DEATH ROW MOVIES
Movies that tells stories about and discusses the use of the ultimate penalty of death in our court systems.
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- DirectorCharles OliverStarsMinnie DriverJeremy RennerBobby ColemanThe lives of two strangers - a struggling mother and a gambling addict - who meet in tragedy. Years pass and they must come to terms with themselves and one another.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTom HanksMichael Clarke DuncanDavid MorseA tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
- DirectorTim RobbinsStarsSusan SarandonSean PennRobert ProskyA nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim's families.
- DirectorCyrus NowrastehStarsShohreh AghdashlooJim CaviezelMozhan NavabiA story told by Zahra to a French journalist of her niece Soraya Manutchehri, a 35-year-old married woman, who received capital punishment and stoned to death because of false accusations in the remote village of Kuhpayeh, Iran, in 1986.
- DirectorHarold BeckerStarsJohn SavageJames WoodsFranklyn SealesAn LA police officer is murdered in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. However, legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers from receiving justice, and his partner is haunted by overwhelming survivor's guilt.
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanClifton Collins Jr.Catherine KeenerIn 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
- DirectorDouglas McGrathStarsToby JonesDaniel CraigSandra BullockWhile researching his novel "In Cold Blood", Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.
- DirectorDestin Daniel CrettonStarsMichael B. JordanJamie FoxxBrie LarsonWorld-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson works to free a wrongly condemned death row prisoner.
- DirectorEdward ZwickStarsJack O'ConnellLaura DernEmily MeadeThe tragic and controversial story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was sentenced to death in Texas for killing his three children even after scientific evidence and expert testimony bolstered his claims of innocence.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyPat O'BrienHumphrey BogartA priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsKevin SpaceyKate WinsletLaura LinneyA man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.
- DirectorChinonye ChukwuStarsAlfre WoodardRichard SchiffAldis HodgeAs she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsSusan HaywardSimon OaklandVirginia VincentA prostitute, sentenced to death for murder, pleads her innocence.
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsBjörkCatherine DeneuveDavid MorseAn Eastern European US immigrant with a love for musicals has to cope with the gradual loss of her vision.
- DirectorRobert MarkowitzStarsMichael TuckerJuliette LewisBrad PittAn abused 15-year-old is charged with a murder that carries the death penalty.
- DirectorPaul HamannStarsBobby ButlerDonald CabanaMelanie ChristopherFourteen Days in May is a documentary film directed by Paul Hamann and originally shown on television by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1987. The programme recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder and imprisoned in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Johnson protested his innocence and claimed that his confession had been made under duress. He was executed in Mississippi's gas chamber on 20 May 1987.
- DirectorPatty JenkinsStarsCharlize TheronChristina RicciBruce DernBased on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.
- DirectorJoel CoenStarsBilly Bob ThorntonFrances McDormandMichael BadaluccoA laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsBilly Bob ThorntonHalle BerryTaylor SimpsonAfter a family tragedy, a racist prison guard re-examines his attitudes while falling in love with the African-American wife of the last prisoner he executed.
- DirectorMike NewellStarsMiranda RichardsonRupert EverettIan HolmA stormy relationship, complicated by the strictures of 1950s social class and gender roles, ends in death. Based on the life of Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeJack ConwayGeorge CukorStarsClark GableWilliam PowellMyrna LoyThe friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
- DirectorBrian James EgenStarsBradley M. EgenJody ChansuolmeAaron Jackson"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a psychological thriller that takes many emotional turns and finally catches the audience off guard as it ends with an unsettling, macabre twist.
- DirectorLawrence SchillerStarsTommy Lee JonesChristine LahtiRosanna ArquetteThe story of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who lobbied for his own execution.
- DirectorNicholas HytnerStarsDaniel Day-LewisWinona RyderPaul ScofieldA Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKirk DouglasRalph MeekerAdolphe MenjouAfter a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
- DirectorLamont JohnsonStarsMartin SheenMariclare CostelloNed BeattyThe story of Eddie Slovik, who was executed by the Army in 1945, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War.
- DirectorJerry LondonStarsJulie ChristieHugo WeavingJohn PolsonOn 9th of November 1983 two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Geoff Chambers were arrested at Penang Airport in Malaysia carrying 179 grams of heroin, a crime which in Malaysia carries a mandatory sentence of death. Dadah Is Death (A Long Way From Home) is the true story of Barbara Barlow's desperate attempt to save her son from the hangman's rope - a courageous effort that involved impassioned pleas to President Reagan, The British Prime Minister, and even the Pope. By July 1986 this international struggle had seemed to reach a hopeless conclusion and all that was left was a mother's love for her son.
