CUADP Video and DVD List
A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIEWING:
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Scroll down to browse an alphabetical index of titles
Please submit additional titles to pam@cuadp.org
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Alphabetical Listing by Title
Angels with Dirty Faces: 1938 gangster
flick with a chilling ending,(VHS only)
12 Angry Men: The Original 1957 Version (DVD and VHS)
The Choice Is Yours: Filmed on Tennessee's death row(VHS only)
Dead Man Walking: The Highly Acclaimed Motion Picture (DVD and VHS)
The Green Mile: 1999 Oscar Nominated Adaptation of the Stephen King Novel (DVD and VHS)
Last Dance: 1996 Movie with Sharon Stone (DVD and VHS)
A Lesson Before Dying: Powerful 1999 Adaptation of the Award Winning Novel (DVD and VHS)
The Life of David Gale: 2003 Movie starring Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet (DVD and VHS)
Monster's Ball: Hard Hitting Southern Drama (DVD and VHS)
In The Name of the People: CBS made for TV Movie (not yet available on DVD or VHS)
True Crime: 1999 Story of an over-the-hill journalist who uncovers exculpatory evidence (DVD and VHS)
I Want to Live: 1958 Classic (DVD and VHS)
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Angels with Dirty Faces: 1938 gangster
flick with a chilling ending, starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Humphrey Bogart
Gangster Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) returns from prison to make a name for himself in the crime world. He's soon discovered by the Dead End Kids, who idolize him, and childhood pal Father Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien). The good Father has taken a different turn from Rocky and is struggling to bring the Kids around; while still friends with Rocky, he tries to persuade him to steer clear of the gang of urchins. Rocky runs afoul of the law, however, when he guns down his former partners Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) and Keefer (George Bancroft) after they betray him over a cut of crime-related profits. Seen as a whole, Angels with Dirty Faces may seem dated to many viewers, but its ending is still enough to bring chills. Director Michael Curtiz infused this gritty 1938 effort with an amazing amount of energy and pacing; the Dead End Kids, in their screen debut, supply a fair amount of comic relief along with their dramatic roles. It's also worth noting that at the time, the notion of a criminal being a product of his environment was a controversial one. The swaggering bantam-rooster role played by Cagney, one of the screen's greats, helped define how he would be perceived (and parodied) for years to come. This movie easily stands along with The Roaring Twenties and Little Caesar as one of the most important, archetypal gangster films of the '30s |
Available in VHS only (click on icon below)
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12 Angry Men: The Original 1957 version starring Henry Fonda
Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagy)
courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal.
As the film opens, the
seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just
concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict.
When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another
liberal, truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt," Fonda slowly
chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society--exposing the prejudices and
preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose
(based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly
performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and
cramped compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive
and compelling nail-biter. |
Available in DVD (click on icon below)
and VHS (click on icon below)
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The Choice Is Yours: filmed on Tennessee's death row
A non fiction for kids from ten to twenty. A book by the
same name is also available.
In this video you will see and hear from five men who are on death row, who have done drugs, alcohol, been in gangs, committed robberies, killed and on and on. They will tell you about prison life and what it feels like to wait to die. To sit in a cell 24 hours a day and see the electric chair...knowing that one day they will be placed in it and will undergo the most horrible pain imaginable. All because they made the wrong choices in life.
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Dead Man Walking: The Highly Acclaimed Motion Picture starring Sean Penn and Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon
Superbly adapted and directed by Tim Robbins from the nonfiction book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean,
this spiritually enlightened drama is too intelligent to traffic in polemics or
self-righteous pontifications against the death penalty. But in examining the issue of
capital punishment from a humanitarian perspective, the film urges thoughtful reflection on
the justifications for legally ending a human life. Although it features a fine supporting
cast, the film maintains its sharp focus through flawless lead performances by Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon
as the Catholic nun Prejean, and Sean Penn as the death-row killer she struggles to save. Robbins avoids a
biased message, letting the movie examine both sides of the issue instead (R. Lee Ermey gives a
fine performance as the grief-stricken father of one of Penn's victims). As the drama unfolds
and Penn's execution deadline grows near, Dead Man Walking is graced by compelling depths of
theme and character, achieving an emotional impact that demands further reflection and removes
the stigma of piousness from socially conscious filmmaking.
