The Metropolitan Opera presents: Dead Man Walking

Director: Tim Robbins

1995 / 122min / 35mm

On the occasion of the premiere of the Met Opera’s haunting new production of the American composer Jack Heggie’s masterpiece Dead Man Walking by Ivo van Hove, Metrograph presents another work also inspired by the 1993 best-selling memoir by Sister Helen Prejean that sparked a national debate over the question of capital punishment: Tim Robbins’s 1995 filmic adaptation of the same name. Susan Sarandon won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Robbins’s wrenching death row drama, for her portrayal of Sister Helen, a Roman Catholic nun who becomes spiritual advisor to convicted murderer and rapist Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn). “Demonstrates how a movie can confront a grave and controversial issue in our society and see it fairly, from all sides, not take any shortcuts, and move the audience to a great emotional experience without unfair manipulation.”—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Post-screening discussion with civil rights activist and best-selling author Sister Helen Prejean and filmmaker Tim Robbins on September 24th at 3:15pm