The Life of David Gale

By EWAN McDONALD

David Gale (Kevin Spacey), a Texas professor of philosophy and opponent of capital punishment, finds himself on Death Row convicted of murder. Days before his execution, journalist Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) is sent to interview him. Bloom sets out to learn what really happened, which challenges her belief in Gale's guilt and the justice system.

I'm going to turn to one of America's sagest critics, Roger Ebert, to explain what is wrong with this film.

"One of the things that annoys me is that the story is set in Texas and not just in any old state — a state like Arkansas, for example, where the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills convincingly explains why three innocent kids are in prison because they wore black and listened to heavy metal, while the likely killer keeps pushing himself onscreen and wildly signalling his guilt. Nor is it set in Illinois, where Death Row was run so shabbily that former Governor George Ryan finally threw up his hands and declared the whole system rotten.

"No, the movie is set in Texas, which in a good year all by itself carries out half the executions in America ... When George W. Bush was Texas governor, he claimed to carefully consider each and every execution, although a study of his office calendar shows he budgeted 15 minutes a condemned man (we cannot guess how many of these minutes were devoted to pouring himself a cup of coffee before settling down to the job). Still, when you're killing someone every other week and there's an average of 400 more waiting their turn, you have to move right along.

"You can make movies that support capital punishment (The Executioner's Song) or oppose it (Dead Man Walking) or are conflicted (In Cold Blood). But while Texas continues to warehouse condemned men with a system involving lawyers who are drunk, asleep or absent; confessions that are beaten out of the helpless, and juries that overwhelmingly prefer to execute black defendants instead of white ones, you can't make this movie. Not in Texas."

DVD features: movie (130min); theatrical trailer; poster gallery; deleted scenes; making of ... ; making of the soundtrack; mini-documentary on the death penalty in Texas; director's commentary.