Main Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Rosanna Arquette, Eli Wallach, Christine Lahti, Steven Keats
Release Year: 1982
Country: US
Run Time: 157 minutes
Plot
Tommy Lee Jones won an Emmy for his searing performance as wanton killer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song. The film covers the last nine months of Gilmore's life, beginning with his release from prison in 1976. Linking up with teen-age divorcee Nicole Baker (Rosanna Arquette), Gilmore makes a half-hearted effort to go straight, but ends up embarking on a robbery spree that culminates in two cold-blooded murders. Arrested and sentenced to be executed, Gilmore insists upon being put to death (Utah law required a firing squad for this); he spends his final days as a poster boy for anti-death penalty activists and as a "client" for an entrepreneur (Steven Keats) who wants to make a film of Gilmore's life. Adapted by Norman Mailer from his own book, The Executioner's Song originally aired in two parts on November 28 and 29, 1982. It has since been boiled down to a 97-minute theatrical film for European consumption, with additional scenes of violence and nudity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jay Bernard - Prison Official; Thomas A. Carlin - Speaker #1; John Chappell - Ron Stanger; Pat Corley - Val Conlan; Charles Cyphers - Noall Wootton; Susan French - Bessie Gilmore; Ray Girardin - Snyder; Rance Howard - Lieutenant Nelson; Victoria Jean - Pepper; John Dennis Johnston - Jimmy Poker-Game; Michael Le Clair - Rikki Wood; Kenneth O'Brien - Spencer McGrath; Walter Olkewicz - Pete Galovan; H.E.D. Redford - Norman Fulmer; Oscar Rowland - Judge #1; William Sanderson - Gibbs; Richard Venture - Earl Dorius; Kenneth White - Warden Smith; Jenny Wright - April Baker; Jim Youngs - Sterling Baker; Grace Zabriskie - Kathryne Baker; Jordan Clarke; Robert Boon - Doctor #1; Grant Gottschall - Mikal Gilmore; Russ McGinn - First Patrolman
Credit
Pat Tonnema - Costume Designer, Lawrence Schiller - Director, Michael Economou - Editor, Richard A. Harris - Editor, John Cacavas - Composer (Music Score), Bryan Ryman - Production Designer, Freddie Francis - Cinematographer, Lawrence Schiller - Producer, Jesse Wayne - Stunts Coordinator, Norman Mailer - Screenwriter, Norman Mailer - Book Author
The Executioner's Song was a film adaption of the book published in 1980, entitled The Executioner's Song. The film is directed by Lawrence Schiller.[1] Gary Gilmore is portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones.[2]
The movie is about the final nine months of Gary Gilmore's life. In April 1976, at age 35, Gilmore was released from prison after serving 12 years for robbery in Indiana. He was flown to Utah to live with Brenda Nicole, a distant cousin of his who tried to help him find work. Gilmore soon met and became romantically involved with Nicole Baker, a 19-year-old young widow with two small children. Despite his attempts to go straight, Gilmore's self-destructive behavior led to him getting into fights, stealing items from stores, and being abusive to his new girlfriend. In July, after Nicole broke up with him under pressure by her family to do so, it was apparently the last straw for Gilmore. He went on to kill two men in two separate and senseless robberies. He was soon arrested, tried, and sentenced to death by firing squad. Gilmore then became a media icon when he insisted that his death sentence be carried out. With his death in January 1977, he became the first person to die under the death penalty since the nationwide reinstatement of the policy in 1976.
