The Life Of David Gale - Framing An Innocent In a Democracy!

Video Source: Amazon Prime


This is a movie about one of the issues that Americans love to rebel about. The debate is  between those who are rational and kind and those who are short sighted and short-tempered. The issue is abolition of death penalty. The educated professor of philosophy, the hero of the story,  abhors death penalty because many an innocent are accused, locked up for years and then hanged without proper investigation by the politicians who are in  power. [Maybe the lawyers and their minions are part of the scam as well]. He is part of a small organization called DEATHWATCH which includes his lady friend [Linney] and her poor Spanish husband. There is even a Texas lawyer with Dracula teeth and Texan accent named Bilyeou [rhymes with Bill You]. It is a shock to see how easily even a celebrated professor can be put in prison just by someone making an accusation !!

Confession: I had trouble understanding the movie in its entirety the first time I watched it. There is problem with the accent of some of the characters; the words are hard to understand and I had to watch some parts more than once with CC on! The plot is also complicated because there is flashback within a flashback and also because the information regarding the murder is released slowly in three steps one becomes confused about 'what is going on'!! 

Synopsis:

The professor (Kevin Spacey)  is framed first for raping a student (Rhonna  Mitra) and then a little later for killing his lady friend (Linney) from DEATHWATCH ! He is put in prison for the first crime  but released on bail. We are shown that the professor is innocent and accidentally falls into the hands of a seductress-student at a party. She pursues him relentlessly even when he turns her down at first. She wants him to pass her in the tests in lieu of sexual favor !!

The second time he is in prison for the death of his lady friend from Deathwatch. He is put on Death Row. As we later discover, it was a suicide made to look like a crime by the Deathwatch team. The lady knows that she is going to die because of leukemia and so agrees to [or is convinced by the professor and her Spanish boyfriend] suffocate herself with the video camera rolling!! The suicide at first seems horrendous - the naked body looked like a large rubber doll to me until I saw the lady struggle !!

And who does all the running around and discovery three days before the professor is killed by lethal injection ? It is Kate Winslet, playing a journalist for a magazine that agrees to pay the professor half a million for his story. The journalist and the intern pursue the clues in the form of video tapes which show the lady from Deathwatch committing suicide. However, she is unable to save the professor because she is a late by few minutes (with the suicide videotape)  to prevent the professor's death. The professor it seems had planned to send the half a million to his separated wife and his son who had moved to Spain after discovering his infidelity with the student and so the surviving Deathwatch member delivers the suitcase with the money to her after the professor's death.

Kevin Spacey as the professor seems like Kevin Spacey in other movies but minus all the make up in the prison he looks different than his any other roles. I feel like I have met the latter Spacey somewhere on the streets .. Kate Winslet is excellent as the reporter as is Laura Linney and her well maintained body!!

The DeathWatch team tests the legal system, even at the cost of their lives, to prove the point that the legal system is inadequate in making decisions in these cases and death penalty should be abolished.