Rent the life of david gale 2003 starring kevin spacey and kate winslet on dvd and bluray. Since 1973, 8 people have been exonerated from death rows nationwide when dna or other evidence proved them innocent. For much of kevin spacey s acting careereven after he made it bighe wasnt the headliner. But still, hes so droningly sluggish as gale, a death row inmate, that you cant help but wonder. Kevin spacey is in town to perform at this old vic benefit show, announce his surprise appointment as artistic director and promote his latest movie, the life of david gale.
Kevin spacey plays the title role, david gale, an antideath penalty advocate who just happens to be a philosophy professor at the university of texas at austin, the state capitol. The movie is about a man named david gale kevin spacey who is a philosophy professor and also a antideath penalty campaigner. Fans of spacey will see him in a familiar role while fans of winslet will be taken out of our comfort zone. The mood is dark and a sense of ominous danger is present throughout. We experience movies in the moment, but a thriller can be judged only in retrospect. Plot summary david gale kevin spacey is a man who has tried hard to live by his principles but in a bizarre twist of fate, this devoted father, popular professor and respected death penalty. His wife is having an affair in spain, no less, and hes a borderline alcoholic to begin with. The laborious thriller starring kevin spacey as a deathrow inmate.
David gale kevin spacey was the head of the philosophy department at austin university and the author of several wellregarded books. 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. Kevin spacey is david gale, a smartypants university of texas professor who is also an anti death penalty activist. He was a college professor in texas, and a leading anti death penalty activist in the state. Kevin spacey frames himself to prove the death penalty doesnt work the life of david gale. The life of david gale, alan parkers thriller that takes on the death penalty, strings an audience along and. He tells her how he ended up on death row, revealed through a series of. The eponymous kevin spacey character is a college professor who has dedicated his life to campaigning for an end to capital punishment in americathat is, he wants to ban the death penalty.
Kevin spacey played the eponymous character, a college professor and. For a film whose every frame rings false, the life of david gale can be. Plot while hes in prison waiting for his execution, david gale, an estimated philosophy professor and an activist against the death penalty, gets the permission to give an interview to a journalist, bitsey. Rent the life of david gale 2003 on dvd and bluray. As the title character, a downtrodden philosophy professor and activist whos become an alcoholic criminal, he evinces a. The life of david gale true story or not dewey gram. He claims to have been framed by rightwing supporters of capital punishment because his death would provide such poetic irony in support of the noose, the gas or the chair. David gale is on deathrow, living out his last hours. With kevin spacey, kate winslet, laura linney, cleo king. According to the hollywood reporter, 42yearold spacey will star as the tales college professor hero, a strident opponent of the death penalty who oh, the irony finds himself falsely convicted.
Im rationalizing like mad to excuse having chickened out of seeing the life of david gale universal, the alan parker anti death penalty movie that opened last week. He was arrested some time ago and convicted on the crime of raping and murdering a fellow death penalty campaigner named constancethe gorgeous laura linney. David gale kevin spacey was the head of the philosophy. Spacey steels himself for death row drama film the. The movie s point is that the death penalty process is ineffective. A time to kill is a 1996 american crime drama film based on john grishams 1989 novel. Cnn s david matthews talks to kevin spacey and laura linney about the life of david gale, a film that deals with the politically explosive issue of the death penalty. David gale, an advocate of eliminating the death penalty, is falsely accused of rape and murder.
David gale is on death row, but audience gets punished wsj. At that time many critics deemed david gale to be a heavy handed message movie. In david gale, its death haranguing the washington post. A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row. Smith is ultimately executed for the murder of a kansas farm family. Kevin spacey plays a deathpenalty opponent facing execution for murder.
