"The Executioner's Song" from 1982 was a TV movie, and on Netflix, I believe they send out the director's cut. It has lots of Roseanna Arquette's breasts and other body parts.Based on the book by Norman Mailer (who also wrote the screenplay), this is the story of Gary Gilmore, who became famous by demanding that the state of Utah go ahead with his execution. It was the first execution in the US since the 1960s and the first since 1972 when the Supreme Court ruled that death sentences prior to that date were unconstitutional, which is why the Manson group was not executed.Gilmore, who requested to face a firing squad, became kind of a cause celebre. As a hero of some sort, I suppose he fits in well with today's idea of a celebrity. He was basically a loser who always chose the easy way out. When he was released on parole for robbery, he had the help and support of his cousin (Christine Lahti) and his uncle (Eli Wallach), but he was unable to hold down a job and became obsessed with a 19-year-old (Arquette) with two children.He then returned to the robbery business and for no good reason shot and killed two people after he robbed them.I believe this was a TV movie in two parts, so what I saw was shortened. As a result, to make way for Arquette's body, there was quite a bit cut, making it jerky.My main problem was getting any sympathy going for Gilmore or Arquette. Tommy Lee Jones did a terrific job, but even though Gary's family loved him and just hated the things he did, I as an audience member didn't share their feelings. As far as I'm concerned, he wanted to die because he didn't want to stay in prison. He robbed so he could pay for a truck and didn't have to work. Same old story - the easy way out.This story was described as "tragic." The tragedy is that the Arquette character had two children. She was a whack job who tried to commit suicide so that she and Gary could continue their affair in heaven. It said at the end of the movie that she moved and started over. I hope for the sake of her kids that she made it. I have no doubt with her figure she met somebody. Let's hope it wasn't another loser.

In the summer of 1976, my husband was a 25 year old full-time student at Brigham Young University, and we were renting a tiny house in Orem, Utah. Orem was generally a quiet town, where one could lie in bed on a summer night, with windows wide open, and hear only the noise of a few crickets chirping and dogs barking, and the occasional buzz of a car driven by someone who was working a night shift.In the middle of the night of 19 July, I awoke to the sounds of sirens...lots of them. I knew there must have been some very significant event, for there to be multiple sirens blaring, and wondered if it might possibly have been a house fire. I didn't find out what those sirens we all about until two days later, when a neighbor commented that there had been another murder the night before. That was when I learned that the sirens I had heard were because of a murder at a gas station just a few blocks away. Soon after, the name of the victim became known. He was a 25 year old BYU student, who had actually served in the mission field with my husband, in Brazil. The young man also had a wife and a new baby, and had been working the night shift at the gas station to support his family, while attending college full-time. The victim of the second murder was another 25 year old BYU student, who was working nights to support a pregnant wife and baby, while attending the university.I will refrain from using the names of the two fine young men whose lives were ended in such a brutal and senseless manner, out of respect for the privacy of their families. But their names remain, in my mind, and I have often thought of them, over the years, and wondered how they were doing; the wives, now in their fifties, as I am, and also the children, now around 30 years old, who were deprived of their fathers by Gary Gilmore's senseless rampage.I will never forget the first images I ever saw of Gary Gilmore, taken when he was very first apprehended. He looked like a wild man, with an unkempt beard and long hair flying everywhere, with a crazed look in his eyes. Soon after, however, he took on a clean cut look, which certainly would have increased the general public's sympathy. That started America's interest in Gary Gilmore. In the weeks that followed, it seemed that many Americans couldn't get enough of the story of the ex-con and his little girlfriend, Nicole. The media turned it into a Romeo and Juliette story, about the young man from a tough background, down on his luck, and his beautiful young sweetheart. I'll never forget the time that television programming was interrupted for a special report, stating that Gilmore and Nichol had both been found unconscious, following a suicide attempt, with pictures of the two, side by side. It made me ill to see the way the story was romanticized, while two young widows grieved the loss of their husbands.When Gilmore was finally executed, I was relieved. There had been local talk of him possibly being released from prison on a technicality, if the sentence of execution was not carried out soon, and I was terrified that he might set out to murder another young BYU student. After the news from the execution finally died down, I did my best to avoid thinking of anything to do with Gary Gilmore.When I heard about the made-for-TV movie, The Executioner's Song, I was appalled that someone would give Gilmore MORE attention. It took me nearly 20 years to finally watch the film. I will say that Tommy Lee Jones and Rosanna Arquette were brilliant in their roles, and the supporting roles were also well portrayed. I think it did a fair job of presenting the story with a minimum of glorification of Gilmore, while calling attention to the victims of his crimes, at least to some extent. I only hope that Gilmore's victims' wives and children benefited from any money made from the film.

I thought this was a very good dramatization of Mailer's huge book. Tommy Lee Jones does an excellent job of portraying psychopathic killer Gary Gilmore and Rosanna Arquette is terrific as his teenage girlfriend, Nicole. While it was a made for TV movie, some R-rated footage was added in when the movie had a European release. If you can get that version on tape, do so. Rosanna is dynamite in the more adult scenes.Christine Lahti (who later won a short-film Oscar as a filmmaker) and Eli Wallach provide solid support. Jones shows the same brooding intensity that years later translated into an Oscar for him in "The Fugitive." Look for Ron Howard's father, Rance Howard, in a small part as the police detective who first interrogates Gilmore after his arrest.It says something about the culture when a loser like Gilmore can be transformed into a sort of folk legend which is what the book and movie ultimately do. He had an enormous impact in 1977 by demanding that Utah go forward with his execution, the first execution in the US since the 1960s and the first since 1972 when the Supreme Court ruled that all death sentences prior to that date were unconstitutional. After Gilmore faced the firing squad hundreds of executions have been carried out. I would wager though that most Americans couldn't name more than two or three of those who have been executed but they will remember the small-time loser Gary Gilmore.

What makes a criminal? As Gary Gilmore Tommy Lee Jones captures the enigma and dilemma of what should be done when one crosses over the line and commits murder. Roseanne Arquette also plays the part well of a woman attracted to bad men. The book was too long, the movie just right.