Tag Archives: capital punishment

In Cold Blood

IMDB Rating: 8.20
6242 votes

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 Storyline
Truman Capote wrote the 'non-fiction novel' from which the film is drawn, using the novelist's craft to render reality. The reality was that at two a.m. on November 15, 1959 in the rural town of Holcomb, Kansas, the four members of the Clutter family were roused from their sleep, bound and gagged, and then brutally murdered by two unknown assailants. After the latters' capture, sentencing and imprisonment prior to execution, Capote researched the case thoroughly, spent weeks talking with the prisoners, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, jurors, police, friends and neighbors, trying to unearth why such a senseless act was committed, and what society's response might have been.
Actors
Richard 'Dick' HickockScott Wilson
Perry SmithRobert Blake
Alvin DeweyJohn Forsythe
Also posted in 1967, Crime, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (1)

My Cousin Vinny

IMDB Rating: 7.20
18546 votes

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 Storyline
While heading for college, Bill and Stan are arrested in Alabama when circumstances point to them as having murdered a convenience store clerk. Unable to afford an attorney, they turn to Bill's cousin Vinny, a brash New Yorker who took six tries to pass his bar exam. Worse, until now he's only taken personal injury cases, none of which have gone to trial. Dragging along his even more abrasive fiancee Mona Lisa Vito, Vinny will have to straighten up fast, and keep out of jail himself, if he's going to win the case.
Actors
Vincent 'Vinny' GambiniJoe Pesci
William 'Billy' GambiniRalph Macchio
Mona Lisa VitoMarisa Tomei
Also posted in 1992, Comedy, Crime, High IMDB rating | Comments (0)

Papillon

IMDB Rating: 7.90
15240 votes

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 Storyline
Based on the true story of Henri Charriere, also known as Papillon, which is French for 'butterfly' (the character even sports a large tattoo of a butterfly. A petty criminal, Papillon is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in a French penal colony in 'Guiane' (French Guiana, South America). Papillon is determined to escape but attempt after attempt meets with difficulty, resulting in eventual recapture. He continues his attempts to escape despite incarcerations in solitary confinement as punishment.
Actors
Henri 'Papillon' CharriereSteve McQueen
Louis DegaDustin Hoffman
Indian chiefVictor Jory
Also posted in 1973, Adventure, Biography, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (0)

The Green Mile

IMDB Rating: 8.20
115551 votes

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 Storyline
Death Row guards at a penitentiary, in the 1930's, have a moral dilemma with their job when they discover one of their prisoners, a convicted murderer, has a special gift.
Actors
Paul EdgecombTom Hanks
Brutus "Brutal" HowellDavid Morse
Jan EdgecombBonnie Hunt
Also posted in 1999, Crime, Drama, Fantasy, High IMDB rating, Mystery | Comments (36)

Infamous

IMDB Rating: 7.30
3020 votes

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 Storyline
On November 16, 1959, Truman Capote reads about the murder of a Kansas family. There are no suspects. With Harper Lee, he visits the town: he wants to write about their response. First he must get locals to talk, then, after arrests, he must gain access to the prisoners. One talks constantly; the other, Perry Smith, says little. Capote is implacable, wanting the story, believing this book will establish a new form of reportage: he must figure out what Perry wants. Their relationship becomes something more than writer and character: Perry killed in cold blood, the state will execute him in cold blood; does Capote get his story through cold calculation, or is there a price for him to pay?
Actors
Truman CapoteToby Jones
Babe PaleySigourney Weaver
Kitty DeanGwyneth Paltrow
Also posted in 2006, Biography, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (0)

Monster

IMDB Rating: 7.40
21689 votes

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 Storyline
A dark tale based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first female serial killers. Wuornos had a difficult and cruel childhood plagued by abuse and drug use in Michigan. She became a prostitute by the age of thirteen, the same year she became pregnant. She eventually moved to Florida where she began earning a living as a highway prostitute—servicing the desires of semi-truck drivers. The tale focuses on the nine month period between 1989 and 1990, during which Wuornos had a lesbian relationship with a woman named Selby. And during that very same time, she also began murdering her clientele in order to get money without using sex. This turned the tables on a rather common phenomena of female highway prostitutes being the victims of serial killers—instead Wuornos, herself, carried out the deeds of a cold-blooded killer.
Actors
AileenCharlize Theron
SelbyChristina Ricci
ThomasBruce Dern
Also posted in 2003, Biography, Crime, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance, Thriller | Comments (0)

The Life of David Gale

IMDB Rating: 7.20
19408 votes

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 Storyline
Dr. David Gale, an advocate of eliminating the death penalty, is falsely accused of rape and murder. Once convicted, he ends up on death row in Texas himself, telling his story to a reporter through a series of flashbacks.
Actors
Bitsey BloomKate Winslet
Barbara KreusterCleo King
Reporter A.J. RobertsConstance Jones
Also posted in 2003, Crime, Drama, High IMDB rating, Thriller | Comments (2)

The Weight of Water

IMDB Rating: 6.00
2851 votes

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 Storyline
A newspaper photographer, Jean, researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873 as an editorial tie-in with a brutal modern double murder. She discovers a cache of papers that appear to give an account of the murders by an eyewitness. The plot weaves between the narrative of the eyewitness and Jean's private struggle with jealousies and suspicions as her marriage teeters.
Actors
Louis WagnerCiarán Hinds
Mr. PlaistedRichard Donat
Maren HontvedtSarah Polley
Also posted in 2000, Thriller | Comments (0)

Return to Paradise

IMDB Rating: 6.70
3606 votes

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 Storyline
Lewis, Sheriff and Tony are three American guys who meet and hang out one summer at the beach huts of Malaysia. There they enjoy the luxuries of women, rum and hashish. As the summer ends, Tony and Sheriff go back to New York, but Lewis decides to go to Borneo to help save the orangutan. But before he got the chance to leave, he was arrested for possession of the leftover hash and sentenced to death because he was considered to be trafficking. Two years go by and Sheriff and Tony are living their lives peacefully in The Big Apple when Lewis' lawyer tells them the news: three years each if they both go, six years if one goes, Lewis' death if neither go. Although they both do not want Lewis to die, they do not know him well enough to really want to sacrifice three years of their life to a Third-World prison. "Return to Paradise" watches Sheriff and Tony as they struggle to decide in the short period of time.
Actors
John 'Sheriff' VolgecherevVince Vaughn
Beth EasternAnne Heche
Lewis McBrideJoaquin Phoenix
Also posted in 1998, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance, Thriller | Comments (0)