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- Sep 18, 2008
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This movie sucks. The case itself is interesting, but the film is pure trash.
This tells the true story of Cameron Todd Willingham, a man put on death row for the murder of his 3 kids, but he may be innocent.
This type of movie has been done many times. Sean Penn in Dead man walking. Denzel in the hurricane. Kevin spacey did one that I recall being better than the rest but I can't recall the name.
Anyhoo, the acting is decent, the CGI fire and smoke at the beginning looks terrible and it detracts from the tragedy that's happening.
For some stupid reason the movie focuses on this dumb lady that becomes Todd's pen pal. At first I thought she was a lawyer because the movie didn't make it super clear as to why he would be writing to her unless she could help him with his case.
But then when I looked up the facts later, I find out that she's a playwright, who wrote "eat, pray, love" which they made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.
So she's not a lawyer, she was just some random soccer mom that thought it would add intrigue to her life to start writing letters to a dude on death row.
The movie then of course positions her as the lone person that's fighting for Todd. His actual lawyer is barely shown. But hey, thank God for playwrights! Todd is in good hands, right?
So if you like these type of movies go watch the hurricane or the life of David Gale. Skip this crap where a middle aged rich white lady tries to make some guy's sob story about her.
Also, while there's compelling evidence that he didn't set that fire, there is little evidence to contradict that he was a wife-beating scumbag. And he was at the very least a careless father, using an old crappy space heater in his children's room, then getting drunk until he passes out on the couch, then not running into the fire to save his children. I've never been in that situation, but I'd like to think that me and most fathers would risk getting burned to death if their children were on fire in the next room.
So it's a little hard to muster up the kind of sympathy the movie wants you to have.
This tells the true story of Cameron Todd Willingham, a man put on death row for the murder of his 3 kids, but he may be innocent.
This type of movie has been done many times. Sean Penn in Dead man walking. Denzel in the hurricane. Kevin spacey did one that I recall being better than the rest but I can't recall the name.
Anyhoo, the acting is decent, the CGI fire and smoke at the beginning looks terrible and it detracts from the tragedy that's happening.
For some stupid reason the movie focuses on this dumb lady that becomes Todd's pen pal. At first I thought she was a lawyer because the movie didn't make it super clear as to why he would be writing to her unless she could help him with his case.
But then when I looked up the facts later, I find out that she's a playwright, who wrote "eat, pray, love" which they made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.
So she's not a lawyer, she was just some random soccer mom that thought it would add intrigue to her life to start writing letters to a dude on death row.
The movie then of course positions her as the lone person that's fighting for Todd. His actual lawyer is barely shown. But hey, thank God for playwrights! Todd is in good hands, right?
except, oopsie, they execute him at the end. So she failed. And during the credits they play footage of some Texas politician talking about the death penalty.
So the movie's goal was never to tell a good story, it was to make you feel like an innocent man was put to death. So that in the future, you'd be sure to vote against those evil pro death-penalty people.
Nothing makes a great movie like being politically manipulated, right?
So the movie's goal was never to tell a good story, it was to make you feel like an innocent man was put to death. So that in the future, you'd be sure to vote against those evil pro death-penalty people.
Nothing makes a great movie like being politically manipulated, right?
So if you like these type of movies go watch the hurricane or the life of David Gale. Skip this crap where a middle aged rich white lady tries to make some guy's sob story about her.
Also, while there's compelling evidence that he didn't set that fire, there is little evidence to contradict that he was a wife-beating scumbag. And he was at the very least a careless father, using an old crappy space heater in his children's room, then getting drunk until he passes out on the couch, then not running into the fire to save his children. I've never been in that situation, but I'd like to think that me and most fathers would risk getting burned to death if their children were on fire in the next room.
So it's a little hard to muster up the kind of sympathy the movie wants you to have.