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Films with theme "Films about capital punishment", sorted by revenue
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The Chamber (1996)
, 1h53Directed by James Foley
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Lela Rochon, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry
Having survived the hatred and bigotry that was his Klansman grandfather Sam Cayhall's (Hackman) only legacy, young attorney Adam Hall (O'Donnell) seeks to appeal the old man's death sentence for the murder of two Jewish children 30 years ago. Only 28 days before Cayhall is to be executed, Adam meets his grandfather for the first time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary which has held him since his conviction in 1980. The meeting is predictably tense when the educated, young Mr. "Hall" confronts his venom-spewing elder, Mr. "Cayhall" about the murders. The next day, headlines run proclaiming Adam the grandson who has come to the state to save his grandfather, the infamous Ku Klux Klan bomber.
Cat Ballou (1965)
, 1h37Directed by Elliot Silverstein
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Action, Musical, Romance, Western
Themes Musical films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Nat King Cole, Stubby Kaye
Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda), who wants to be a schoolteacher, is returning home by train to Wolf City, Wyoming, to the ranch of her father, Frankie Ballou (John Marley). On the way, she unwittingly helps accused cattle rustler Clay Boone (Michael Callan) elude his captor, Sheriff Maledon (Bruce Cabot), when Boone's Uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman), a drunkard disguised as a preacher, distracts the lawman.
Duel in the Sun (1946)
, 2h9Directed by William Dieterle, Otto Brower, David Selznick, Josef von Sternberg, King Vidor, William Cameron Menzies, Sidney Franklin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Romance, Western
Themes Films about capital punishment
Actors Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish
Pearl Chavez (Jennifer Jones) is orphaned after her father Scott Chavez (Herbert Marshall) kills her mother (Tilly Losch), having caught his wife with a lover (Sidney Blackmer). Before Scott Chavez is executed as a punishment for killing his wife, he arranges for his daughter Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle (Lillian Gish).
Tess (1979)
, 3h6Directed by Roman Polanski
Origin France
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Films about capital punishment
Actors Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, Carolyn Pickles, John Collin, David Markham
The story takes place in Thomas Hardy's Wessex during the Victorian period.
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
, 1h56Directed by Frères Coen
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Noir, Crime
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Richard Jenkins, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Alexi-Malle
In 1949, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is a low-key barber in the town of Santa Rosa, California. He is married to Doris (Frances McDormand), a bookkeeper with a drinking problem, and works in a barber shop that belongs to his brother-in-law Frank (Michael Badalucco). A customer named Creighton Tolliver (Jon Polito) tells Ed that he's a businessman looking for investors to put up $10,000 in a new technology called dry cleaning. Ed decides to get the money by anonymously blackmailing Doris's boss, "Big Dave" Brewster (James Gandolfini), whom he knows to be having an affair with Doris. Dave embezzles money from his department store to pay the blackmail. However, he soon pieces together the scheme and beats Tolliver until he implicates Ed. Dave confronts Ed at the store and attempts to kill him, but Ed stabs Dave fatally with a cigar knife.
House of Sand and Fog (2003)
, 2h6Directed by Vadim Perelman
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about immigration, Prison films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens
Abandoned by her husband, recovering drug addict Kathy Nicolo, living alone in a small house near San Francisco Bay Area, ignores eviction notices erroneously sent to her for nonpayment of county taxes. Assuming the misunderstanding was cleared up months ago, she is surprised when Sheriff's Deputy Lester Burdon arrives to forcibly evict her. Telling Kathy that her home is to be auctioned off, Burdon feels sympathy for her, helps her move out and advises her to seek legal assistance to regain her house.
True Crime (1999)
, 2h7Directed by Clint Eastwood
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Crime
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Denis Leary, James Woods, Francesca Eastwood
Steve Everett (Clint Eastwood), an Oakland journalist recovering from alcoholism, is assigned to cover the execution of convicted murderer Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington) following the death in a car wreck of Everett's colleague, Michelle Ziegler (Mary McCormack), who had originally been assigned to the story.
Shocker (1989)
, 1h49Directed by Wes Craven
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Fantastic, Comedy, Horror comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Themes Prison films, Films about television, Serial killer films, Films about capital punishment, Comedy horror films
Actors Peter Berg, Michael Murphy, Mitch Pileggi, Ted Raimi, Brent Spiner, Richard Brooks
A serial killer, having murdered over 30 people, is on the loose in a Los Angeles suburb. A television repairman with a pronounced limp, named Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), becomes the prime suspect. When the investigating detective, Lt. Don Parker (Michael Murphy), gets too close, Pinker murders Parker's wife, foster daughter, and foster son. However, his other foster son Jonathan (Peter Berg) develops a strange connection to Pinker through his dreams and leads Parker to Pinker's rundown shop. In a shootout in which several officers are killed, Pinker manages to escape. He targets Jonathan's girlfriend Allison (Camille Cooper) in retribution.
