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Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store. The search for that perfect movie is often tricky. Sometimes you have to deal with a fuming partner and/or a melting tub of ice-cream in the car. The pressure is compounded by a listless, unhelpful store clerk in some cases. This column aims to be that clerk for NetFlix Instant Watch – maybe just a little less listless and little more helpful. This is what I waded through recently – at NetFlix.

Went Looking For…

Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.

Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking’(DMW) is one of those movies that I have caught on and off on television. Invariably, it has always been the early scenes filled with Matthew Poncelet’s (Sean Penn) arrogance and Sister Helen Prejean’s (Susan Sarandon) exasperation. Once I caught the finishing stages of the movie and noticed the difference in attitude in Poncelet, I finally got an opportunity to figure out the reason behind this change.





Poncelet is a convicted murderer on Death Row. He reaches out to the church through letters and finds a sympathizer in Sister Prejean. The focus of the movie is firmly on Sister Prejean who is exposed to a variety of conflicting emotions very quickly. She has to first come to terms with criminal consoling – offering spiritual comfort to a convicted felon. She also has to deal with the family of the victims as she finds herself in the line of fire, so to speak, of their anger towards the criminal. Through all these she has to answer questions of faith from everyone involved, including her own. The fact that she stays true to her belief amidst the human chaos makes her a hero to everyone yet no one. It is a wonderfully written part whose essence is captured by Susan Sarandon, culminating in an Academy Award for her.

DMW reminds me of another movie - Edward Norton’s 25th hour. The two movies involve a convicted felon coming to terms with his mortality as days, hours and then minutes count down towards impending punishment. Sean Penn, getting into the skin of a Louisiana reprobate, finds solace in a nun in the dying hours of his life. Norton’s character has the hope of surviving the jail sentence. They share a common manmade dread.

This continues to be Tim Robbins’ finest work as director. His selection of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s sufi vocals towards the end of the movie comes as a surprise but fits the somber mood of the situation. At the box office, movies of this caliber often reap rich dividends. DMW is no exception with revenues more than three times its production budget of $11 million.

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