Ty Adams

I saw Deadline at the Black Point Film Festival in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. And while the film is indeed entertaining, I quite disagree with Adam in its "straightforwardness" and "well-roundedness."

I must first make a disclaimer. In a time when criticizing a work of art praising a political movement automatically pigeon-holes you as a radical fanatic of the opposite side of the political aisle, I must say that I have no strong beliefs one way or another about the death penalty. I also do not have a political agenda, just to preempt those who will accuse me of it.

Deadline is an anti-death penalty piece. It is not surprising. Most successful documentaries recently have taken one blatant side or another to an issue. This is interesting because I feel the most valuable and the most rewarding quality of documentaries are that they are in a unique position to investigate a subject objectively, in a two, three, or four-sided way, something we are almost never given in any other source of media. In "Deadline", we are repeatedly shown interviews with defense attorneys, sociologists, civil rights activists, self-victimizing prisoners and journalists who blame prejudiced judges, corrupt and sadistic police officers and conniving prosecutors for what is wrong with the death penalty. Yet we do not hear from a single judge, cop, or prosecutor throughout the entire film to respond to the accusations. In other words, we are given many, many sides to the story, but all of them are how to loathe or reject the current justice system that enforces the death penalty.

I personally detest being told what to think when watching a documentary, or any film for that matter ("Bowling for Columbine", "Life of David Gale"), even if I agree with the stance. Here, I could not get past the preachiness and lecturing of the film.

I would recommend this piece to those who are looking for their stance of opposition to the death penalty be solidified or confirmed, but anyone else who is waffling on the true justice of our criminal justice system should look elsewhere. Where? Hell, I don't know.

Adam

Ty,

Hi there. First of all, I'd like to say that like yourself, I don't really take a stance when it comes to Capital Punishment. I believe, as stated in the review, that there are pros and cons to both sides of the arguement. As far as the stance the film takes, your point is well taken, but I suggested such in the review. You make valid arguements in your piece, but I did feel that even though the film makers have an opinion, they did make it a point to show different angles on the subject in terms of the criminals and victims on display. True, It would have been interesting to see more points of view from members of the justice system etc. Therefore, I suppose calling the film well-rounded was a bit misleading. As for documentaries in general, some are one sided while some are more objective. Bowling For Columbine is clearly one sided, and while I don't necessarily agree with half the crap Michael Moore says in that movie, I still think it's brilliant-because it gets people talking. Love or hate Bowling For Columbine, it's provocative and challenging. Moore just happens to be a film-maker who uses the medium to express his opinion. He wasn't the first director to do this and he certainly won't be the last. He's been accused of manipulating the truth. While that may be the case to a certain extent, I would hope that most people are smart enough to see that. Capturing the Friedman's is the perfect example of a documentary that takes a more objective angle. By the end of that picture I was disturbed, confused and floored. It really is a brilliant movie. As for The Life of David Gale--personally I think that film is just awful. It doesn't succeed in promoting either side of the Death Penalty issue. On the surfance, it's clearly anti-Capital Punishment but the characters that are against the death penalty in that film are portrayed as insane individuals, so it's hard to take their side. This is to say nothing of the fact that the movie fails miserably as a mystery. Hopefully, we're both in agreement that Deadline is a better film.