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Witness To The Execution (1994)
Released By: Trimark   Rating: PG-13   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: Trimark
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Ommy Lee Wallace
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: George Newbern, Sean Young, Tim Daly
Published ID: 5263
UPC: N/A
Plot: Like the feature film Network (1976), this made-for-television drama scathingly satirizes an amoral, avaricious media. The story is set in 1999, a time the pay-per-view television industry is in a tailspin. It seems with over 500 available channels, audiences have become jaded with movies and sports. Enter up-and-coming executive Jessica Traynor (Sean Young) a member of the Tycom network team. It is her brilliant idea that her company can attract new customers by offering them a chance to witness a real execution on live television. Once her company approves and she untangles all the government red-tape, Jessica is left with the task of choosing an appropriately photogenic and charismatic death-row inmate. Trouble brews when Jessica begins suspecting that the man she selected may be innocent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
will you pay to watch the guilty pay for their crimes?
Added 9/8/2001

This TVM about the evil lords of pay-for-view TV hooks into the bread and circuses level of entertainment, but taking us where Jerry Springer is yet to go - live coverage of the execution of death row criminals. That the company who forms an agreement with politicians is called Tycom may be a reference to Viacom, with Sean Young as the head of programming, Len Cariou as her boss, and Timothy Daly as the convicted killer chosen for his appeal to women, who we are told control the remote in American households. Although Daly's Sean Penn Dead Man Walking bouffant gives him a sociopathic suggestion, to Young he is a pussycat, which leads her to believe that he is innocent, so director Tommy Lee Wallace gives us a race against the "countdown to justice". The teleplay by Thomas Baum hasn't decided what we ultimately should believe about Daly. It has Young leaning towards his innocence which would make her want to pull the program, but the case it offers in his defense is hardly believable and represented by Dee Wallace Stone in a I'm making the most of my few scenes performance. This therefore works against Young's character, who has been previously established as cynical and savvy, and Wallace skimps on any romance between Young and Daly. Looking very beautiful, Young gives some surprising line readings, and provides a memorable howl. Wallace cuts between the film and video stock so that the TV coverage is striking, there is an amusing scene of an on-the-scene reporter being jostled by the crowd who she reports have been denied access to the event, and the climactic execution set reminded me of something from Triumph of the Will via Network, with the Big Brother/Big Business implications chillingly realised.
4 out of 7 people found this helpful.
will you pay to watch the guilty pay for their crimes?
Added 9/8/2001

This TVM about the evil lords of pay-for-view TV hooks into the bread and circuses level of entertainment, but taking us where Jerry Springer is yet to go - live coverage of the execution of death row criminals. That the company who forms an agreement with politicians is called Tycom may be a reference to Viacom, with Sean Young as the head of programming, Len Cariou as her boss, and Timothy Daly as the convicted killer chosen for his appeal to women, who we are told control the remote in American households. Although Daly's Sean Penn Dead Man Walking bouffant gives him a sociopathic suggestion, to Young he is a pussycat, which leads her to believe that he is innocent, so director Tommy Lee Wallace gives us a race against the "countdown to justice". The teleplay by Thomas Baum hasn't decided what we ultimately should believe about Daly. It has Young leaning towards his innocence which would make her want to pull the program, but the case it offers in his defense is hardly believable and represented by Dee Wallace Stone in a I'm making the most of my few scenes performance. This therefore works against Young's character, who has been previously established as cynical and savvy, and Wallace skimps on any romance between Young and Daly. Looking very beautiful, Young gives some surprising line readings, and provides a memorable howl. Wallace cuts between the film and video stock so that the TV coverage is striking, there is an amusing scene of an on-the-scene reporter being jostled by the crowd who she reports have been denied access to the event, and the climactic execution set reminded me of something from Triumph of the Will via Network, with the Big Brother/Big Business implications chillingly realised.
4 out of 7 people found this helpful.
will you pay to watch the guilty pay for their crimes?
Added 9/8/2001

This TVM about the evil lords of pay-for-view TV hooks into the bread and circuses level of entertainment, but taking us where Jerry Springer is yet to go - live coverage of the execution of death row criminals. That the company who forms an agreement with politicians is called Tycom may be a reference to Viacom, with Sean Young as the head of programming, Len Cariou as her boss, and Timothy Daly as the convicted killer chosen for his appeal to women, who we are told control the remote in American households. Although Daly's Sean Penn Dead Man Walking bouffant gives him a sociopathic suggestion, to Young he is a pussycat, which leads her to believe that he is innocent, so director Tommy Lee Wallace gives us a race against the "countdown to justice". The teleplay by Thomas Baum hasn't decided what we ultimately should believe about Daly. It has Young leaning towards his innocence which would make her want to pull the program, but the case it offers in his defense is hardly believable and represented by Dee Wallace Stone in a I'm making the most of my few scenes performance. This therefore works against Young's character, who has been previously established as cynical and savvy, and Wallace skimps on any romance between Young and Daly. Looking very beautiful, Young gives some surprising line readings, and provides a memorable howl. Wallace cuts between the film and video stock so that the TV coverage is striking, there is an amusing scene of an on-the-scene reporter being jostled by the crowd who she reports have been denied access to the event, and the climactic execution set reminded me of something from Triumph of the Will via Network, with the Big Brother/Big Business implications chillingly realised.
4 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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