The Life of David Gale (Widescreen Edition) | Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet

The Life of David Gale (Widescreen Edition) | Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet | Who said Puccini is dead, eh?

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The Life of David ...

	The Life of David Gale (Widescreen Edition) Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet Universal Studios, 2003 average customer review:based on 168 reviews view larger image
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Wow!

This movie is totally awesome!! Kate Winslet is a journalist picked to interview death row inmate David Gale. It takes place over a four day period (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday she has the interview, and Friday is his execution day). Of course this movie is filled with flashbacks, but it is pretty easy to follow along. The ending is absolutely mind blowing!! If you're a Kevin Spacey fan, or just in the mood for a good drama with a little psychological twist you should definitely check this out!!

Who said Puccini is dead, eh?

A stunning tour de force and modern day Pucciniesque classic. Rarely does Hollywood put something together that just gels -- The Life of David Gale is one of those moments. I won't bore you with a synopsis (also to avoid a spoiler) but let me just say that understanding Turandot [and the death of Liu] certainly makes understanding the movie that much easier. Constance, in my mind, is the real pivotal character. I guess I can take license in this as in the movie when the notion of truth versus perspective is argued -- usually perspective wind out. In a world were 'big' issues overwhelm a 'little' people into apathy and immobility this movie proves just the opposite -- that the determination of individuals to make a difference can still happen. Yes, we ask 'At what price?' Nonetheless, the social commentary in this movie is worth the price of admission. As mentioned previously, rarely does an ensemble of cast, crew, circumstance, and timing converge into one 'space' and produce so compelling a movie -- this is one of those movies. Who said Puccini is dead, eh?

Miguel Llora

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Well-crafted thriller with a compelling message

This is a powerful film with a flawless performance from Kevin Spacey. It is ultimately a moral tale, pushing a particular position concerning the death penalty debate. The way it goes about it, however, ensures the audience will walk away from the experience with at least a tiny glimmer of doubt in their minds, as to whether it is proper for a government to execute its citizens. As our judicial system is less than perfect, the system always runs the risk of killing an innocent person, based on flimsy testimony, fuelled by a hell bent desire for revenge. That's part of the problem. Revenge seems to be hard wired in our brains. It is a powerful emotion, so powerful in fact, that it can blind us from the truth. This film illustrates this fact in a very profound way.

David Gale is a successful philosophy professor who is an anti death penalty advocate. He is happily married to a beautiful woman with a lovely little boy. Life appears to be good, until he drinks too much at a party and has a five-minute affair with one of his attractive students in the up stairs bathroom. He relents to his base desires and pays the price. This particular student wants revenge because she wants to pass his course without doing the work. The next morning, Gale feels bad, but feels worse later when he's arrested for rape. The student wants revenge and is wholly successful because Gale's life spins out of control. His beautiful wife leaves him and he loses his job, never to return to academia. Even though the charges end up being dropped, he's a marked man. His drinking gets worse and the only job he can get is a management position at an electronics store. Gale's life gets worse, though, when he's old colleague, is found raped and murdered and he's accused of the crime. Ironically, he ends up on death row. Days away from being executed, he requests a news reporter to tell his story. Gale, of course, claims he's innocent, and as the story unfolds, something far more insidious bubbles to the surface, and it becomes a race against the eleventh hour. Is Gale innocent, has he been set up, or did he do it?

This is a well-written and professionally executed film with a powerful message. There's no smugness, taking a moral high ground, and beating us over the head with it. It has all the successful ingredients of a top class thriller, building tension all the way to its climactic and surprising end.

The Life of David Gale is a class act film and well worth the experience.

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How far are you willing to go to fight for your cause?

That's the question I had to ask myself when I watched this movie. How far are you willing to go to fight for something you truly believe in? The topic of the movie is the death penalty. Is it used unjustly, should here be a death penalty? You have people who are for the death penalty, and people who are against it. David Gale against the death penalty. David Gale is accused of rape, and his world is turned upside down. He is ultimately fired from his job, and he loses his family over this incident. He is very much against the death penalty and will go to great lengths to support his cause. When Constance Harraway his death penalty partner, best friend and confidant is raped and murdered David Gale finds himself on death row.

