Clemência

Alfre Woodard gives an award worthy performance in this stark and depressing movie about capital punishment.

I know there are arguments for and against capital punishment, and I'm not entirely sure where I land on the subject, though I'm much more against than for. I do know that every time I actually see or read something about what's involved to actually put someone to death, it leaves me almost nauseated. "Clemency" opens with the execution by lethal injection of a death row prisoner, and it's incredibly disturbing to watch. To know that there's a whole system and process that exists for the sole purpose of ending the life of another human being just feels wrong, no matter what arguments there may be on the other side. This film obviously thinks so too, and doesn't even attempt to address any other point of view.

It's an awfully uneven movie. The scenes set in the prison that show Woodard's warden character battling with the inhumanity her role asks of her are very good. But the domestic scenes that detail her troubled relationship with her husband and a long scene involving two other characters (a man condemned to death, played by Aldis Hodge, and the mother of his child) veer off into clunky melodrama.

A good but not great film, most worth watching for Woodard's performance.

Grade: B+

What turned out to be a promising start, sadly the ending wasn't that satisfying to me. Nevertheless, exceptional performance by the cast, mainly by Aldis Hodge, Alfre Woodard and Alex Castillo. This film literally brought tears to my eyes.

My Review- Clemency My Score 6.5/10

I watched this film only to see the performance of Alfre Woodard who stars as Bernadine Williams. Alfre has just received a Best Actress nomination from the British Academy Film Awards for a very difficult and dramatic role. I have one question was her nomination a race balance decision or was it at the expense of Carey Mulligan in " Promising Young Woman" ? I have my view but admit Alfre Woodward does give a fine performance but I've seen finer this year. The movie Clemency written and directed by Chinoye Chukwa who was inspired to write the film after the widely protested execution of Troy Davis in Georgia in 2011. Her six years of research included running a film programme for inmates in Ohio and advocating for retrials in unsafe cases. It's inconceivable to me as I find the concept of human execution horrific that ten years after Chinoye Chukwa started the project that the Donald Trump in the lead up to leaving The White House could approve 6 executions in one month before the Biden inauguration. This movie is tough to watch especially the beginning snd I think that's why I didn't get any hope from the story or any empathy with the main character Bernadine the Head Warden on Death Row where she "has just being doing her job" after years of carrying out death row executions that now have taken a toll on the emotional life of Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate Anthony Woods played so well by Aldis Hodge. Another good performance also from Richard Schiff as Marty Lumetta who's advocating for clemency for his client Anthony . Another film on the same subject "Mercy" 2019 is far superior to "Clemency " it starred Michael B Jordan and was totally ignored by BAFTA and OSCAR and we all know it's not always the best film or performances that get the accolades. Due to the film's heavy subject matter and sometimes depressing tone, director Chinonye Chukwu made sure to keep the tone on set happy and light, and checked in on actors between takes. I can understand why because Clemency is heavy and depressing in contrast to "Mercy" a true story that did have some very dramatic and hard to watch scenes but left the audience uplifted and hopeful of change . It's very encouraging to read that Civil rights groups are pushing Joe Biden to fulfill promise of ending the death penalty.

"Clemency" is a magnificent film and I would not be surprised to see its star, Alfre Woodard was really, really good in the lead and I would expect to see her nominated for an Oscar for her performance. So why in the heck does the film currently have an overall score of 5.8?! What is the reason for this, as the movie is exceptionally well made. Perhaps people are voting against it for reasons other than the quality of the picture....that's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Woodard plays Warden Williams, a by the book woman who runs a prison where they perform executions. In both cases in the film, the lethal injection is done VERY realistically...so much so that it's a bit difficult to watch. But this is the reason....because the film is not just about the death penalty but how it impacts on the people who perform them. You see the Warden falling apart from the experiences, but you also see how the Chaplin and guards and the Deputy Warden are impacted as well. So, instead of just being an anti-capital punishment film, it's far, far deeper....making the story a difficult but rewarding experience.

Overall, a quality film in nearly every way and the reason I gave it a 9 instead of a 10 was one scene--where the overuse of the handycam (the 'unsteady cam') in one nauseating scene where the roving camera was unwelcome and didn't fit in with the rest of the otherwise well-filmed picture.

Judging from the relatively few votes it appears that not many have seen this movie. It is done very well but moves along quite deliberately. It is a fictional story inspired by real people and real events. It is mainly a character study of the warden, a woman, who for some years has been regularly required to preside over the execution of death row inmates after their appeals have run out. She has gotten very clinical about it, in one scene she is questioning the next one scheduled in a couple of days, asking if anyone wants to bury him, or what the prison will do "with the body" almost as if she were talking to someone other than the inmate.

This is an indication of how the psychology of her job has affected her, hardened her, and devolving into a seemingly inability to connect romantically with her husband, a professor. When he suggests they might retire and get different jobs, the change might do them good, she retorts that hers isn't just a job, it is her profession.

The movie also addresses the character of the condemned inmate, 15 years after a crime. What he is going through as his lawyer tries to gain clemency for him, at the same time trying to prepare himself for the execution if it comes to that.

This is a good movie of a difficult story, I am glad that I watched it, at home on DVD from my public library.