Dead Man Walking

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's ironic that a film with this title should be among the most vital, alive, and challenging cinema experiences of the year.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Acting rarely gets better than this.

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

Sarandon delivers one of her very best performances; her shock at encountering the wrath of the victim's family is registered beautifully. And Sean Penn, who for too long has suffered with the label of being a "bad boy," gives an Oscar-caliber performance.[12 January 1996, Friday, p.B]

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A bold, searching, wrenching experience. It may be the most complexly impassioned message movie Hollywood has ever made.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This film ennobles filmmaking.

USA Today Mike Clark

Happily, there's nothing to misconstrue about the film: It's fabulous.

Variety Emanuel Levy

An intimate chamber piece for two, superbly acted by Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, this is a mature, well-crafted movie.

Film.com Jonathan Richards

A complex, myriad-faceted work of art.

Washington Post Hal Hinson

What this intelligent, balanced, devastating movie puts before us is nothing less than a contest between good and evil.

Salon.com Gary Kamiya

Possesses that rarest of qualities: moral humility.

Film.com Sean Means

Their (Sarandon, Penn) performances and Robbins' drive to ask questions without offering easy answers make Dead Man Walking a thought-provoking drama not to be missed or dismissed.

Time Richard Schickel

It is a measure of its complexity--and of the forces Penn and Sarandon have held in reserve during their hypnotic struggle for his soul--that its final moments leave us awash in emotion.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

An extremely affecting experience, down to the last agonizing moment.

Film.com John Hartl

Sean Penn gives the most riveting, selfless performance of his career.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Quietly courageous drama .

Dallas Observer Jimmy Fowler

Dead Man Walking drops a massive, writhing knot of sorrow in your lap and then doesn't tell you what to do with it. If that doesn't sound like entertainment to you, you're right. It does something far more profound: It finds the tragic universal core of a contentious issue.

Austin Chronicle Alison Macor

Robbins' direction and script are nearly flawlessly rich. There are no easy answers on death row, and Dead Man Walking makes this painfully, powerfully clear.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Unusual in both its subject matter and its approach, this film guides us on a pair of intertwined paths American movies rarely venture down.

Mr. Showbiz Anne Harris

This isn't a crowd-pleaser in terms of subject matter -- you've got a convict and a nun, with no love scenes -- but Robbins keeps it interesting.

Film.com Bruce Reid

Hollywood's two most prominent left-wingers, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, have crafted a film that transcends its own political message by a scrupulous attention to detail.

Newsweek David Ansen

No simple diatribe against capital punishment, it's a strong film, made stronger by two terrific performances.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie is often preachy and self-conscious, especially in long dialogue scenes, where Robbins's inexpert scriptwriting makes people talk at instead of with each other. Yet the picture's solid assets enable it to soar above such problems, both intellectually and emotionally. [29 December 1995, Film, p.13]

Film.com Keith Simanton

Outstanding supporting performances, and a climactic aria of images take the film a step beyond dramatic impact; at key moments, the whole picture resonates with sorrow.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

Troubling and troubled.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

Sarandon is terrific and Penn is in top form, but the film is an achingly earnest message movie with a curiously muddled message.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Has its awkward and square moments directorially, but it's also uncommonly honest and serious.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Overpraised, intellectually soft, narratively unfocused, and thematically ambivalent.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The picture is cloudy in intent. That cloudiness is deepened by Susan Sarandon's performance as Sister Helen. If she were giving the role what it seems to demand, a glow of true religious light, the film would have some organic cohesion, a strong spiritual cord running through it. But Sarandon does little more than present her face. [Feb. 5, 1996]