- DirectorF. Gary GrayStarsGerard ButlerJamie FoxxLeslie BibbA frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free.
- DirectorPeter MedakStarsTom CourtenayChristopher EcclestonEileen AtkinsThis drama reveals the controversial postwar 1950's London murder trial that sent an intellectually challenged young man to the gallows for a murder he did not commit.
- DirectorArne GlimcherStarsSean ConneryLaurence FishburneKate CapshawA Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child.
- DirectorMarc RothemundStarsJulia JentschFabian HinrichsAlexander HeldA dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
- DirectorBruce BeresfordStarsSharon StoneRob MorrowRandy QuaidA lawyer assigned to the clemency case of a woman on death row finds himself forming a deep friendship with her while he tries to prevent her impending execution.
- DirectorTed PostStarsClint EastwoodInger StevensPat HingleWhen an innocent man barely survives a lynching, he returns as a lawman determined to bring the vigilantes to justice.
- DirectorJoseph RubenStarsVince VaughnAnne HecheJoaquin PhoenixTwo friends must choose whether to help a third friend who was arrested in Malaysia for drug possession.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodIsaiah WashingtonLisaGay HamiltonCan an over-the-hill journalist uncover the evidence that can prove a death row inmate's innocence just hours before his execution?
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsRobert BlakeScott WilsonJohn ForsytheTwo ex-cons murder a family in a robbery attempt, before going on the run from the authorities. The police try to piece together the details of the murder in an attempt to track down the killers.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsDana AndrewsJoan FontaineSidney BlackmerA novelist aided by his future father-in-law conspires to frame himself for the murder of a burlesque dancer as part of an effort to ban capital punishment.
- DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsMatthew McConaugheySandra BullockSamuel L. JacksonIn Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorAdrian ShergoldStarsTimothy SpallJuliet StevensonEddie MarsanThe life and times of Albert Pierrepoint - Britain's most prolific hangman.
- DirectorFred F. SearsStarsWilliam CampbellR. Wright CampbellMarian CarrWhit, condemned and awaiting execution, reviews the events of his life that has brought him to Cell 2455 on San Quentin's Death Row, a story he had told in a autobiography that became a sensational best-seller. As a boy, the young Whit stole groceries to help feed his impoverished family, later moving on into major crime to impress a young gang moll, Jo-Anne, and turns into a cold-blooded thug when he is repudiated by the girl he loves, Doll. And by his own lawyer when he is arrested and tried as the infamous Lover's Lane Bandit. In cell 2455, he studies law to the point where he wins stay after stay, twice within minutes of his scheduled execution.
- DirectorJames FoleyStarsChris O'DonnellGene HackmanFaye DunawayA young man fresh out of law school tries to win a reprieve for his racist grandfather who is on death row.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsLeslie BrooksGeorge MacreadyForrest TuckerA crusading reporter plans his own arrest and conviction for first degree murder, trying to show that the death sentence should be outlawed when based on circumstantial evidence alone, but his plan goes awry.
- DirectorBob BalabanStarsBrian DennehyDanny GloverDelroy LindoSix people tell their stories on a single subject - how they got wrongfully convicted to death penalty, but later got exonerated.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogRichard LopezMichael PerryConversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsHenry FondaDana AndrewsMary Beth HughesWhen a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRay MillandGrace KellyRobert CummingsA former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsMiroslaw BakaKrzysztof GlobiszJan TesarzA soon-to-be lawyer crosses his path with a taxi driver and a young sinister man.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsKei SatôDo-yun YuFumio WatanabeA Korean man is sentenced to death by hanging, but he survives the execution. For the following two hours, his executioners try to work out how to handle the situation in this black farce.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaLee J. CobbMartin BalsamThe jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsJack LemmonGeorge C. ScottHume CronynTwelve men must decide the fate of one when one juror objects to the jury's decision.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracyBurt LancasterRichard WidmarkIn 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
- DirectorJon AmielStarsRichard GereJodie FosterLanny FlahertyA farmer returns home from the Civil War, but his wife begins to suspect that the man is an impostor.
- DirectorRob ZombieStarsSheri Moon ZombieBill MoseleySid HaigAfter barely surviving prison, the demented Firefly clan go on the run, unleashing a whole new wave of murder, madness and mayhem.
- DirectorJoe BerlingerStarsLily CollinsZac EfronAngela SarafyanA chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy from the perspective of Liz, his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsAugust DiehlValerie PachnerMaria SimonThe Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II.
- CreatorTom FontanaStarsErnie HudsonJ.K. SimmonsLee TergesenA series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its criminal inhabitants.