He refuses to speak to anyone until 5 days before his execution, and then he will only speak to Bitsy Bloom. Bitsy feels that he is supposed to be on death row, but as she finds clue that shows other wise she is in a race to find out what really happens so she can try and help prevent Gale from being executed. The story is revealed through a series of flashbacks, which kept me very interested in how this would unfold. This movie is truly deep!!! Kevin Spacey is simply marvelous in the role of David Gayle. I was really into all the twists and turns this movie takes you through. You have to not just watch this movie, but really pay attention to this movie to the very end. I really enjoyed this movie, and would watch it again. I found this to be a riveting drama.

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A death row mystery thriller from director Alan Parker

There is a problem with reviewing "The Life of David Gale" because I was not fooled for a second. I saw the whole thing coming, based on the key reason that David Gale (Kevin Spacey) decided to talk to reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet), and what Governor Hardin (Michael Crabtree) says to shut Gale up in a televised debate on the death penalty. That means for most of this 131-minute movie from director Alan Parker I am waiting for the characters to catch up. However, I do not want to suggest that the problem is that Charles Randolph's script telegraphs everything, but rather that in this era of twisted tales such as "The Crying Game," "Usual Suspects," "Memento," you are always on your guard and never accept a narrative at face value.

Basically, "The Life of David Gale" is a death row story, but more like "True Crime" than "The Chamber," "The Green Mile," or "Dead Man Walking," which means it is mystery-thriller. Days before his execution in Texas, Gale's attorney contacts Bloom's magazine about his first and only story from prison. Gale was a professor of philosophy (just like the writer) at a major Texas university and a major voice in the (fictional) anti-death penalty group Death Watch along with his friend, Constance Hallaway (Laura Linney). But then his life implodes when one of his students (Rhona Mitra) has sex with him in a bathroom during a college party and then cries rape. His wife leaves with his son, he is put on permanent sabbatical, and Death Watch wants nothing to do with him. When Connie is found dead he is tried, convicted for rape and murder, and sentence to death. His lawyer, Braxton Belyeu (Leon Rippy), seems to be taking the whole thing rather calmly and a cowboy (Matt Craven) in a pick up truck keep following Bitsey and Zack Stemmons (Gabirel Mann), the intern the magazine has sent to be her gopher and pseudo-muscle. Obviously there is something here to be found out by Bitsey and besides the question of what it is there is the one about whether she will find it out in time.

I am somewhat concerned with the way this movie will be read in decidedly different ways by viewers totally dependent on their beliefs regarding capital punishment. I would think that few people who endorse or oppose the death penalty will change their view after watching "The Life of David Gale," and I fear that those who are still in the process of making up their mind may well be tipped in a direction other than what the writer and director intended, although clearly Parker does try to present both sides of the debate on their own ground. At the end of this one you might be wondering if what you are thinking is what you are supposed to be thinking, or if the final irony undermines the entire endeavor.

The film is set in Texas, where over half of the inmates executed in the United States each year have their sentences carried out. But Texas is not really representative of where the national debate is on capital punishment because no other state does as much to facilitate death sentences and executions (e.g., the definition of mental illness precludes Andrea Yates using an insanity defense in her trial even though the jury that convicted her and sentenced her to life in prison instead of death felt she was insane). In this film the complex issue is reduced to sound bites for and against by ordinary citizens and the question of whether the execution of one innocent person would justify shutting down the entire system.

Consequently, there is a sense in which the morality of a film that uses such volatile issues as backdrop is ultimately suspect. When I try to come to terms with the issue of capital punishment I know that on one side there is the impulse when I hear of some heinous crime to wish the cruel and unusual punishment clause was not in the Constitution. But on the other side there is the dwindling list of nations still using the death penalty and I do not like the United States being associated with the practices of totalitarian nations. Then there are the economic concerns of how much it costs to execute one condemned prisoner, money that could be spent to hire more police officers or buy body armor or other things that could reduced the number of murders in the future, not to mention the idea that life without parole served in the general prison population could be a punishment worse than death.

All of these points are debatable, and while many are touched on in this film they are but touched upon. However, in the final analysis I must also admit that since there was no mystery here as far as I was concerned, these other elements stood out more for me as well. The performances by Winslet, Spacey, and Linney are what you would expect, and if you are familiar with Parker's other films (e.g., "The Commitments," "Evita") then you will recognize the editing style and use of montages in this one. However, you will have to decide if "The Life of David Gale" is too heavy handed, or if I just happened to immediately stumble upon the key clues to unraveling the mystery.

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