Faces of Death

I recently watched the 1978 film "Faces of Death", and mostly it wasn't too bad. A few autopsies a couple of people getting mauled by animals, some traffic accidents where people had been mowed down by semi tractors. None of these were nearly as bad as the inmates.

The first of the 2 men that were to recieve capital punishment, had killed his step sister when he was 13. I know what you're thinking, How can anyone give a damn at all about a murderer? Normally I would be thinking that as well.

He was to be punished by being put in the gas chamber. Which is kind of a pussy way to die anyway, but they show the man walking from his cell to the chamber. The way there, even for me viewing, seemed to take forever. The man was sweating and his eyes were darting around like crazy. He looked like a curious little boy, possibly no older than he actually was when he committed his crime.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for him as I watched the two guards strap him in to the final destination of his life. Then, the guards sealed the door and started the gas. The whole time the camera was on the man in the chamber. For the first several seconds he attempted to hold his breath, but of course as we all know, it is inevitable to suck in that big breath of air. In this case it was cyanide gas.

After about 60 seconds of hacking and heaving the man was still. At this point I was completely satisfied that he probably got what he deserved, regardless of my feeling pity for him before. Then they showed the next man...

At first I was content with hating this man. He appeared to show no remorse, and the narrator even commented on how when he was asked why he did what he did he just smiled. Some may think that this man committed the worse of the two. He beat, raped and murdered a women because she wouldn't give him her purse.

While being walked to his ultimate doom, the narrator mentioned that during that walk to man told him that he did not infact WANT to die. Of course, no one does WANT to die, but why did he murder the women? At any rate, it doesn't matter. He is taking is long walk down the short mile.

When the man was presented in front of the electric chair, his over all beat completely changed. This was when I started to pity him. His knees went weak, his whole body was shaking from obvious fear. In that moment he knew that he had done a terrible evil and he was about to pay for it in the worst way.

He was strapped in. The guards taped cotton gauze to his eyes, which the narrator said was so they didn't pop out of his head. Everyone cleared out, and the switch was flipped. For the next 60 seconds the man was fed 2,000 volts of electricity. When time was up a Doctor was sent in to check on the man.

He was not dead. The Doctor left the area and the electricity was started up again. This time the man's mouth was foaming and his whole body was convulsing. The end of it was signified by a large amount of blood seeping from where his eyes were covered. At this point I realized that was the worst thing I had seen on the whole movie.

Up until that moment I had always said that those that ended up "Riding the Lightning" were getting what they deserved. I am now under the impression that there is nothing in the world that any person could ever do that could justify a seat in the chair. I would rather see a man hung up in a noose, or gagged by cyanide gas or given a lethal injection.

I'll end this now by saying that since they obviously still use the chair in some places, they should show that video to troubled children. If that doesn't stop them from killing or raping or whatever their crime may be, I don't think anything can save them.