The Executioner's Song (film) this work. "Time Out- London" said about the film's performances: "Jones (playing Gilmore) goes his own fascinating route to the loser's nirvana without recourse to psycho-style tics, while strong character performances from Arquette and Lahti constantly shift the focus back towards the everyday straitjacket of Utah underdogs." The Executioner's Song (film) The Executioner's Song is a 1982 made-for-television film adaptation of Norman Mailer's 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The film is directed by Lawrence Schiller from a screenplay by Mailer. The movie is about the final nine months of the life of Gary Gilmore, beginning with his
Beyond the Realms of Death and the epic final scream of Rob Halford. The song describes a man who suffers from depression and enters into a pseudo-catatonic state, which gives the outward appearance of a comatose state, in that it essentially renders the body physically immobile whilst leaving inner thought processes intact in an almost 'locked-in' fashion. He eventually dies, possibly by his own hand due to the state he was essentially locked in, so he is once more released from the chains of life. Furthermore, other lines in the song suggest an anti-suicidal message. The song was mentioned in a 1990 trial in which