Dead Man Walking (Newmarket Shooting Script) [Paperback]

Tim Robbins (Author), Helen Prejean (Author)

Book Description

Series: Newmarket Shooting Script | Publication Date: June 11, 1999

A Catholic nun shares her unique perspective on the death penalty gained through her counseling of death-row inmates, her shock at the brutality of their crimes, and her sympathy for their pain. Reprint. Movie tie-in. 15,000 first printing. NYT.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Dead Man Walking is intellectually bold, harrowing, human and relevant--providing solid food for thought and debate. -- Rex Reed, New York Observer

Guts, pure and simple. An unashamedly passionate drama. -- New York Times

Robbins' intelligent screenplay and straight forward direction touch both the heart and the mind. -- LA Reader

This film enobles the craft and art of filmmaking. -- Roger Ebert

Tim Robbins jolts us out of apathy and acceptance and forces us to think. -- Entertainment Review

Tim Robbins's smart and evenhanded screenplay is a mesmerizing 'anatomy of an execution.' Never didactic, Robbins makes us see the agonies for all concerned and encounters the horrors this process puts on all. -- Hollywood Reporter

About the Author

Tim Robbins has starred in many movies including: Bull Durham, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Shawshank Redemption, The Player, and Bob Roberts, which he wrote and directed.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Newmarket Press; First Trade Paper Edition edition (June 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557043000
• ISBN-13: 978-1557043009
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Look Inside the Creative Process, May 30, 2000

By 

C. Manson (Destin, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Man Walking (Newmarket Shooting Script) (Paperback)

The script of Tim Robbins' outstanding film includes footnotes that detail some of inner workings of filmmaking: why some scenes don't work, why some scenes are cut, etc. If you love the movie, certainly one of the best of the 1990's, check this one out, and seek out Sister Helen's original "Dead Man Walking" which inspired the movie.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT FOR THE FILM STUDENT FOR INTELLIGENT SCRIPTS< AND FOR THE CATHOLIC MORAL THEOLOGIAN FOR TRUE CATHOLIC DOGMA, October 22, 2008

By 

C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Dead Man Walking (Newmarket Shooting Script) (Paperback)

This is one of the best scripts to study for a film student

This is the best filmscript to study for Roman Catholic moral theology.

Please see as well:
The Culture of Life & the Penalty of Death
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United States

But read this script
learn to write
learn to live
learn to fight for the right for others to live
learn to get pro-life

Pope Benedict XVI's Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace declared one year ago the Death Penalty Homicide and a sin.

Read this film script.
Work for life.

from the script, excerpts from Hilton speaking in VO (voice over) starting at page 47

Ladies and gentlemen imagine this scenario: Man takes another man, puts him in a locked room, says to him: You're gonna die. I ain't gonna tell you when, could be tomorrow, could be in a week, but you're gonna die. Man Stays in that room, terrified, his life on a wire.

(page 48)

Hilton (VO)
Six years pass. Man comes into the room, says, you're gonna die in a week. Plead your case. In any court in the land this would be considered torture, cruel and unusual mental torture. This man that kept the other in the room would be considered a psycho, a madman. This man is the State, ladies and gentlemen.

(several compelling passages later go to page 50)
Hilton (VO)
This man is locked away for the rest of his days at Angola Prison. He's not getting out. We can protect society without imitating the very violence we seek to eliminate. Let us have dignity. Please, let us not be complicit in the butchery of another human life.


Pope John Paul II said the same when he said in modern society there is no imaginable reason, no just reason, no moral reason, for the death penalty.

I met Sister Prejean in person in Los Alamos August 2nd. She is so much more real than Susan Sarandon's portrayal, hard as nails and joyful as all daylight.

Read this filmscript.
Learn to write them.
Learn to fight for nonviolence.
Take the vow.
Disarming the Heart: Toward a Vow of Nonviolence

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well presented but too emotional, May 7, 2004

By 

Anna Rueppel (Göttingen, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Man Walking (Newmarket Shooting Script) (Paperback)

Tim Robbins presents both points of view. On the one hand he makes us feel sorry for the victims and their families but on the other hand he makes us feel sorry for the murderer himself Matt Poncelet. There is too little action but too much religious stuff in the book. But still it is a very well written book since it makes people think about the death penalty and if there is any sense for
killing a murderer. The course of the story was very realistic so you can identify with the characters.