The Life Of David Gale

Year releasted: 2003

by Noel Murray
June 8th, 2005

Crimes

• Trivializing the issue of excessive executions in Texas by building a dunderheaded mystery-thriller around it

• Making Texans into clichéd, colorful rednecks who say things like "You plowin' a little close to the cotton!"
• Making nearly everyone in the movie annoying, from reporter Kate Winslet (described as "Mike Wallace with PMS") to Death Row inmate Kevin Spacey (an insufferably liberal philosophy professor) to his alleged victim, Laura Linney (a humorless scold)

Defender
Director Alan Parker

Tone Of Commentary
Dry as Texas dust. When he's not just describing the action on the screen, Parker delivers a remedial lecture on filmmaking. At one point, he says of a sequence that takes place in two locations, "Obviously, this intercutting was done later." Really, Alan? You didn't stop the camera, move to the next location, shoot some more, and then go back?

What Went Wrong
Nothing, according to Parker. "Very rarely do you get a screenplay that is written with as much intelligence as this one," Parker says of Charles Randolph's moronic and insulting script. "I'm very proud of this film."

Comments On The Cast
Parker points out how hard it is for actors to unplug and carry appliances in scenes. Otherwise, Parker describes himself as "a fan, obviously" of nearly every performer. He's especially enamored of Spacey. "A consummate actor. Apart from being an extraordinary gentleman, he's not afraid to show the flaws and imperfections in a character. He'll twist those flaws and imperfections and take them by the scruff of the neck and throw them back differently so that the character can still be noble and sympathetic."

Inevitable Dash Of Pretension
Parker is fairly subdued, though he does get excited about how the editors used flash cuts of words—"the key words, the motive words"—as a way of transitioning between flashbacks. Otherwise, his best snooty comment is actually pretty wry, as he refers to an insert shot of a clock as "courtesy of Fred Zinnemann in High Noon."

Commentary In A Nutshell
"It's not a political diatribe, it's a thriller... let's not be pretentious about this."