The Executioner's Song

Lawrence Schiller, 1982 (8.7*)

Tommy Lee Jones made himself a star (and won an Emmy for lead actor) when he played convicted murderer Gary Gilmore in this lengthy tv-film that examines his crimes, his past, his incarceration on death row, and his legal fight to have Utah carry out his execution.

Using only facts from this well-publicized case, and based on Norman Mailer's Pulitzer prize winning book, this is as close to documentary as a dramatic re-enactment can get. It even contains the negotiations with Gilmore with rights to the book and this very film that resulted. Roseanna Arquette also became a star for her portrayal of Gilmore's girlfriend. Together, the two young actors make Gilmore's story an engrossing and human one, though admittedly, I found his homicides to be too baffling to comprehend. The cast also includes Christine Lahti and Eli Wallach.

Together with Dead Man Walking, and In Cold Blood, these make a definitive film trilogy on the subject of capital punishment, and each is based on a true murder case.

[Note: only 600+ people have rated this at IMDB! Mailer's book won a Pulitzer, and the film was up for five Emmys; Arquette and Mailer were also nominated - it's only wins were for Tommy Lee Jones as actor and for sound]