Live Free Or Die, On Screen

From career killers to android prisoners, a look at some of the most remarkable on-screen transformations of our time.

Redemption and transition have been fodder for Hollywood screenwriters since the dawn of silent film. Whether it is a story of a good man who "breaks bad” or a hooker with a heart of gold, we all love to get lost in their transformations.

In honor of SundanceTV’s Rectify, which tells the story of Daniel Holden, whose release from death row after nineteen years is only the beginning of his journey, we look at some of the most enthralling stories of transition on both the big and small screens.

HBO’s "The Wire" is a cynical show, where change—for a person, a community or an entire city—is difficult to achieve and impossible to maintain. But despite being trapped by crime, corruption and despair, a few characters manage to break free. When he first leaves prison, Dennis "Cutty" Wise (Chad L. Coleman) does not seem to be a likely candidate for change. A hardboiled career killer who ran drugs and dropped bodies, fourteen years of incarceration have nonetheless softened his heart. Cutty soon …