At the Death House Door (2008)
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 12
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 0
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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 0
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
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The one question virtually unanswerable by proponents of the death penalty scarcely needs to be repeated: But what of the situations where an innocent man is accidentally shuttled off to execution? Taking this as a cue, opponents of capital punishment believe that any margin of error, no matter how small, makes the entire enterprise suspect. One person who shares such a conviction is Carroll Pickett, minister to death row inmates at a penitentiary in Texas; for 15 years, Pickett had no
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All Critics (12) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (0)
At the Death House Door is a sobering account of Pickett's gradual evolution from pro-death penalty minister to a man struggling to reconcile his complicated role in those deaths.
Top CriticThe directors of Hoop Dreams and Stevie turn their documentary lens on capital punishment through the experiences of Rev. Carroll Pickett, the chaplain of Texas' Huntsville Prison, where he ministered to 95 condemned inmates in their final hours.
an involving film with fresh perspectives that should ensure appeal on the activist and festival circuits.
makes great sense from a journalist's perspective.
brings to light the personal struggles of a dedicated man who has been facing life and death issues on the front lines
A measured portrait of a pastor who morphed from an advocate of the death penalty to an advocate for a maximum sentence of life without parole.
A documentary that feels even more relevant with the upcoming Supreme Court discussion of lethal injection in June.
Rarely has the unholy alliance between Church and State been so succinctly delineated than in this detail-rich documentation of the near-daily ritual of purging the glorious state of Texas of its 'worst of the worst'.
a powerful rumination on the death penalty, but perhaps because Rev. Pickett isn't a firebrand, the film is curiously disaffecting.
[The directors'] touch is artistic but not pretentious, utilizing music and other cinematic effects sparingly -- just enough to elevate the film from public-television special to high art.
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November 19, 2008:
A Closer Look at Oscar's Documentary ContendersWith awards season just around the corner, it's time to start handicapping the various Oscar races...
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His mission was complicated when Texas started to institute the death penalty with lethal injection, which in one terrifying scene, has protocols that seemed to have been developed on the fly. Pickett's breaking point comes when Carlos De Luna, convicted for robbery and murder, is executed. For Pickett, De Luna is the first executed man whose innocence he completely believes in. In reality, he was probably not the first innocent person executed in Texas and certainly not the last.
While Pickett's story is a powerful one, De Luna's is introduced awkwardly into the larger chronology, thus limiting some of its impact. At the same time, including the Chicago journalists feels a little self-serving. And why are Texas death row inmates writing a Chicago journalist anyway?
In general, none of the participants should beat themselves up over past events as they did everything they could at the time. Plus, any activist has to realize that great change does not happen overnight. Just concentrate on changing one person's mind at a time and move on from that.