susan Sarandon plays a nun who makes him take responsibility for his actions, ostensibly to save his soul. It could be interpreted as being against the death penalty, but this is actually a stretch. This film is a good example of how much talent Robbins has and how, when he avoids major Left wing politics, he produyces some real genius. STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
Rating:
Summary: A film to contemplate and to change your way of thinking
Review: Tim Robbins presents in his movie "Dead Man Walking" the subject capital punishment. But compared to many other directors who have also dealed with this matter Tim Robbins does not give the audience a didactic message. By using flashbacks and changes of perspectives he presents every side of the crime Poncelet commited. Showing the cruelty of the crime and the grief of the victim's families on the one hand and the development of Matt Poncelet and the sorrow of his family after the execution on the other hand makes the viewer contemplate. Do you have to atone for a murder by another murder?! These are the major aspects which make the viewer think. Think about his own opinion concerning the death penalty.
The main reason why I gave this movie four stars is that Tim Robbins provides changes of perspective and does not try to push the audience in one direction. Consequently every viewer of the film gets the chance to change his opinion about the death penalty. Besides the great performances by Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon the film is worth seeing because it gives you the opportunity to see the matter capital punishment with other eyes.
Rating:
Summary: what amazing performances
Review: Both Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon give the performance of their lives. This is such an emotional film and the story behind it is amazing. Tim Robbins' direction is spot on. Was thoroughly entranced from beginning to end. Although the story deals with death row and the death penalty, both highly explosive subjects, I was able to detach myself because of the actors' performances. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant drama with peaks and lows!
Review: This film was the supreme test to Susan Sarandon and her best achievement in her career. In this role as nun she gave a masterful class of facial expression and body language , having in mind she had the camera very close the ninety five per cent of the time. Furthermore I guess the real intention of this approach was accent the dramatis personae between these two souls so opposite in principles and ethics.
The rhythmic pulse is extremely peaceful making the film was a bit overlong with unnecessary overdramatic concessions. Sean Penn faced to my mind the most difficult role in his career and his slow and progressive transformation through the clever dialogues will reveal something you anticipate.
This delicate theme about the death execution had never focused with admirable realism. And may be with the honorable exception of In cold blood , the American Cinema never before reached such status level in this issue.
| 
