• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Film
  • DVD
  • Editorial
  • About ScreenFish

ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • News
  • OtherFish
  • Podcast
  • Give

Wendell Pierce

Clemency – A Warden’s Walls

December 28, 2019 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“You want to be whole.”

A couple of hours before viewing Clemency, I took in an excellent photo exhibition focusing on walls. That influenced  how I understood this powerful film. The obvious reason is that the film takes place mostly within a prison, but that is only one of the kinds of walls we encounter.

The film opens as Warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) oversees an execution that goes wrong, causing severe suffering prior to the inmate’s death. She is upset, because she believes a key part of her job is to provide dignity to these unfortunate men in their last hours. She is firmly in control of her prison, and is obviously an able administrator. She treats prisoners humanely. She calls them by name, not by a number. She knows all the people she deals with—prisoners and staff—are first of all human beings.

But as we watch, we see that this is a very heavy burden. She suffers from insomnia, she drinks heavily, she has nightmares, and her relationship with her husband (Wendell Pierce) is quickly falling apart. As she moves on the next upcoming execution, she comes into frequent contact with the condemned prisoner, Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), convicted of killing a police officer. Woods is without family. The only people in his corner are his attorney Marty Lumetta (Richard Schiff), who is ready to retire, being worn out with death row advocacy, and the crowd of anti-death penalty protestors outside the prison. Woods has slim hope that gets thinner when the date is set for his execution.

The Warden must go through the procedures with Woods, so he knows everything that will happen. She must also deal with various other issues. Through it all she does everything exactly according to regulations. Those regulations serve as one of the walls she has built to try to protect herself from the feelings inherent in killing another human being. All around her we see the stress this has on others. There is Lumetta, who can’t stand the thought of doing his job anymore, the prison chaplain who will be retiring, a senior corrections officer who cannot bring himself to take part in another execution, and most deeply her husband, who struggles to keep their relationship healthy. Yet Warden Williams has walled herself inside a façade of regulation and decorum. If a crack were to appear in that wall….

The film has an interesting, and perhaps counterintuitive approach to lighting. The scenes inside the prison are brightly lit, but the scenes outside the prison environment (usually her home or a bar) are dark and dreary, even if she is curled up with her husband. It is as if inside the prison is her safe place, where she is in control, and protected by the emotional walls she has put in place. But once outside the prison walls, her protection is not effective. Being open to the emotions she has walled off puts her into a dark and dangerous world.

As we watch Williams and Woods, we see that they are mirror images. He is confined by the walls and bars of the prison, but dreams (and draws) of freedom. She easily walks through locked gates, but has nightmares of confinement. What they share is a sense of being alone—no one around them knows what it is like to be facing a death sentence, or to be burdened with carrying it out correctly.

For Warden Williams, the walls that confine her—the regulations, the appearance of strength, the emotional stoicism—put her in danger of losing her sense of humanity—the very kind of dignity she seeks to provide the condemned. That encapsulates the power that this film brings to our understanding of capital punishment. (It should be noted that I thoroughly oppose capital punishment, so I saw this film as corroborating my opinion.) This film is not about whether capital punishment does or does not bring justice. Nor does it address questions about wrongful convictions. The way this film looks at the issue is the destructive effect this has on those who are responsible for capital punishment. Although it is Warden Williams who carries the burden in the film, in reality she is a stand-in for the society that continues in this practice. That is, she stands in for all of us. We too have built walls to distance ourselves from having to emotionally confront the morality (or lack thereof) involved in state-sanctioned killing. Do those walls protect us, or do they confine us?

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Aldis Hodge, Alfre Woodard, capital punishment, Prison, Richard Schiff, Wendell Pierce

Jack Ryan: Who Gets to Live?

