On the killing ground

"It's had people change their minds both ways, too," the director points out. "The important thing is for people to think about it. It's one of those things that's not talked about a lot in this country. It's a very secret issue. It happens in the depths of a prison and no one wants to know the specifics. No one wants to know about the families on either side of the issue. If anything, the movie is about violence, both state and personal."

As such, Dead Man is similar to Krzysztof Kieslowski's stark 1988 film A Short Film About Killing, which Robbins says he's eager to see. Both films depict a violent crime and a cold-blooded state execution with equal detachment and shocking detail. For Robbins, who admits he's adamantly opposed to capital punishment, it wouldn't be fair to depict the issue from one side. "Making a film that's slanted is very easy. First of all, you don't cast Sean Penn as the guy on death row. You cast a charming, innocent type and write a few scenes where you show how sensitive he really is."

Maybe an actor like Robbins himself, who played a man falsely convicted of murder in last year's critically acclaimed Shawshank Redemption ?

He laughs. "Thanks for the compliment. I've been typed, it's true. I've been marginalized into a position. I've had many labels put on me that aren't true. I would like to reserve the right to have any opinion on any issue. I admit I am probably more progressive than Newt Gingrich.

"But, for example, where do I stand on gun control? Well, I don't think it's a particularly good idea. I'm not supposed to think that. I'm a progressive liberal, or whatever. But I don't think the government should have better guns than we do. Sorry. If I don't trust them to fill potholes or execute people, I'm not going to trust them with better weaponry than the citizens. That was laid down in the Constitution."

Robbins doesn't own any assault weapons himself, but he does understand the mindset of fear, rage, and revenge that might compel others to do so. "I don't believe in having weapons. I don't think they're safe around children. At the same time I don't think we should limit the rights of citizens to carry weapons.

"The one thing I had to resolve when I wrote this script was how I would feel if a crime happened to my family. The truth is, I would want revenge. I would be violent if anyone ever came close to my family. I think you have to accept that as part of human nature. Not our best or most shining moment, but a true thing. I can understand revenge. The real question is not who deserves to die, but who deserves to kill."

The film's real target audience, Robbins insists, are those kneejerk liberals who decry capital punishment theoretically but would enforce it if it became a personal matter. "I don't believe this going halfway, of opposing in some circumstances. You can say you support the death penalty in really brutal circumstances, but that does absolutely no good. If you leave this film opposed to the death penalty, then you're really anti-death penalty. If you go in anti-death penalty and leave saying, well, now I know why there is a death penalty, you were always for it. You just didn't know it."

All this confrontation with life, death, and playing God took its toll on the domestic tranquility of those involved. Sarandon admits that there were "five or six bumpy moments" in her relationship with Robbins during the grueling shoot. Penn, too, repeated his intention to get out of acting after the rigors of this role.

Robbins laughs at this but acknowledges the intensity of the ordeal. "Sean basically had to spend six weeks getting ready to die and when it came down to it had to die 20 times. I promised him I was going to write him a script called The Happiest Guy in the World. For my next project, though, I'll be acting. In a comedy."

-- Peter Keough