The Exonerated

I knew before this film that the justice system in the U.S. is far from perfect. and having watched it only reinforced that in my mind. As far as I know, everything that is said in the film is from a transcript of some kind. They are actual words, not inventions of a filmmaker with an agenda. While the filmmaker probably does have an agenda, that doesn't make the ideas and content of the film any less valid.

For me, this film could stand as the entire argument against the death penalty. Punishments are supposed to be about justice. Justice is not a system where six innocent people can be sentenced to die because of purposeful deceit or accidental human error. In reality there have been many more people exonerated from death row, but that doesn't make the argument any stronger. It should only take one death of an innocent to convince any rational person that this punishment is not morally sound.

The truth is tough, the truth must be faced, and the truth is what THE EXONERATED is all about. A project started by writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen in 2000 when, in response to a lecture on capital punishment, the couple was moved by the telephone voice of one of the many innocent people on death row who had been falsely convicted of murders they did not in truth commit. This lead to a commitment on the part of Blank and Jensen to interview six such imprisoned people who had spent years of their lives on Death Row only to be eventually exonerated and released. The result of this research was a play that not only was on Broadway but also traveled the country. Now director Bob Balaban has transformed this play into one of the most searingly powerful dramas about our penal system that has ever been produced.

Each of the six condemned people on death row is portrayed by a gifted actor and the script is taken 100% from interviews and testimony and court records of these exonerated victims. They each tell their story of the incident that resulted in their wrongful arrest and conviction, their experience while confined to Death Row, their thoughts of living in threat of execution, and their manner of dealing with the world once released. These different people are portrayed by Brian Dennehy, Delroy Lindo, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Aidan Quinn, and David Brown, Jr. Adding some significant reenacted dialogue from spouses and police and jury are such fine actors as Lee Turgesen, Bobby Cannavale, Laurence Luckinbill with a host of others in minor roles.

At the end of the film each of these actors who have been creating the characters are faded into the actual exonerated victims who speak directly to us about their response. The overwhelming message is one against capital punishment, racism, against railroading innocent people into the prison system without the fairness of well-guided appeals, against all the flaws that besiege our penal system. The effect is shattering and staggering. This is NOT a docudrama, but a sensitively written, produced, directed and acted film. It is a film that every citizen of the world should see. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

I'm appalled that anyone would be offended by this movie. It's simply a movie that discusses one topic of the death penalty: INNOCENCE. Regardless of whether or not you are pro or anti death penalty you should be against innocent people being sent to death row and worse to their deaths. I'm in law school and have studied the death penalty in depth. The system in America is flawed and this movie makes that point perfectly. I don't see how anyone can be offended by the truth unless the truth is something you don't want to hear. If you want your eyes opened to some of the major problems with the death penalty, then this movie is right for you. It simply tells the truth about what affect the death penalty can have on innocent people wrongly accused and convicted.

Intelligent, mostly well acted filming of the stage play, as 6 people exonerated from death row tell their true stories, mostly as monologues, against a black background.

A powerful argument against the death penalty, it feels a bit stuck between embracing it's theatricality of approach, and trying to work as a more cinematic piece both in the way its shot, the occasional awkward 'flashbacks' and in the 'size' of the performances, which range from understated and small to quite theatrical and presentational.

But whatever questions one might have about the stylistic choices, there's no question that these are powerful, important true stories in that every rarer thing, a dramatized American film that head on addresses an issue with passion and intelligence.

Six riveting stories that are mesmerizing in the simplicity of the presentation and the power of the language. Innocent people--minorities and the poor, always--aren't always treated fairly by our justice system. Jesse Tafero, husband of Sunny Jacobs (played by Susan Sarandon in the film) was executed even though the evidence shows someone else committed the murder he was executed for. If it's liberal to want justice for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for counsel, then, yes, this is a liberal film. I would also recommend "Dead Man Walking" and the neglected "Last Dance" for fictional films based on true cases. "The Exonerated" is actually a very moving, very well presented film that should make you angry as hell.