- DirectorJames MangoldStarsJohn CusackRay LiottaAmanda PeetStranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonWalter MatthauSusan SarandonA ruthless editor tries to get his top reporter to cover one more crime story before retirement.
- DirectorAndrew DavisStarsHarrison FordTommy Lee JonesSela WardDr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
- DirectorDan AykroydStarsChevy ChaseDan AykroydJohn CandyA businessman and his friends are captured by a sadistic judge and his equally odd family in a bizarre mansion in the backwoods.
- DirectorLee DanielsStarsMatthew McConaugheyNicole KidmanJohn CusackA reporter returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate.
- CreatorJoe BerlingerStarsStephen MichaudBob KeppelKathleen McChesneyA look inside the mind of serial killer Ted Bundy, featuring interviews with him on death row.
- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsJavier BardemBelén RuedaLola DueñasThe factual story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who fought a 28-year campaign in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die.
- DirectorAva DuVernayStarsMelina AbdullahMichelle AlexanderCory BookerAn in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreJohnny FancelliChristina FancelliTo learn what the USA can learn from other nations, Michael Moore playfully "invades" them to see what they have to offer.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogRichard LopezMichael PerryConversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.
- DirectorMoisés KaufmanStarsChristina RicciSteve BuscemiKathleen ChalfantThe true story of an American town in the wake of the murder of Matthew Shepard.
- DirectorDavid MametStarsVal KilmerDerek LukeWilliam H. MacyThe investigation into a kidnapping of the daughter of a high-ranking US government official.
- StarsSwaylee LoughnaneReece Alexander-PutinasDavid GaleaFollows incarcerated killers, who tell the story of how they ended up there.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsGérard DepardieuWojciech PszoniakAnne AlvaroIn 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.
- CreatorRamón CamposGema R. NeiraDiego SoteloStarsMiguel Ángel SilvestreMarisé ÁlvarezRamón AgirreJanuary 27, 1994. The bodies of a man and two 25-year-old models are found riddled with bullet holes in the house of a nightclub owner. The police find a camera set up in the living room of the victim, which has filmed the murder. This footage is the main clue of the police - This is the reason why they decide to share the most valuable thing in it: the blurred face of one of the attackers. Three weeks later, at a police station in another district, an officer thinks he recognizes one of the killers: Pablo Ibar, a Spaniard who has been recently arrested with a couple of friends for a petty theft. Pablo swears he is innocent. None of the evidence found at the crime scene points to him...But it does not matter. Pablo is sentenced and sent to death row. This is the story of a man fighting to prove his innocence. The story of a family that never gave up.
- DirectorDavid SingtonStarsHerbert A. FuchsSammy SilverwatchNick YarrisA convicted murderer who has spent 23 years on Death Row tells his story.
- DirectorChad FerrinStarsBill Oberst Jr.Roddy PiperNoah HathawayThe line between good and evil becomes blurred as a death row inmate fights to maintain his sanity and escape the clutches of a deranged Warden and his sadistic guards. Based on the comic book mini-series from Alterna Comics.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsDana AndrewsJoan FontaineSidney BlackmerA novelist aided by his future father-in-law conspires to frame himself for the murder of a burlesque dancer as part of an effort to ban capital punishment.
- DirectorLuis García BerlangaStarsNino ManfrediEmma PenellaJosé IsbertAn undertaker marries an old executioner's daughter and must continue his father-in-law's profession after his retirement, although he doesn't like it.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsRobert CummingsRichard BasehartRichard HartRobespierrre, a powerful figure in the French revolution, is desperately looking for his black book, a death list of those marked for the guillotine.
- DirectorBille AugustStarsConnie NielsenAidan QuinnKelly PrestonWhile fighting for a woman who sits on death row, a lawyer happens upon new information which brings into question the motives of a man associated with her client.
- DirectorTonino ValeriiStarsJames CoburnBud SpencerTelly SavalasBranded a coward for surrendering his New Mexico fort to the Confederates without firing a shot, a Union colonel attempts to redeem himself by leading a band of condemned prisoners on a suicide mission to recapture it.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsIsabelle HuppertFrançois CluzetMarie TrintignantA housewife in Nazi-occupied France struggles to make ends meet when her husband returns home after being wounded in the war.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsMichael RedgraveAnn ToddLeo McKernThe day before a young man is to be executed for killing his girlfriend, his alcoholic father shows up to try to prove his innocence.
- DirectorPaul ShapiroStarsBilly CampbellBarbara HersheySuki KaiserWhile working at a Seattle clinic for women in the 1970s, aspiring crime writer, Ann Rule, unwittingly becomes friends with serial killer Ted Bundy.
