THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
``THE REAL QUESTION,'' Tim Robbins was saying, ``is not who deserves to die, but who deserves to kill.''
``Dead Man Walking,'' his film opening Friday, is likely to stir a new debate on capital punishment. Fueled by ferocious, Oscar-worthy performances from Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, it is about a Roman Catholic nun who becomes ``spiritual adviser'' to a man on Death Row. A recent rash of excecutions across the country makes it especially timely.
While some suspicions have been raised that the movie would be a diatribe against the death penalty, Robbins, who wrote and directed, refutes that.
``I've heard people say that it is both pro- and anti-death penalty. I've heard people say it is a religious film, about redemption,'' he said. ``I'll take it all. I've had people whose minds were changed on either side of the argument by this film.
``I don't believe in labels, for people or for films. I'm labeled as a progressive liberal. OK! If that has to be my label, it doesn't mean that I can't make an even-handed film.
``When you dig up soil and pile it up, the grains fall on one side or the other. It isn't important which side gets the most grains. The important thing is that earth is moved.''
This is Robbins' second effort at writing/directing, following the 1992 political satire ``Bob Roberts,'' in which he played an ultra-conservative senatorial candidate who also was a folk singer. It was a slap at conservatism, but, he said, ``even some liberals complained about its ending.''
Critics are agreeing that ``Dead Man Walking,'' based on the 1993 book by Sister Helen Prejean, is balanced.
Prejean worked with the poor in New Orleans until she started writing letters to men on Death Row. She is now national chairperson for the Committee to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Sarandon, the mother of Robbins' two sons and his live-in companion since they met on the set of ``Bull Durham,'' discovered Prejean's book when she was in Memphis filming ``The Client.''
``I think she was a little disappointed that I wasn't Geena Davis,'' Sarandon recalled. ``Someone had told her that she was going to have dinner with the star of `Thelma & Louise.' But I immediately was drawn to her. She is one of the most honest, and least judgmental, people I've ever met.
``I was most impressed because she made achievements within the workings of the church. The church hierarchy, in my opinion, is so sexist. I feel I am a spiritual person, but I am a lapsed Catholic. I grew up being told that I had an overabundance of original sin.''
One of nine children, Sarandon was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. Her father was a big-band singer who later became an advertising executive. Robbins, son of folk singer Gil Robbins, was born in Greenwich Village. He started out on the city streets with an experimental acting troupe; at 19, he went west to attend UCLA.
The two of them have a reputation for political statements; in fact, they were temporarily banned from the Oscar ceremonies after they used it as a platform to promote one of their causes.
They want to make it clear, however, that ``Dead Man Walking'' is not exclusively a ``message'' film.
``Usually, Hollywood would cast a very handsome leading-man type as the prisoner,'' Robbins said. ``We've seen those films over and over. The accused man is obviously innocent. In our version, things are different, thanks, to a great extent, that Sean Penn agreed to play the part.''
Penn plays Matthew Poncelet, a lowlife who has been convicted of murder and rape. He is a racist and Nazi sympathizer. The audience, as well as Sister Helen, have no reason to side with him. Still, he is a human being.
``Sean was courageous in the way he played the part,'' Robbins said. ``He doesn't mind being seen as nonsympathetic. It pains me everytime Sean says that he's going to give up acting. He's one of our great actors. The guy puts himself through such pain with every role.''
Penn is likely to receive his first Oscar nomination. If Sarandon is nominated, it will be her fifth time.
Filmed in and around New Orleans, as well as inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, ``Dead Man Walking'' is not a true story. Poncelet, for instance, is a composite based on several characters.
``The situation is true, but the particular person is not,'' Robbins said. ``But we've researched every movement, every scene. Everything in the film is potentially true. I didn't personally attend an execution because, frankly, I didn't want to. The actual execution took 20 minutes but I didn't think any audience would have the patience for that.''
Sarandon was inside the prison just after one inmate had killed another.
``There was no feeling that he would be punished because he was already inside,'' she said, adding, ``It is a fallacy that people always claim most prisoners on Death Row are black. There are just as many whites as blacks, but it is noticeable that if the victims are not white, you rarely get someone on Death Row.
``What I liked about Sister Helen's stance was that she made so many mistakes. She was not infallible and she sought answers. She didn't want to like Poncelet. She was very reluctant about even going to the prison.
``As for my own feeling on the subject, I don't think that more killing ever is justified. It's like my child ask, `Mommy, who kills the government after it kills?' Children don't understand.''
Robbins, who wrote the screenplay with Sarandon in mind, said he is against the death penalty. ``But I have to also admit that I think of it differently in social and in personal terms. If someone harms my family, I'd want revenge. I'd probably want the death penalty for him.
``Therein lies the dilemma of this issue. It's something we never can think about in level-headed ways.''
In the movie, flashbacks to the crime, and to the families torn apart by it, play against the audience's sympathy for the condemned man.
``There is no halfway defense,'' Robbins said. ``If you see this film and you are still against the death penalty, then you're authentically against it. At the same time, you can just as easily use the film to defend the other side. The choice is yours.''
Robbins and Sarandon said making the film together did not strain their personal relationship.
``I made up my mind that I was to be the director on the set and that we wouldn't take the problems home with us,'' he said.
``There were four or five days when I couldn't stand him,'' she said, ``but it was a case of trying to get the character. Being under pressure and having the person you live with also be there is a pain. We took the discussions to our dressing trailer, never out in the open on the set.
``Yes, it is a strain working together on a film, but all creation is a strain. It can't be avoided.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Sean Penn portrays a murderer on death row, and Susan Sarandon plays
a nun who befriends him in ``Dead Man Walking.''
Tim Robbins, right, who wrote and directed the film, confers with
Sarandon and Penn on the set. The movie opens Friday.
by CNB