Taglines: The crime is clear. The truth is not.
The Life of David Gale is an American drama thriller film directed by Alan Parker (in his final film as a director) and written by Charles Randolph. The film is an international co-production, between the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Kevin Spacey played the eponymous character, a college professor and longtime activist against capital punishment who is sentenced to death for killing a fellow capital punishment opponent. Kate Winslet and Laura Linney co-star.
The Life of David Gale was shot in multiple places, including Huntsville, Texas, Sam Houston State University, The University of Texas at Austin, Garrison Hall, KLRU-TV, Metro Espresso Bar (now Cafe Medici), 2222 Guadalupe St, Cain and Abel’s Bar at Austin, Gumbo’s Louisiana Style Cafe and Plaça Reial, Barcelona.
David Gale is a prisoner on death row in Texas. With only a few days to his execution, his lawyer negotiates a half million-dollar fee to tell his story to Bitsey Bloom, a journalist from a major news magazine known for her ability to keep secrets and protect her sources. He tells her the story of how he ended up on death row, revealed to the movie audience through a series of lengthy flashbacks.
Gale is head of the philosophy department at the University of Texas and an active member of DeathWatch, a group campaigning against capital punishment. At a graduation party, he encounters Berlin, an attractive graduate student who had been expelled from the school. She corners and seduces the inebriated Gale, succeeding in getting him to have rough sex with her. She then falsely accuses Gale of rape.
The next day, he loses a televised debate with the Governor of Texas when he is unable to point to an example of a demonstrably innocent man being executed during that governor’s term. After losing the debate Gale is arrested and charged with rape. The rape charge against Gale is later dropped, however the damage has already been done, and his family, marriage, career and reputation are all destroyed.
Constance Harraway, a fellow DeathWatch activist, is a close friend of Gale who consoles him after his life falls apart, and the pair sleep together. However, the next day Harraway is discovered raped and murdered, suffocated by a plastic bag taped over her head. An autopsy reveals that she had been forced to swallow the key of the handcuffs used to restrain her, a psychological torture technique utilized under the communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu, which Gale and Harraway had both protested against. The physical evidence at the crime scene points to Gale, who is convicted of her rape and murder and is, ironically, sentenced to death.
In the present, Bloom investigates the case in between her visits with Gale. She comes to believe that the apparent evidence against Gale does not add up. She is tailed several times in her car by a figure who turns out to be Dusty Wright, the alleged one-time lover and colleague of Harraway, who she suspects was the real killer. Wright slips evidence to Bloom that suggests Gale has been framed, implying that the actual murderer videotaped the crime. Bloom pursues this lead until she finds a tape revealing that Harraway, who was suffering from terminal leukemia, had committed an elaborate suicide to look like murder. She and Wright are both seen on the videotape, showing that they framed Gale as part of a plan to discredit the death penalty.
Directed by: Alan Parker
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, Matt Craven, Jim Beaver, Rhona Mitra, Brandy Little, Gabriel Mann
Screenplay by: Charles Randolph
Production Design by: Geoffrey Kirkland
Cinematography by: Michael Seresin
Film Editing by: Gerry Hamblin
Costume Design by: Renee Ehrlich Kalfus
Set Decoration by: Jennifer Williams
Music by: Alex Parker, Jake Parker
MPAA Rating: R for violent images, nudity, language and sexuality.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 21, 2093
