Movie Essay

Krystof Nolls

English 101

Mrs. Harden

11/13/15

“ We spend our whole life trying to stop death. Eating, inventing, loving, praying, fighting, killing. But what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back.” Death is quite literally the last thing we do, it's something we will all encounter at some point. There are many different ways people choose to embrace the inevitability of it. Some choose to ignore deaths ever present existences, while other people obsess over it doing everything in their power to avoid it. Regardless of how people act comprehending their own death, it will come, for some sooner than later. The Life of David Gale and Dead Man Walking have similarities and differences.

David Gale, an avid anti-death penalty activist is sentenced to death after he was convicted of killing his friend. He use to be a well respected professor until he was accused of raping a student of his, even though the charges were dropped the damage had been done. David requests reporter Bitsey Bloom to have an interview with, in Bitsey's mind david is one hundred percent guilty. But after a mysterious tape shows and she starts to question whether or not David truly is guilty.

Matthew Poncelet is a convicted murderer of a young couple and is sentenced to death. He is befriended by a nun who becomes his spiritual guider and she desperately tries to help Matt save his soul. Sister Helen is faced with many challenges and obstacles, from trying to save his soul, to trying to help the families of the ones Matt killed. She feels truly conflicted and doesn't know what to do at times, with Matt's clock ticking ever closer to his inevitable death.

Both Bitsey and Sister Helen accomplished their goal of redeeming the inmates. For Bitsey it was redeeming his image after death, he was no longer looked at as the man that killed his colleague, but an innocent man put to death by a flawed system. Sister Helen on the other hand redeemed Matt's soul, he had accepted what he had done and with Sister Helen's help was able to find peace in the afterlife.

Bitsey cared a great deal about David, how ever for her it was always about the story, at the end of the day she wanted to get the best, most riveting story she could. Were as Sister Helen’s life was changed by this, she desperately needed to save Matt's soul not just for Matt, but for herself too. The connection Bitsey had with matt was always about how she could get the best story, everything was about her job. For Helen she had a deep connection with Matt resulting in a much greater impact on her.

Matt and David were obviously both male, this is important because males have different personality traits than women. Men are supposed to be stronger and humble when it comes to death, they are perceived to take it differently