Clemency
“Clemency”
is an intimate small budgeted American dramatic film written and directed by
Chinonye Chukwu. It stars Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Danielle Brooks,
Michael O'Neill, Richard Gunn, Wendell Pierce and Aldis Hodge. The film had its
world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019. It won the
U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize there, making Chukwu the first black woman to
win the award.
Running
1:55 minutes its plot is essentially and exclusively about two charters. The
first is “Bernadine Williams” (Woodard), a Death Row prison warden whose job
has taken a psychological toll on her, must confront her demons when she has to
execute another inmate. The other character is named “Anthony Woods” (Aldis
Hodge) who is on death row and he has nearly exhausted all of his appeal
options of getting off of death row for his youthful murder of a police
officer.
REVIEW: Alfre
Woodard should have drawn some serious Best Actress Oscar nomination
consideration given the one or two that were actually nominated that I
personally questioned their merit. But that aside, the film on its bookend both
opening and finale and some strong scenes in the middle will literally knock
you back in your seat.
Without
any obvious political agenda for against the death penalty, I believe this film
and its direction masterful captures the belief that killing someone, whether sanctioned
through law enforcement, defending private property, administering state
authorized capital punishment, a soldier in the theaters of war or someone through
their premediated malicious murder actions, the fundamental act of killing anyone
will in fact deteriorate you. And over time that deterioration can lead to degrees
of emotional corrosiveness where was once a person known by all for characteristics
of being whole, happy and hopefulness to now someone on their exterior appearing
to be in their usual realm of normalcy are now inwardly a pile compartmentalized
emotional fragments with no connections to any kind of wholeness anymore.
Woodard
gives a subtly quiet powerful performance by simply letting us see up close her
experiences firsthand of her fragment soul that on one hand is “just doing my
job” and the other hand a devastated spirit of knowing once again with just a
simple nod of her head can cause the death of another human being. And while
the title “Clemency” suggest benevolent notions of human hope and human mercy, ultimately
in the end its just fool’s gold. The reality for all who involved is if you are
on death row you are probably going to die.
Now
on a down note there was one part of “Bernadine’s” life that did not execute on
the screen so well; that being when she went home at the end of the day to be
with her husband. Their interplay did not work for me at all he came across as arrogant,
controlling impulsive, selfish, unsympathetic and grudgingly intolerant to her sudden
emotional withdrawal. Rather his indirect assertion was she was just going through
a phase that she need to snap out. Why? Because of the not so direct inference but
still abundantly clear he’s got sexual needs to be taken care of. Their
relationship was the least effective aspect of the film’s story.
But
where the film does shine is all the time when “Bernadine” is at her prison
warden job dealing with an array of emotional hurdles including the traumatized
families of both the family of the victim and condemned with the same equal
tact and same level of respect as well with her working staff family of prison guards
who repetitively keep rehearsing with her the proper steps to take on the day of
the execution. But as powerful as those moments were the more powerful scene
was midway where she is in the inmate’s cell again “doing her job” reviewing with
him the list of things he needs to know before his execution date. What he wants
for his last meal, who gets his body, who he wants on the execution visitor’s
list and the even more compelling moment of her verbally walking him in direct
shocking details of just how the day of his execution will start. What he will
wear, where they will stick the needles, how the drugs will be administered and
the astonishing details of just how these drugs will affect him from initially putting
him to sleep, to paralyzing him and lastly the final drug stopping his heart. No
matter what positon you have on the death penalty that scene will chill you to
the very fabric of your being.
“Clemency”
looks at prison inmates as more than soulless invisible life forms who should indeed
be properly incarcerated away from us not to ever think about again are still
human beings inspite of their heinous crimes. And again while the film makes no
discernable attempts to moralized or politicalize the subject matter of state
sanctioned executions, it’s clear the message even for those who have strongest
emotional will is that killing deteriorates you, it fragments you, it shrinks’
you, profoundly affects you, it changes you forever.
In
the end cinematically speaking Woodard’s character “Bernadine” was very reminiscent
of another tormented soul I saw in actor - director Clint Eastwood’s emotionally
conflicted western character “William Munny” in the 1992 Best Picture winning film
“Unforgiven”. You will recall “Munny” was on a hill side just outside of a small
town where he is seen talking about just having killed a man with his young inexperience
partner………. “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away
everything he's got and everything he's ever gonna have”.
“Clemency”
makes the powerful case…………….. It’s a hell of a thing killing.
3.50
Stars
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