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Available in DVD (click on icon below)
and VHS (click on icon below)
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The Green Mile: 1999 Oscar Nominated Adaptation of the Stephen King Novel starring Tom Hanks
"The book was better" has been the complaint of many a reader since the invention of movies. Frank Darabont's
second adaptation of a Stephen King prison drama (The Shawshank Redemption was the first) is a very faithful
adaptation of King's serial novel. In the middle of the Depression, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) runs death row at
Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Into this dreary world walks a mammoth prisoner, John Coffey (Michael Duncan) who,
very slowly, reveals a special gift that will change the men working and dying (in the electric chair, masterfully
and grippingly staged) on the mile . As with King's book, Darabont takes plenty of time to show us Edgecomb's world
before delving into John Coffey's mystery. With Darabont's superior storytelling abilities, his touch for perfect
casting, and a leisurely 188-minute running time, his movie brings to life nearly every character and scene from the novel.
Darabont even improves the novel's two endings, creating a more emotionally satisfying experience. The running time may
try patience, but those who want a story, as opposed to quick-fix entertainment, will be rewarded by this finely tailored tale
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Available in DVD (click on icon below)
and VHS (click on icon below)
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Last Dance: Powerful and Provocative 1996 movie, starring Sharon Stone and Rob Morrow
In 1996, Sharon Stone put a little grit into her glamorous image by playing a suspicious, snarling death row inmate caught up in the politics of the death penalty. Director Bruce Beresford tackled a similar drama in his uncompromising Breaker Morant, but here he's stuck with a script that favors the tepid story of her ne'er-do-well clemency lawyer (Rob Morrow), whose dormant conscience awakens as he champions her case. It's a well-meaning effort undercut by sentimentality (Beresford gives in to the impulse to find the sweet puppy dog behind Stone's feral street-mutt exterior) and the bad luck to come after the similarly themed but superior Dead Man Walking.
Give Stone credit for the passion and conviction to make you care anyway. |
Available in DVD (click on icon below)
and VHS (click on icon below)
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A Lesson Before Dying: Powerful 1999 Adaptation of the Award Winning Novel by Ernest J. Gaines, starring Mekhi Phifer and Don Cheadle
On a bright sunny day in 1948, Jefferson (Mekhi Phifer) sets off down
the road to go catch some fish; by the end of the movie's opening
sequence, he is the one who's been caught, and wrongly accused of the
murder of a white shopkeeper. Racial inequality, at the time, is so
pervasive in Louisiana that the white defense lawyer's argument at
Jefferson's trial is that his client is not worthy of conviction:
"You might just as soon put a hog in the 'lectric chair as this,"
he declares. Outraged by this statement, Jefferson's godmother
(Irma P. Hall) does not want her godson to die as a hog. To this
end she enlists the reluctant aid of the black community's teacher,
Grant Wiggins (Don Cheadle), to teach him to "be a man." As Grant
and Jefferson get to know each other (and the viewer gets to know
them both), it's not clear which of them needs the lesson more.
As in Ernest J. Gaines's award-winning novel, the movie goes beyond
the conflict between the races to explore divisions that splinter
the black community: education versus religion, dark skin versus
light. And, thanks to masterful performances from Cheadle and Phifer
as well as a thoughtful screenplay by Amy Peacock, A Lesson Before
Dying goes even further, examining what it means to be human and the
responsibility a man has to himself and to his community.
Originally made for HBO, this adaptation of Gaines's novel richly
deserves to be seen by a wider audience. |
Available in DVD (click on icon below)
and VHS (click on icon below)
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The Life of David Gale: 2003 Movie starring Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet
Kevin Spacey (American Beauty) plays David Gale, a brilliant but hard-drinking anti-death penalty crusader on death row for a rape and murder that he claims he didn't commit. The victim of the crime is Gale's close friend and anti-death penalty colleague (Laura Linney, You Can Count On Me), so Gale argues that he's been set up to discredit the cause. Committed journalist Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet, Titanic) takes it upon herself to figure the whole thing out--and so we follow her through a ridiculous plot full of supposedly shocking twists that are telegraphed far in advance and make very little sense when they arrive. The overwritten script tries to cover too many hot-button issues and gives Spacey way too many showy scenes where he gets to be passionate and caring, which is creepier than his psychopath roles in The Usual Suspects and Seven.
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Available in DVD (click on icon below)
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Monster's Ball: Hard Hitting Southern Drama starring Billy Bob Thornton and Oscar-winner Halle Berry
The unflinching realism and searing performances of Monster's Ball are stunning in all the connotations of the
word. Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) and Leticia (Halle Berry) inhabit stark, queasy realities of the contemporary
South, he as a death row corrections officer and she as the soon-to-be widow of an inmate (Sean Combs) whose
execution Hank helps conduct. In the aftermath of the execution, both lose their children to tragic deaths and
they form an unlikely bond. In the hands of lesser participants, the fateful plot might strain credibility
and seem tailored to allow for liberal sermonizing about the obvious wrongs of our legal justice system, but
director Marc Forster and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer balance the contentious nature of the film's
issues--the death penalty, racism both overt and subtle, interracial couples--with a flawless attention to
character and visual detail that completely convinces. The moral ambiguity of both central characters is
given full voice as our sympathy is drawn out reluctantly at first but all the more resolutely in the end.