, 2hDirected by John Huston
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Action, Western
Themes Films about capital punishment
Actors Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Victoria Principal, Ava Gardner, Tab Hunter
An outlaw, Roy Bean, rides into a West Texas border town called Vinegaroon by himself. The customers in the saloon beat him, rob him, toss a noose around him and let Bean's horse drag him off.
Breakout (1975)
, 1h36Directed by Tom Gries
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Prison films, Transport films, Aviation films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Charles Bronson, Robert Duvall, Jill Ireland, Randy Quaid, John Huston, Roy Jenson
Harris Wagner (Huston) frames Jay Wagner (Duvall). In order to keep him silent, Jay is incarcerated in a Mexican prison.
The Conspirator (2011)
, 2h3Directed by Robert Redford
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Historical, Crime
Themes Politique, Political films, Films about capital punishment
Actors James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston, Justin Long
On April 14, 1865, the Civil War ends with the North's victory. Lawyer, and Union veteran Frederick Aiken, with his friends, William Thomas Hamilton and Nicholas Baker, celebrate. Aiken and his girlfriend Sarah Weston decide to take a walk. Later that same night, Southerner Lewis Payne unsuccessfully attempts to kill Secretary of State William Seward, only seriously wounding him. German immigrant and carriage repair business owner George Atzerodt is assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson but becomes afraid and runs away. Meanwhile, actor John Wilkes Booth, enters Ford's Theatre and sees his target, President Abraham Lincoln. Booth sneaks into the President's box and shoots Lincoln, mortally wounding him. Booth stabs diplomat and military officer Henry Rathbone who was a guest in Lincoln's box, and leaps onto the stage, shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis! The South is avenged!" before escaping. Everyone, including Aiken, Hamilton and Baker, watch in horror with the crowd as the unconscious President is taken to a nearby boarding house where he dies early the next morning.
The Front Page (1974)
, 1h45Directed by Billy Wilder, Carey Loftin, Howard Kazanjian
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Films about writers, Films about journalists, Films about sexuality, Théâtre, Erotic films, Films about prostitution, Films about capital punishment, Films based on plays, Erotic thriller films
Actors Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Charles Durning, David Wayne, Susan Sarandon, Vincent Gardenia
Chicago Examiner reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson (Jack Lemmon) has just quit his job in order to marry Peggy Grant (Susan Sarandon) and start a new career, when convict Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton) escapes from death row just prior to his execution. Earl is an impoverished, bumbling leftist whose only offense is stuffing fortune cookies with messages demanding the release of Sacco and Vanzetti, but the yellow press of Chicago has painted him as a dangerous threat from Moscow. As a result the citizenry are anxious to see him put to death.
In Cold Blood (1967)
, 2h14Directed by Richard Brooks
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Documentary, Historical, Crime
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, James Flavin, Gerald S. O'Loughlin
November 1959. Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and "Dick" Hickock (Scott Wilson) concoct a plan to invade the home of the Clutter family, as Mr. Clutter supposedly keeps a large supply of cash on hand in a safe. While the two criminals feel their plan for the robbery is sound, it quickly unravels, resulting in the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children. The bodies are discovered the next day, and a police investigation is immediately launched. As the investigation builds, the two wanted men continue to elude law enforcement by heading south and crossing into Mexico; but, after a while, they return to the U.S. and decide to travel to Las Vegas to win some money at gambling. There, they are arrested for violating parole, being in possession of a stolen car, and passing bad checks.
Bandolero! (1968)
, 1h46Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Crime, Romance, Western
Themes Films about families, Films about capital punishment
Actors James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch, Don "Red" Barry, George Kennedy, Will Geer
Posing as a hangman, Mace Bishop (James Stewart) arrives in town with the intention of freeing his brother Dee (Dean Martin) from the gallows. Dee and his gang have been arrested for a bank robbery in which Maria Stoner's husband was killed by gang member Babe Jenkins (Clint Ritchie). After freeing his brother, Mace successfully robs the bank on his own after the gang has fled with the posse in pursuit.
Conviction (2010)
, 1h47Directed by Tony Goldwyn
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Biography
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment, Children's films
Actors Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Juliette Lewis, John Pyper-Ferguson, Melissa Leo
The film is based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters, a single mother who works tirelessly to free her wrongfully convicted brother, Kenny. The story unfolds in flashbacks, and the film opens with the scene of the brutal 1980 murder of Katharina Brow in Ayer, Massachusetts. In many ways, Betty Anne's life revolves around her brother, who is now in jail for the murder. Despite Kenny's knack for getting in trouble, they have always been close. After the murder, Kenny is initially brought in for questioning by Sergeant Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo), but released. Two years later, based on new testimony from two witnesses, Kenny is arrested and tried. The evidence presented at Kenny's trial is entirely circumstantial, but he is convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The three main witnesses against him are Taylor, his ex-wife, Brenda (Clea DuVall), and an ex-girlfriend, Roseanna (Juliette Lewis).