The Life of David Gale
Published August 13, 2003
This is your only warning! If you preach to me I will backlash. Ok, you didn't heed my warning, now I am coming after you. You should know better than this. Did you learn nothing from the preachy, yet surprisingly unfunny Patch Adams movie?
Warning!!! this review contains spoilers for the movie The Life of David Gale starring Kevin Spacey, and Laura Linney.
The Life of David Gale started out as an interesting story about a man on death row in Texas, David Gale, played by Spacey, a reporter chosen to cover his last three days, Bitsey Bloom, played by Kate Winslet, and the woman that Gale allegedly raped and murdered, Constance, played by Linney. Through a series of flashbacks, we get to go back through the history of how Spacey landed himself on death row in Texas.
He had been a member of a group called Death Watch, which was against capital punishment in Texas, along with Constance. From this moment, I was wary that they might start telling me how to think about capital punishment, but it seemed as if they were going to stay non-committal and let me choose for myself.
As the story unfolded, they started to make you believe that Spacey hadn't actually committed the crime and that he had been set up. Of course, he was relying on Winslet, the reporter, to execute the race against time to set the record straight and save his life. This is when the movie got stupid.
Do you remember the Usual Suspects? That was a really great surprise ending. How about The Game with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn? That was an even better surprise ending. Well, the writers, or producers or whoever decided on the ending of this movie should be shot. They decided to pile up 3 or 4 of those surprise endings. It just kept going and going and going. First we find out that there was a plot for Kevin Spacey to be an unwitting martyr for the death penalty because he hadn't committed the crime. Then we find out who set him up in another 10 minute interlude. Then in another 10 minute interlude we find out that Spacey was in on it. And then... and then... and then...
Craig Lyndall writes about all things related to Cleveland sports for WaitingForNextYear.com. 
- The Life of David Gale
- Published: August 13, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Drama, Video: Suspense and Mystery
- Writer: Craig Lyndall
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I think you read WAY too much into this movie. It was not a bad movie. Not a great movie. Maybe not as good as the Usual Suspects and The Game, which I own. (Ok, there's not maybe about it but...) However, I didn't feel like they were trying to force me to believe the death penalty was bad. Obviously that was position of the characters, but it seemed to me the movie was more about the man's life and the irony of a death penalty abolitionist being sentenced to death and the interesting story behind it than trying to make a political statement or force their point of view onto the viewing public. The movie is trying to paint a picture of the life of a man who was fighting for a cause. Of course it is going to show things from his point of view. It couldn't possibly be an effective movie without doing that. (Not saying that it was) Yet you site no specific examples of what it was that led you to belive that the people who made the movie share the same views or that they're trying to force everyone else to share those views. I don't believe that this would anger those in support of the death penalty. Heck, 2 of the leading abolitionists ended up dead, they're probably throwing a party somewhere. But why on earth would someone who's pro-death penalty go to see a movie about a death penalty abolitionist anyway?
Alan Parker has stated that he is strongly against the death penalty and so did Laura Linney. Spacey agrees, but said he was drawn by the script rather than the message (which shows his judgement of scripts since he won the Oscar sucks).
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A lot of talented people somehow made a really, really bad movie.
I saw it at a screening where Kevin Spacey, Alan Parker, and Laura Linney appreared afterwards. They were very interesting and entertaining. The movie wasn't.