The Matthew Shepard Story

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.

I found this to be a very touching and moving movie with wonderful performances by all, however, I felt it would have been much better without all the grainy and artistic camera shots, and that the movie would have been more effective if told from the beginning to the end rather than jumping forward, back, forward, and showing so many flashbacks. It was beautiful and brave to show the kiss between Matthew and his friend, but they could have explored that relationship a bit more so that we could feel a little more like we knew something of Matthew's life. Overall, I think it was a very sad and scary tale of what hate and discrimination and prejudice can do to everyone when they get out of control. I seriously hope everyone will learn from the tragic tale of Matthew Sheppard's life and this movie.

The Matthew Shepard Story was a great tribute to his life, and what happened to him when and after he died. You will have to see it to make your own opinions, but my opinion is it was undoubtfully great! So many things remind me of my own life, which make it even better. I do recommend this movie to young/old, gay/straight, man/woman, just everyone!

Essentially, this should be looked upon as a sort of companion piece to "The Laramie Project" - which also came out in the same year and dealt with the Mathew Shepard murder. The other movie adopted a documentary- style approach as it deals with the impact of the murder of Mathew Shepard on the town of Laramie, Wyoming, while this one offered a dramatization of the events. "The Mathew Shepard Story" does offer a fairly graphic and hard to watch portrayal right off the top of Mathew's murder (made even more graphic by the fact that some of it was shot in slow motion.) The movie then switches back and forth in two directions. We watch Mathew's parents (played very well by Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston) as they deal with their son's death, and particularly how they deal with an upcoming victim impact statement that has to be made and as they wrestle with whether or not to demand the death penalty for Mathew's murderer. Waterston especially was impressive as he portrayed Mathew's father making the victim impact statement. The emotion he offered up seemed both real and raw and was very moving to watch. We also watch snippets of Mathew's life, his struggles to come to terms with being gay, some of the hardships he had to deal with because he was gay, and finally how he was lured into the trap his killers set for him. Shane Meier did a great job with the role of Mathew.

I was a little bit surprised to discover that this was a Canadian movie, and it was a good one, which seemed to offer a fitting portrayal of Mathew's life.

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.