THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE

US, 2002, 131 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslett, Laura Linney, Gabriel Mann.
Directed by Alan Parker.

British director, Alan Parker, has made a number of socially minded films in the United States, from Fame to Come See the Paradise. This time his interest is in capital punishment. The film uses the device of a journalist coming in at the end of a prison sentence, just prior to execution, and unravelling a case so that the injustice of the death penalty is made emotionally and intellectually clear. One of the difficulties of this film is that the protest is highly contrived and the ending may leave audiences more bewildered by the plot twists than up in arms. On the other hand, there are quite a number of clues in the film that make sense with the unexpected ending.

Kevin Spacey has made a name for himself as villains (Consenting Adults, Seven, The Usual Suspects) but more recently has been seen as a kind of American Everyman, someone who is both noble and flawed (American Beauty, The Shipping News). As a university lecturer and writer, found guilty of the rape and murder of a colleague, he elicits sympathy, the belief that he could not have committed the crimes. The plot device is having him grant final interviews to a hard-headed journalist who will campaign to show that he is innocent. Kate Winslett is the journalist.

The flashbacks fill in the details of the protest against capital punishment, his relationship with the murdered protest leader, played with tough sentiment by Laura Linney, and rather alarmingly re-create the death scene. While the issues are serious, the film turns melodramatic by the end and the final revelation seems too stretched to have the dramatic effect intended.

1. Audience response to the issue of capital punishment? For and against? Seeing it dramatised, receiving the message, the warning about fanaticism?

2. The work of Alan Parker, the British director and his perspective on the United States? Social issues?

3. The opening run, Bitsy and the sense of urgency, the car smoking? Reprising the scene at the end, audiences wondering what the urgency was for?

4. The Texas landscapes, the cities and towns, the motels, farms? The detailed look at the prisons? Musical score and its atmosphere? Final song?

5. The use of the wide screen, the visual flourishes, the swirling camera with David Gale, the graffiti on the wall about his innocence? Editing and pace? The use of video, especially for the crime?

6. The structure of the film: the initial flashback, the flashbacks and the subjective perspective when David Gale told his story? The giving of information about capital punishment, about David Gale? About the court case? Facts, omissions, the perspective slanted by Gale's intentions?

7. The twists of the plot, audiences being aware or not? David Gale as guilty or not? Bitsy's verdict? The issue of capital punishment and his being on Death Row? He and Constance as the top campaigners in Texas? Her rape and murder? Audiences suspecting another killer, audiences suspecting Dusty? The suspicions about Constance, the video? The emergence of her suicide (and Bitsy's test to check it out)? Dusty and the meeting with the lawyer, the money, his dressing up, going to Spain, the money for Gale's wife and son, the final video and the revelation of the truth? David Gale looking from the video at the last moment?

8. The plot seeming to have plot-holes all the way through? Why so late for this interview with the press, the campaign against capital punishment? The finale and all the ideas and the facts fitting into place? The purpose of David Gale's life and death, Bitsy not in time to save him, a prophet witnessing to the cause after death? The attitudes of the Governor, as seen on television in the debate, as seen at the end?

9. Death Watch and the people who comprised it, Constance and her leadership, her speeches (and the irony of her dying with Leukemia)? Dusty, his devotion, fanaticism? The scenes of the demonstrations, David and Constance and their speeches? Constance preparing David for the television debate, warning him about his ego, going on the television, haranguing the Governor, tricking him with quotations from Churchill and Hitler? The aftermath and the authority expelling David via the phone and him hearing? The demonstrations at the time of the executions, the woman who had murdered the policeman at 17 and the campaign? The lists, the charts? The people at the demonstrations, the prayer, the nuns?

10. Bitsy as the tough reporter, her reputation, the kiddie-porn investigation, going to jail for refusing to reveal her sources, her editors and the discussions? Her demands, not wanting an intern? Her patronising attitude towards Zac, in the car, at the motel? Coming to rely on him, refusing his sympathy except at the end? Tough, the car, the engine in trouble? Seeing Dusty and his watching them at the toilet break? Dusty and his following, the chases, suspicions? The motel, Zac not allowed into the interview? The meeting with the prison authority, the security to get in, the extensive tour of the prison, the explanation of the prisoners? The range of prisons in Texas, the statistics of prisoners? The interview, her guilty verdict, tough, listening to David Gale, interest, emotions, change? Her using of Zac to find out the truth, especially with the television and video? At Dusty's house?

11. Kevin Spacey as David Gale, quiet and dignified, his lawyer and the deal with the money and the newspaper, the guards loud at the interviews, the three days, his genuine presence, his talk, his reason for choosing Bitsy, his plea and the explanation for the sake of his son? The end of the interview, the final request, the transfer, the shower, the meal (and the television information and the visualising of the meal), his death off-screen?

12. As professor, his lectures, the analysis of desire, fantasy, unfulfilled fantasies, perennial desires? This as a theme of the film, especially in his political campaigns?

13. Berlin, coming late to the lecture, the apology, being seductive, Gale's response, urging her to study? Her being expelled? Going to the party, her being seductive, his allowing himself to be seduced? The explanation to Constance? The accusation of rape, her setting him up with the clothes, the bite mark etc? Her disappearance - and the note? Gale's wife and her affair in Spain, leaving him in prison two weeks? People shunning him, the university vote against him, the students frightened of him and putting up car windows, having interviews for jobs, menial work for Death Watch and then being expelled? His beliefs, the strength as seen in retrospect, commitment? His alcoholism, going to the AA meetings, falling off the wagon? The bond with Constance, the discussions? His shock at her collapse? The doctor against him? The final night, the discussion, the sexual encounter - and its being used in the plan?

14. Mrs Gale, the son, leaving, his drunken phone calls, the purpose of his plan, receiving the money at the end?

15. The lawyer, his broad southern style, the seeming lapses in his defence, the scenes with Bitsy, helping her, the video? The end and his being part of the plan?

16. Dusty, devoted, working in the garden, the causes, hate, following Bitsy, the video hanging in the motel room, the phone call and Zac waiting, Dusty watching, with the lawyer, music, delivering the money, at the opera in Spain?

17. Zac, young, involved, learning, Bitsy and Zac going to the museum, the odd girl, the re-creation of the murder, Bitsy going back, paying the girl to re-create the death, her own experiment? Finding the truth?

18. The Governor, the debate, the pro-capital punishment stances, the public in support?

19. The staff at the prison, the university people, the protesters, the guards? Authentic?

20. The overall effect of the combination of drama, melodrama, discovering the lengths that the committed people would go to for the sake of their cause and their message?