September 4, 2018 by Heather Johnson Leave a Comment

Before I get going, I need to be honest. First, I’m probably not the most qualified to truly dig into whether or not Amazon’s Jack Ryan strays too far from the original Tom Clancy novels (it’s been years since I read them), or if there will ever be an actor that is as convincing in this role as Harrison Ford was in the 1990’s (I mean, let’s be realistic here). Second, I admit that I first tuned in to see if John Krasinski could successfully transform into anyone other than Jim from The Office. Third, I haven’t watched a series of any kind in years with the exception of the BBC’s Sherlock. So basically, I’m an average person who sat down with a computer and headphones this weekend to see which way this series would fall. But by the second episode, I simply couldn’t have cared less about accuracy or acting or even my lack of standards as I was too busy reeling from the internal battle resulting from a narrative that (in my opinion) flipped the script on typical “us vs them,” war games.

The story starts off with a fairly predictable plot: super smart analyst Jack Ryan (John Krasinksi) identifies a disturbing financial trail, leading to a man he has only identified as Suleiman (played by Ali Suliman), confidently predicting he could be the next Osama bin Laden. He lands the ear of his new boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce), and such begins the relationship that leads them on a manhunt of global import. Krasinski is actually quite charming as he goes about finding his footing as a numbers guy-turned-field agent, and Pierce delivers his bitter yet powerful dialogue with a fair amount of conviction, but the first episode wasn’t really anything spectacular.

But beneath the surface – under the violence and language and questionable nudity – there is a script that is making me reflect just how conflicted I am when it comes to justice…and what exactly that means.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say shows or movies centered on conflict or war have a pretty well-defined line in the sand between us and them…between the good guys and the bad guys. Sure, a couple of those bad guys may have had a sad start and you have moments of sympathy, but the moments are just as fleeting as their seemingly-deserved defeat by the end of it. So what is different about this show? Why was I pacing across the living room floor at midnight with a husband suggesting I “drink some tea,” to calm down? Because I think the line that was always so clear has been erased. And that’s because there shouldn’t be a line.

Because all life is valuable.

I mean no lie, in one scene I was begging the “bad guy” not to do it – to show mercy and put the gun down and not follow the path of death. And not 20 minutes later, I was yelling at the “good guy” to push the button – to take out the slimy, evil jerk who was on the other end of the scope and deserved to be “removed” from the picture. And the hypocrisy of my own words hit me like a ton of bricks.

Evil or not, innocent or not, human life is human life. I have no right to pick and choose who lives and who dies. There is no value system on the “us vs them,” because at our core, we are the same.

“But Heather, that person is evil. If they live, they can kill more people and do more damage.”

I get that. Believe me, I get that. But I’m not sure I think it’s good enough for me anymore. I don’t think I am ever justified in weighing a person’s worth to the point I decide whether they live or die. As someone who claims belief in Jesus Christ, every action I take should be because I long to see everyone as Christ sees them…in such a way that my brother or sister is valued and honored and beloved as they are made in the image of their Creator.

Ultimately, how can I claim that Jesus died for my sins before I was even born but then point at the enemy and say “but He didn’t for you?”

I admit that I don’t have it all figured out and am still working through the implications of this shift, but I’m sharing it because it’s what we do at ScreenFish – we share. We use film and TV and books to explore what it means to live in community with one another and how our faith is influenced by what we watch and how what we watch encourages us to live out our faith. And right now, Jack Ryan is showing me how I need to look at another person and not see their otherness, and not look for my own reflection…but to see someone that Christ has already died for, worthy of life.

Filed Under: Current Events, Reviews, Television Tagged With: Ali Suliman, Harrison Ford, Jack Ryan, John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce

Primary Sidebar

THE SF NEWS

Get a special look, just for you.

sf podcast

Hot Off the Press

  • The Marijuana Conspiracy: Token Rights and Freedoms
  • Quo Vadis, Aida? – Helplessness
  • GIVEAWAY! The Marksman on Blu-Ray!
  • In The Earth: Getting Too Close to Mother Nature
  • Monday – The Price of Hedonism
Find tickets and showtimes on Fandango.

where faith and film are intertwined

film and television carry stories which remind us of the stories God has woven since the beginning of time. come with us on a journey to see where faith and film are intertwined.

Footer

ScreenFish Articles

The Marijuana Conspiracy: Token Rights and Freedoms

Quo Vadis, Aida? – Helplessness

  • About ScreenFish
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 · ScreenFish.net · Built by Aaron Lee