Thornton draws from seemingly limitless resources to deliver yet another outstanding performance, but it is
Halle Berry who is a revelation as she sustains throughout the complex tenor of brutality witnessed and raw
courage defined. |
Available in DVD (click on icon below)
and VHS (click on icon below)
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In The Name of the People: CBS made for TV Movie starring Scott Bakula, Richard Thomas, and Amy Madigan
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Jack (Richard Thomas) and Connie (Amy Madigan) Murphy have been eagerly awaiting justice for the murder of their daughter, Jenny, six years earlier. Jenny’s killer, John Burke (Scott Bakula), is behind bars anticipating final word on whether he will live or die.
Full of rage and yearning for closure for herself and other parents of murdered children, Connie presides over an activist group she founded call "Parents for Justice." As anti-death-penalty advocates picket, Connie and her group rally for Burke’s execution. But as the execution date nears, Jack has a change of heart, further devastating his already faltering marriage.
Unbeknownst to Connie, Jack pays Burke a visit in jail in order to hear the truth about his daughter’s last hours. There, he finds one common bond between himself and Jenny’s killer – a father’s love for his child. Burke’s 13-year-old daughter, Lisa, whose mother is dead, lives with her grandmother, who is dying of heart failure. In just days, Burke will be executed, and his last wish is to know that his daughter will be in good hands. He tries to convince the Murphys to raise her.
The film deals with healing and forgiveness, but, at one point, the father claims he has given up on God. There is no indication that either of the parents has reconciled with their faith. So whatever forgiveness occurs, the producers are indicating that forgiving such a heinous crime can be done without spiritual direction).
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Not currently available on DVD or VHS, check www.lifetimetv.com for showings
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True Crime: 1999 Story of an over-the-hill journalist who uncovers exculpatory evidence, starring and directed by Clint Eastwood
Not enough people went to see True Crime in theaters. Wasn't Clint Eastwood too old to be playing a guy whom a variety of glorious women, from the middle-aged Diane Venora and Laila Robins to the young Mary McCormack and Lucy Liu, find attractive? Could the onetime Man with No Name credibly play a brilliant crime reporter, Steve Everett, with an ironic turn of phrase and an incurable habit of screwing up both his personal and professional lives? The respective answers to those questions are: hell no and hell yes. True Crime features one of Eastwood's best and most entertaining performances--and his work as director is utterly assured.
The story (from Andrew Klavan's bestselling novel) gives Everett the last-minute assignment of interviewing a condemned man (Isaiah Washington) on the eve of his execution. The prisoner, a born-again Christian and exemplary family man, has everything the reporter lacks except a shot at seeing the next sunrise. Everett sets out to get him that, yet far from making a beeline to the exculpatory evidence that will save the life of his "client," this very tarnished hero has to spend a lot of the next 24 hours contending with the baggage he's accumulated through drinking, wenching, and familial neglect. (A Pirandellian note: Everett's daughter is played by Eastwood's own daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, and her mother, Frances Fisher, returns for a feisty cameo as a prosecutor.)
This is a good one that got away. Don't let it happen again.
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Available in DVD (click on icon below)
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I Want to Live: 1958 Classic starring Oscar-winner Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward won an Academy Award for her performance in the
compelling 1958 classic I Want to Live! Hayward plays Barbara Graham,
a "good-time girl" with a heart of gold and absolutely no instincts
about when to drop a bad association. After bouncing in and out of
the prison system for a series of petty crimes, Graham suddenly finds
herself framed for murder and facing the death penalty. Hayward is
simply marvelous, giving a wrenching, complex performance without ever
becoming maudlin. Director Robert Wise ratchets the tension up to a
nearly unbearable level, making Barbara's moments of hope as
agonizing as those of her despair. The film is based on the story of
the real-life Barbara Graham, taken from her letters and interviews
with reporter Ed Montgomery. Montgomery himself appears as a
character, and the film is surprisingly evenhanded about condemning
his own role in Graham's conviction. This is definitely a must-see
for Hayward fans. |
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and VHS (click on icon below)
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Please submit additional titles to pam@cuadp.org
 Check out http://justice.policy.net/cjreform/culture/ for additional Death Penalty related Movies, Books, Documentaries, Music, Performing Arts,
Radio and Television Programming
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