Die Matthew Shepard Story

The subject matter of this film was fairly abstract to me until I saw this film. You read the story of the murder and the trial, but somehow you don't get a clear picture of what really happened.

This is a heart breaking film. Some of us tend to judge America by its awful Capital Punishment laws, its brutality, its terrible president and we can forget that there are people working against these horrors. It is people like Stockard Channing and if my eyes didn't deceive me Goldie Hawn (executive producer) who can help make you reconsider what is happening there.

What was on trial in this film was humanity itself and against all the odds humanity won over. Lets hope that George Bush and his reactionary government will accidentally see this film one night when they have something better to do. That's my fantasy and like the film's ultimate hope I'll stick to it.

We live in a visual age and the horrifying thing about Matthew Shepard's demise is that it is far from an isolated incident. I'm in a better position to know more than most because I worked for New York State Crime Victims Board for 23 years. I can give the reader the names of several victims of horrifying incidents that resulted in homicide or serious injury, but these cases were covered locally or at most statewide.

The real hero in The Matthew Shepard Story as far as I'm concerned is some anonymous individual working for a wire service who picked up the local story of a kid being left for dead on a lonely road on a barbed wire fence in the state of Wyoming in a coma. The visual picture of little Matthew all 5'3" of him stretched out like he was crucified gave a nationwide picture for America to ponder the effects of hate crimes against GLBT people. For the first time in our history a case like this got national coverage.

There were rallies in all 50 states calling for GLBT inclusive hate crime legislation. I remember attending one in Buffalo and with me was a friend who actually went to the University of Wyoming some twenty years earlier. He told me that Laramie, Wyoming was not the most gay friendly place in the world, but that he never had any serious problems that put him in fear of his life there.

The Matthew Shepard Story is as much about his parents Dennis and Judy Shepard played here by Sam Waterston and Stockard Channing and there efforts to support their gay son in life and give his death meaning as it is about Matthew who is portrayed by Shane Meier. Matthew was nothing special in life, just your average gay kid, trying to fit into a world that can be real hostile. He had his angst over his sexual orientation, but looked to be adjusting to it.

In my life I've also seen parents who behaved abominably when their kids came out or even when they suspected. The support that Dennis and Judy Shepard gave in life and after can never be overestimated. Sam Waterston has had many a courtroom moment as ADA Jack McCoy, but addressing the court and the perpetrators in the penalty phase of the trial of McKinney and Henderson might just have been his best.

Philip Morris, Wayne Purviance, Julio Rivera, James Zappalorti, Henry Marquez all may have met Matthew Shepard as he went from one plain of existence to another. Any one of them could have gotten the national coverage that Matthew Shepard did, it was fate that got him the national coverage they didn't have. Matthew was a national symbol for them as well as millions of others over time.

And so he tragically remains.

For many reasons, more than a biographic film. In fact, this film propose not a story but few serious fists of questions. About be parent, be gay, to be front to the cruel death of your son and to expect radical form of justice , to see the things more clear, to make your duty and to accept yourself. The story of Matthew Shepard can not be exposed by a film. But the film, in this case for beautiful acting and inspired exploration of case, gives some clues . Not exactly for conclusions or verdict. But for understand something defining the evil inside and near us , the options and inner fights of self acceptance. And, sure, the essence defining the status of parent.

I can only hope that at least a few people who were not familiar with the case saw this thought provoking accurate portayal of a horrendous hateful act and its aftermath. As usual, Sam Watterston and Stockard Channing did an excellent job portraying the grieving parents. Any parent should relate to the turmoil, self-blame and general heart break that Judy and Dennis Shepard went through during that horrible period of time. Also, the agony that Dennis Shepard endured before he finally made his last minute decision about the death penalty was extremely well-done. I hope this movie will pave the way for others like it and and hopefully change the minds of some who might be "on the fence" regarding hate crime legislation.

I watched The Matthew Shepard Story on the same night that The Laramie Project was being shown and I purposely watched it in fits and starts, switching back and forth between the two. The opening minutes of The Matthew Shepard Story were almost more than I could bear.I switched back quickly to the more sanitized version of Matt's torture and brutal murder - where he was an off-screen presence - where the absolute horror of that night was not played out in front of your eyes. It is the real story of that night which proved to be the images which still stay with me one year after the showing of the movie. The film was one that had to be made, where the viewer is allowed into the Shepard family and invited to feel their struggles to understand , to face their grief and their questions which any of us who are parents constantly face - How can we protect our children from the world full of things that can hurt them? How do you find peace in so much terror? The acting is,in my view extremely powerful and vulnerable at the same time, and Shane Meier's portrayal of Matthew tugs at your heart. I would recommend this movie highly and hope that it is available to the public at some point. It opened my heart and further opened my mind. I have not been the same since viewing it.