- DirectorNick BroomfieldJoan ChurchillStarsAileen WuornosNick BroomfieldTerry Humphreys-SlayNick Broomfield's second documentary about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, focusing on her mental state on death row.
- DirectorNick GrindeStarsBoris KarloffLorna GrayRobert WilcoxWhen Dr. Savaard's experiment in cryonics is interrupted by the short-sighted authorities, his volunteer dies, and he is condemned to death. He vows vengeance if he can survive his own hanging.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsDon CheadleCicely TysonMekhi PhiferIn the 1940s South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing of a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince the schoolteacher to go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity.
- DirectorJunfeng BooStarsFirdaus RahmanWan Hanafi SuMastura AhmadInevitably, a transfer to a maximum security prison will eventually challenge the integrity and ethics of a young correctional officer on his way to become a chief executioner.
- DirectorPatrice LeconteStarsJuliette BinocheDaniel AuteuilEmir KusturicaIn a small French colony, a drunken man kills someone. While a guillotine is being shipped in, he changes, becoming a good and popular man.
- DirectorKiefer SutherlandStarsForest WhitakerKiefer SutherlandClancy BrownA killer on death row finds an unlikely friend in a prison guard.
- DirectorHamid RahmanianStarsHosein YariZabi AfsharHoda NassehSince the Islamic Revolution in Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender's life. Day Break - based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison - revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour's execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
- DirectorTom WallerStarsVithaya PansringarmDavid AsavanondPenpak SirikulThe story of Thailand's last prison executioner.
- DirectorHugo FregoneseStarsEdward G. RobinsonJean ParkerPeter GravesGangster Vincent Canelli and bank robber Peter Manning escape from Death Row minutes before their execution by electric chair.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsMaureen O'SullivanHenry FondaRalph BellamyTwo innocent men are wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The fiancée of one of them convinces a police detective of their innocence, and together they try to find the real killer before the men's execution date.
- DirectorMillard KaufmanStarsBen GazzaraStuart WhitmanRay WalstonAfter his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, John Resko (Ben Gazzara) is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora Prison where, with the help of a humane prison guard, he becomes a rehabilitated man and a successful painter.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsTeresa WrightMacdonald CareyDolores MoranLawyer defends migrant worker falsely accused of two murders.
- DirectorTony BillStarsSissy SpacekDavid StrathairnArliss HowardRussell Gates is a Vietnam vet on death row for killing a policeman. His childhood sweetheart, Pam O'Brien, is stunned to learn this and does not believe he could commit such a crime. She writes to him much to the dismay of her husband Keith and becomes obsessed with the case, exploring every avenue that may still be open to the doomed man. The trips to the prison take a toll on both her marriage and her family.
- DirectorAlex ChappleStarsKathleen RobertsonVictor GarberBrenda FrickerThe 1946/1947 murder trial of young and beautiful Evelyn Dick remains the most lurid murder case in Canadian history. After children find only the torso of her missing husband, John, Evelyn is arrested for his murder. The head and limbs had been sawed from his body and evidence that they had been burned in the furnace of her home (she and her adolescent daughter shared with her parents) later surfaced. (There is some weird twist involving her parents and a supposed baby boy that she gave up for adoption some 3 years prior to the murder.) After she was sentenced to hang, lawyer J.J. Robinette appealed her case, and won an eventual acquittal. But, when police are tipped-off by her father, the decayed remains of Evelyn's baby boy encased in cement under the floor boards of her home are found. Although she is acquitted of the murder of her husband, she is sentenced to 11 years in prison for the murder of her infant son. No one was ever convicted of the murder of John Dick. Evelyn was released from prison in 1958. After her release, her whereabouts were never known or at least never reported or published.
- DirectorLiz GarbusWilbert RideauJonathan StackStarsBernard AddisonBurl CainGeorge CrawfordDocumentary depicting day to day life in Angola Prison mostly from an inmate's perspective. Interviews are with several inmates including one with a life sentence who is about to die.
- DirectorHelen GibsonStarsKaren KellyKenneth JezekAnn AultBased on a true story that rocked the world. An emotional journey that takes a former drug-crazed prostitute and convicted pickax killer from the depths of despair to personal triumph on Texas death row.
- DirectorNeema BarnetteStarsMare WinninghamTyra FerrellKevin TigheA lawyer fights a losing battle against the courts to overturn the death sentence for a convicted female robber/murderer despite demands from the woman that her death sentence be carried out.
- DirectorRichard PearceStarsDanny GloverRubén BladesTom AtkinsA psychiatrist is sent to evaluate a convicted multiple murderer whose behavior has become unstable and deranged while on death row for eight years, causing a problem for the courts to carry out execution.