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63
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47
27 Dresses
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
39
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81
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84
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Cloverfield
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92
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43
Final Season, The
41
First Sunday
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49
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60
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15
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81
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70
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47
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xx
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53
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77
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44
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24
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74
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30
Over Her Dead Body
39
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37
P2
46
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55
Resurrecting the Champ
57
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85
Savages, The
78
Starting Out in the Evening
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57
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92
There Will Be Blood
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
32
Untraceable
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
68
War Dance
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43
Youth Without Youth
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
92
There Will Be Blood
85
Savages, The
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
81
Juno
81
Bamako
78
Starting Out in the Evening
77
Nanking
74
Orphanage, The
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
70
Lars and the Real Girl
69
Charlie Wilson's War
68
Business of Being Born, The
68
Delirious
68
War Dance
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Cloverfield
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
63
11th Hour, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
57
Romulus, My Father
57
Teeth
55
Resurrecting the Champ
53
Music Within
52
Hollywood Dreams
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
47
Bella
47
Lions for Lambs
47
27 Dresses
46
Reservation Road
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
43
Youth Without Youth
43
Final Season, The
41
Mad Money
41
First Sunday
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
39
P.S. I Love You
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
37
P2
32
Untraceable
30
Over Her Dead Body
30
Cover
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
24
One Missed Call
15
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
xx
Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Dead Man Walking
Paramount Pictures
MPAA RATING: R for a depiction of a rape and murder
Starring
Susan Sarandon,
Sean Penn,
Robert Prosky,
Raymond J. Barry,
and
R. Lee Ermey
Follows the relationship between a death-row inmate (Penn) and local nun (Sarandon) to whom he turns for spiritual guidance in the days leading up to his scheduled execution.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Helen Prejean (book)
Tim Robbins
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Tim Robbins
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 7, 1999
Video: December 7, 1999
Theatrical: December 29, 1995
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
122 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
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.

100
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann
Acting rarely gets better than this.

100
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]
100
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
A bold, searching, wrenching experience. It may be the most complexly impassioned message movie Hollywood has ever made.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This film ennobles filmmaking.

100
USA Today
Mike Clark
Happily, there's nothing to misconstrue about the film: It's fabulous.

90
Variety
Emanuel Levy
An intimate chamber piece for two, superbly acted by Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, this is a mature, well-crafted movie.

90
Film.com
Jonathan Richards
A complex, myriad-faceted work of art.
90
Washington Post
Hal Hinson
What this intelligent, balanced, devastating movie puts before us is nothing less than a contest between good and evil.

90
Salon.com
Gary Kamiya
Possesses that rarest of qualities: moral humility.

90
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.
90
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.

90
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
An extremely affecting experience, down to the last agonizing moment.

90
Film.com
John Hartl
Sean Penn gives the most riveting, selfless performance of his career.

90
The New York Times
Elvis Mitchell
Quietly courageous drama .

90
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.

89
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.

80
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.
80
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.
80
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.

80
Newsweek
David Ansen
No simple diatribe against capital punishment, it's a strong film, made stronger by two terrific performances.

75
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]
70
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.
63
San Francisco Examiner
G. Allen Johnson
Troubling and troubled.

50
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.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Has its awkward and square moments directorially, but it's also uncommonly honest and serious.

30
Film.com
Tom Keogh
Overpraised, intellectually soft, narratively unfocused, and thematically ambivalent.
30
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]

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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