Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

The Life of David Gale Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf October 5, 2015

Alan Parker enjoyed a tremendous directorial career during his time behind the camera, handling difficult projects such as “Pink Floyd: The Wall,” “Evita,” and “Fame” with proper verve, while guiding more sensitive movies like “Shoot the Moon” and “The Commitments” with a secure vision. It’s a shame that his final film would be 2003’s “The Life of David Gale,” a bafflingly mishandled take on capital punishment, housed in a dim thriller that nurtures melodramatic performances to communicate its general silliness. The material contains murder, intrigue, and feverish journalism, but Parker doesn’t trust subtlety, going full throttle on this bizarre valentine to liberal extremism. Instead of spinning death penalty horrors, “The Life of David Gale” mostly encourages exhaustion with its topsy-turvy take on sacrifice.

A respected professor at the University of Austin, David (Kevin Spacey) is busy trying to maintain his profession obligations and deal with his failing marriage, also participating in DeathWatch, a capital punishment advocacy group run by pal Constance (Laura Linney). Lured into a bathroom tryst with ex-student Berlin (Rhona Mitra), David is framed for rape, but his future darkens completely when Constance is murdered, with evidence tying him to the crime. On death row awaiting execution. David sells his story to journalist Bitsey (Kate Winslet), a tough-as-nails writer who’s granted three opportunities to interview the alleged monster, working to separate fact from fiction as David walks through his nightmare. Facing a brief timetable to put the puzzle pieces together, Bitsey is caught up in David’s saga, trying to locate evidence of his innocence before it’s too late.

“The Life of David Gale” is absolutely determined to avoid the gray areas of capital punishment, imagining its lead character (classified by others as a “flaming liberal”) as an intelligent man with a defined view on the subject, even challenging the governor to a televised debate, only to be outwitted when questioned about mistakes in the system pertaining to possible innocence. He’s a lively intellectual and a confident abolitionist, but he has his weaknesses too, exposing him to temptations and misjudgments that destroy his life. The screenplay (credited to Charles Randolph) uses Bitsey’s dogged journalistic instincts to probe his life at the bottom, with the general arc of his downfall communicated in three flashback sequences introduced with swirly camerawork and flashes of charged words that tease his true nature. As much as “The Life of David Gale” is a thriller about a reporter (and her intern, played by Gabriel Mann) reexamining the facts of a strange case, the writing is mostly interested in the details of David’s corruption, exploring his eventual slide into alcoholism and ostracism.

There’s something to “The Life of David Gale” that’s worth examining, including the topic of innocence and death row, with special emphasis on Texas and their high execution numbers. Yet, the screenplay only covers outrage, never asking direct questions to feed a mystery that ends the movie on a baffling note. Parker wants to make a thriller, tracking Bitsey and her energetic drive to pore through clues, visit the crime scene (the house owner is played by Melissa McCarthy), and outwit lawyers and administrators. As David recounts his misery, Bitsey is sucked into questions of possible innocence, trailed by mysterious types pushing her to plunge deeper into behavior and political position. “The Life of David Gale” isn’t played calmly, with performances and scoring cranked all the way up to secure intended emotions, treating the viewer as a moron incapable of understanding the urgency of the plot. Melodrama chokes the life out of the effort, making it easy to ignore all the alarms Parker sets off in connection with David’s possible innocence.

As strange as “The Life of David Gale” is, nothing tops character names in terms of straight-up oddity. Bitsey? Constance? Berlin? And there’s a cowboy named Dusty in the mix as well. It’s difficult to tell if the material was meant for the big screen or perhaps it was originally envisioned for the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland.

The Life of David Gale Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Another lackluster Universal catalog title, "The Life of David Gale" arrives with a VC-1 encoded image (2.35:1 aspect ratio) presentation, with a fairly old master used for the Blu-ray debut. Filtering is present, generating a video-esque look to the viewing experience. It doesn't completely erase fine detail, but filmic qualities are peeled away, leaving behind passable textures on skin and costuming, and set decoration (including pinned newspaper articles and DeathWatch signage) is relatively simple to study. Colors are adequate, maintaining intended hues without dips in stability. No fade is observed. Skintones are on the flat side, but satisfactory. Delineation struggles through, finding crush issues with dense fabrics, hair, and evening interactions. Some mild ghosting is periodically detected. Source is clean.

The Life of David Gale Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix shows agreeable heft for a largely dramatic endeavor, with a scoring and soundtrack cuts finding a pleasing low-end presence and crisp instrumentation. Surrounds are also engaged with more chaotic happenings and exterior gatherings, while the simple act of a prison guard using a PA system fills the room with authority. Dialogue exchanges are clean and tight, managing extremes in behavior without distortion. Atmospherics are communicative, delivering the details of prison life and small town activity.

The Life of David Gale Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary features director Alan Parker.

• Deleted Scenes (2:44, SD) provide a slight but interesting look at David's life as he bottoms out, observing him trying to secure custody of his child and deal with a job interview. Thankfully, a tasteless drunk driving gag was snipped from the film.

• Making Of (16:56, SD) focuses on Parker's handling of the subject matter and his interest in challenging audiences with the big ideas of the screenplay, using traditional thriller elements to aid digestion. Interviews with cast and crew (conducted on-set) are promotional in nature, but some interesting details emerge, including Winslet's pursuit of the role via a cold call to Parker. B-roll footage is provided to grasp the mood of the set.

• "Death in Texas" (9:09, SD) is a primer on capital punishment in America, with Parker eager to take the production south to acquire authenticity. Facts and figures are shared, along with ideas on the death penalty from cast, crew, and locals, who participated in a few prison vigil recreations.

• "The Music of David Gale" (4:50, SD) is a short summation of the scoring effort, with Parker turning to sons Alex and Jake to piece together different sounds for the movie, mixing soundtrack cuts and orchestral pieces.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (2:25, SD) is included.

The Life of David Gale Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"The Life of David Gale" loses its nerve as it approaches a shocker ending, reducing Bitsey, a hard-nosed journalist described as "Mike Wallace with PMS," to tears, despite a storied history with more distasteful subjects. There's also plenty of hand-holding with the resolution of the mystery, missing a golden opportunity to achieve a sinister send-off to spell things out for the audience, making sure everything's in place, no matter how ludicrous the effort becomes. "The Life of David Gale" transforms into a lurid mess of questionable motivation, striving to achieve a Big Idea concerning the extremity of activism, only to end up as a glorified television movie with indecisive characterization.