Film: The Importance Of Faith In Sister Helen

It seems like faith has a big important part in many characters view of the death penalty. For Sister Helen, she is a Catholic nun who from what it seems, prefers the new testament or abides more towards the new testament. Even though the prison Priest is still a Priest mentions the old testament and his view seem different than those of Sister Helen. In the beginning of the film I did not see a lot of faith being presented directly. Sister Helen slowly introduced Jesus to Matthew. And in the middle and toward the end is when faith is directly shown. I think an important aspect of how culture and faith are shown that is very popular to our society was when the politician commented about having to put his own views aside and do what the majority

From what I recall it slightly mentions the parents. But in the movie, it seems to show how greatly the parents are affected by Matthew Poncelet. The lawyer in the movie talks about how these parents will never be able to see their kids graduate, get married, and have grandchildren. In my opinion, if the movie were to heavily rely on being against the death penalty I do not think they would have showed these scenes in which the viewer has sympathy for the families. I think it would have focused a lot more on humanizing Matthew and having Matthew’s family share stories about him. Instead, the film did a very good job at showing both sides. They showed the graphic scenes of the crime that Matthew committed as well as sharing those gruesome details. But, they also showed how Matthew was a very scared human being at the end. He was crying and admitted he was scared then finally confessed to his crime. I think the film did an amazing job at presenting both sides and allowing the viewer to decide their own opinion whether they are against or for the death penalty. I think the film is showing Catholicism due to there being Nuns and Priests. But I think it is interesting how the film shows that despite being under one religion name such as Catholics, every individual has their own personal opinions of how they should show it. For example, the Prison Priest mentions how Sister Helen isn’t wearing her habit. Then how the Priest and Sister Helen have different opinions on the death penalty even though they are both