Fourteen days in May
BBC (1988)
Fourteen days in May is a stark and honest portrayal of the last fourteen days of the life of Edward Earl Johnson, a death row inmate.
I've heard a lot of words spoken about this documentary and how touching it is.
Whilst this is true, the initial impression is of clear and bland honesty about the reality of prison life.
The crew walk around the prison and endless sequences of doorways and corridors and the banality of everyday life is shown.
Nonetheless, the quiet simple humanity of Edward Earl Johnson shines through like a beacon.
All the prisoners, the guards and the film crew warm to him due to his likeable personality, his easygoing personality and his likeable nature.
It becomes increasingly clear also that he is an innocent man. It also becomes increasingly clear that his ongoing pleas for clemency will not be heeded.
Clive Stafford Smith ends the film with the immortal line:
"I have had the pleasure of spending the last three hours with Edward Earl Johnson.
I was asked by the family why he died, and my only response was: 'It's a sick world. It's a sick world'."
What is also clear is how all the characters in the story are human. The prison warder is doing his job, and is far from a bloodthirsty revenge filled state authority figure out for retribution against a murder, but rather a technocrat following orders.
If the film has a broader message it is that following orders is by far the most moral course of action.
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