Beyond the Call Reviews

This made-for-cable film is an excellent example of the kind of issue-oriented script that deserves to be made even if it isn't the kind of thing on which the Hollywood studios could make any money. In 1989, Connecticut housewife Pam O'Brien (Sissy Spacek) learns that her high school sweetheart Russell (David Strathairn) is on death row in a South Carolina prison. Despite the disapproval of her husband, Keith (Arliss Howard), Pam agrees to the request of Russell's sister that she go to South Carolina and attempt to persuade Russell to speak in his own defense at his clemency hearing. Pam finds Russell quite different from the gentle boy she once knew. Although resigned to his fate, he agrees to appear at his clemency hearing if she will come back to lend her support. From a friend of Russell's, Pam learns that he has suffered from post-traumatic shock syndrome after serving in combat in Vietnam. Russell confirms this by telling her a few of the horrifying things he saw as a soldier, things he was afraid to talk about when he returned home. Russell's appeal is turned down, despite mitigating circumstances surrounding his killing of a South Carolina policeman. Pam's visits to Russell upset Keith, who also served in Vietnam but feels he has been able to put it behind him. Pam persuades Keith to come to South Carolina with her, where Russell asks to talk to him. He discovers that Keith also has a guilty memory of the war that troubles him, and Russell advises him to tell Pam about it and let it go. Keith and Pam return home, and Russell dies in the electric chair. One of four films released in the same year dealing with a condemned prisoner waiting to be executed (along with DEAD MAN WALKING, LAST DANCE, and THE CHAMBER), BEYOND THE CALL differs from the others. It is less a story of personal salvation than an exploration of a larger societal issue. And while none of these films overtly questions the justice of the death penalty, BEYOND THE CALL makes the best unspoken argument against it by showing how easily it can be misused by local courts and politicians too enamored of public opinion. Even though the central issue here is the lingering effects of Vietnam on the people who went there, BEYOND THE CALL is still a death row story and as such offers a terrific part for Strathairn. Nearly as good is Howard, although his big breakdown scene where he reveals his own war trauma is damaged because it is pulled from his character too quickly. Spacek's role, is mostly reactive, calling for her to do little except look lovingly at whomever she's speaking to. (Violence, profanity.)