The film is a fictional story about a man who opposes the death penalty and ends up on death row for the rape and murder of a woman, his best friend, who works for an anti death penalty organization. Neither of these situations is getting any better, and when a woman ends up viciously murdered handcuffed and suffocated with a plastic bag, gale an outspoken death. Review of the life of david gale no stars by marty mapes. As the title character, a downtrodden philosophy professor and. Kevin spacey stars as an activist whos now death row inmate, innocent but facing execution. Kevin spacey s reallife downfall casts a long, dark shadow over the life of david gale, a notorious 2003 flop about the death penalty that casts the american beauty as a brilliant, verbose mangod academic whose previously charmed life is. The death penalty was the most severe punishment in society since the days when mankind first formed the semblance of civilization. The movies seldom combine real life with death penalty. So, we are going to discuss the death penalty citing the movie the life of david gale as an example and combining reflections about it with thoughts towards death penalty. The life of david gale, an alan parker thriller, is about an anti death penalty activist kevin spacey. Here are paste s picks for the twotime oscar winners greatest movie performances, ranked worst to. Philip seymour hoffman does an amazing job transforming himself into author truman capote, who interviews and befriends convicted murderer perry smith.
The movie s pivotal scene, at least thematically, comes as spacey s title character draws a blank during a televised debate with texas preppie, pro death penalty governor portrayed like a. The life of david gale is a 2003 drama film directed by alan parker and written by charles randolph. A suspenseful journey into deadly conspiracy and murderous deception begins when a respected professor and anti death penalty activist, david gale spacey, is convicted and condemned to death for the murder of a colleague. David gale kevin spacey is a prominent death penalty opponent, ironically sitting on death row in texas. The film is an international coproduction, between the united states, germany and the united kingdom. Hes only the victim of a plot and he wants to confess everything to explain how the events has taken.
The life of david gale 2003 the life of david gale. David gale is an understandably bitter man, played by kevin spacey, who protests his innocence to a reporter named bitsey bloom kate winslet, whom he has summoned to texas for that purpose. One night, while at a party, a vengeful student rhona mitra seduces him. David gale spacey is a man who has tried to live by his principles, but in a bizarre twist of fate, this devoted father, popular professor and respected death. Hes notoriously reclusive, but after his last appeal fails, he agrees to talk to the press. Movie includes the execution by hanging and the aftermath. Somehow and good luck figuring out how any jury could possibly convict him on. It is about the death penalty, but it is not a propaganda film it does not bash the. Kevin spacey plays a death penalty opponent facing execution for murder. David gale is an understandably bitter man, played by kevin spacey.
There is no respite from the personal human failings, the unhappiness, the march of justice, the striving, the horror. The illinois experience you cited is the tip of the national iceberg. It tells the fictional story of a harvardeducated philosophy professor in austin who is a leading anti death penalty activist. To be fair, kevin spacey is obliged to work from a story thats contrived, obvious and tortured. Jackson, matthew mcconaughey, and kevin spacey star, with oliver platt, ashley judd, kiefer and donald sutherland, and patrick mcgoohan appearing in supporting roles. Gale confides her he has never raped or killed his friend constance. The mystery of one mans guilt or innocence literally becomes a matter of life and death in this drama. All 45 of kevin spaceys movie performances, ranked. To see spacey stomp on that connection by profaning the real david gales name by dragging him into this pernicious sack of shit is deeply dispiriting, and the likelihood that neither spacey nor anyone else who worked on the death penalty movie even made the connection just makes it. The life of david gale quotes, movie quotes movie quotes.
The 10 best movies about capital punishment taste of. Kevin spacey plays a college professor and antideath penalty. I am sure the filmmakers believe their film is against the death penalty. Kevin spacey plays the title character, an antideath penalty advocate who when we first meet him is on texas death row after being found guilty of raping and murdering a fellow activist.
Kevin spacey stars in the title role as a conflicted professor of philosophy. Kevin spacey plays a wellknown professor who is accused of murder and sentenced to death until he asks bitsey kate winslet to visit him so he can give her his last words on the murder case hes being punished for. Oscar winners kevin spacey and kate winslet star in this unpredictable. This drama centers on texas philosophy professor turned death row inmate david gale kevin spacey, who agrees to his first interview just days before he is to be executed for a brutal rapemurder. Kevin spacey plays david gale who is both a texas university professor and wellknown activist opposing the death penalty.
Written by charles randolph, directed by alan parker, and released in 2003, this film is thriller about the death penalty. David and the murder victim, constance laura linney had been coleaders of a group that opposed the death penalty. All 45 of kevin spaceys movie performances, ranked paste. The film is a fictional story about a man who opposes the death penalty and ends up on death row for the rape and murder of a woman, his best friend, who works for an antideath penalty organization.