‘American Hangman’ Insider Movie Review
An exploration of legality and morality that never goes deep enough
American Hangman is meant to be a mediation on the American justice system, an exploration of crime, guilt, and the death penalty.
Writer and direct Wilson Conybeare is undoubtedly serious about his subject, it is most convincing when it features stars Donald Sutherland and Vincent Kartheiser front-and-centre. Where it falters is when it strays away from them and its nature as a two-hander.
Conybeare sets up what seems like standard thriller fair — a vengeful killer kidnaps two men and brings them to a generically dark basement. There is no secret made of the fact that much of this is inspired by the Saw movies.
What seems to be another standard storyline, however, takes a turn when one of the captives (Ron, played by Paul Braunstein) is killed, and the focus turns to the remaining victim and the unknown kidnapper.
Sutherland plays the retired Judge Straight, put on mock trial by Kartheiser’s Henry Cole. A camera set-up live-streams the captivity and trial to the Internet at large, meant to be the judge’s jury and condemners.
Straight’s crime?
Finding the wrong man guilty for the murder of a 14-year old girl, who was then sentenced to — and received — the death penalty.
Breaking it all down
I’ll be completely honest …
American Hangman’s failing is in the fact that it never explores its subject matter enough. Its commentary on the death penalty and that the innocent often find themselves on death row is not a new one. Nor is Henry’s greater manifesto — of an unjust legal system that more often than not comes down to a search for scapegoats, and its inherent immorality.
Conybeare’s arguments, however, fail to go further. Had he brought in an analysis of the other intersections of an unjust system of crime and punishment — race, class, or any number of other options — this could have been overcome.
Then there’s the trial by social media.
It’s an interesting twist, but again, Conybeare never goes deep enough to critique it. It is an impossible element to forget — the movie periodically flashes to the bar-going public that is voting on the judge’s fate. At the same time, never mentioned in enough depth to serve as a critique of social media in the way that the script seems to want to.
“You cannot ask the law to be perfect. The most you can ask the law for is a result. Sometimes any result. Any result you can work with.” — Judge Straight
Sutherland is what makes the movie. Though Conybeare speaks through the mouth of Kartheiser’s Henry, it is the soft-spoken judge who reels in the audience.
In Sutherland’s hands, Judge Straight goes from a character that ran the risk of being another stock protagonist into a full-bodied, complex one. His conversations with Henry are the sparkling triumph of the film — he is intelligent and sincere, and yet the audience is left with no doubt that he is willing to say anything to justify his choices and decisions.
Where Henry seems to be spouting death penalty discourse that can be found in any college campus, Straight comes across as the voice of reason, no matter what position the audience held before entering the movie theatre. In making it seems as though it is Henry who has the clearer view of society, a good portion of the impact is lost.
Essential Movie Details
By the way… did you know?
- This is Wilson Conybeare’s second movie as director, following 2009’s children’s film Gooby.
- Sutherland’s career in the film industry has spanned nearly seven decades — his first movie credit was in 1964’s Castle of the Living Dead.
- Vincent Kartheiser has been nominated for six Screen Actors Guild Awards for his role as Pete in Mad Men. All six nominations were alongside the rest of the show’s cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, two of which resulted in victories.
- Al Sapienza, who plays Detective Steptoe, is best known for his role as Mikey Palmice in The Sopranos.
In The End
American Hangman’s greatest crime is in straying from the two-hander format.
The scenes between Kartheiser and Sutherland are undoubtedly compelling. Conybeare cannot, however, refrain from intermittently focusing on the other players in this game — the nameless people watching Henry’s live stream, the hacker, TV anchor, and police working to simultaneously find the source of the video and solve Straight’s misjudged case.
In doing so, he ends up displaying the shallowness of the movie’s assessment of the morality of the death penalty. More time with the protagonists could have made for a fuller examination of the topic, but as it stands, it seems that when Conybeare feels out of sorts, he chooses to leave the basement.
As it stands, American Hangman feels like an unfinished project. An interesting and watchable one, certainly, but unfinished nonetheless. You might prefer to watch a movie like An Affair To Die For or Awake.
Where to Watch
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Ashley Mills grew up in Nevada and graduated with a degree in government from UNLV. After working at Final Cut Magazine as an editorial assistant, she became a freelance writer in California, where she eventually began to write about movies for the Arts & Leisure section of major publications.
In 2015 she became the movie critic at the a popular Northeastern newspaper, where she stayed for nearly two years before moving to Delaware to be the movie critic at a local newspaper. She left in 2019 and began working at Homestream. She writes entertainment pieces on movies, television shows and popular culture.
You can connect with Ashley on Homestream’s Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or by visiting our website.
