may 2nd, this year was my last blog. so much has happened, so many books read and movies watched but i haven't made this place my priority. work, family, travel and now studies have crept in as major time stealers. but i met someone recently who shared my interest in films that do not enter the mainstream cinema, and he was kind enough to loan me a few movies for my watching pleasure.
the first one that i would like to write about is the life of david gale. i absolutely love alan parker for mississippi burning and till date the film is incomparable to any, and then later, his evita had a more profound effect, so based on the past directions, did i enjoy the life of david gale? i am not sure but i thought it came forward as a true story, which to me was pretty impressive.
a college professor and texas death penalty abolitionist, david gale and his colleague constance, work for an anti-death penalty organization called death watch. kevin spacey who is gale is accused of rape by a former student. i honestly find it deplorable when someone is accused of bogus rape, as was in this case. gale loses his job and family, develops a drinking habit and is later convicted of murder of his colleague and best friend, laura linney who is constance.
he sits in jail five days before he is to receive a lethal injection when suddenly a reporter is requested by him to write his story. kate winslet is bitsey bloom the reporter. believing that the sentence was just, bitsey was totally unsure of gale's innocence until the interview slowly unfolds, and she sets out to uncover the mystery of what was not known by the media.
a very unique film with a twist of an anticlimax and not a complete focus on gale as in the life of gale. we are rerouted to other characterizations of the main purpose of the film which was to prove a point and to make it understood. the energy of suspense and passion along with the mystery of the whole tragic death of constance was made an achievement in a cause.
as a critic i would naturally find clichés which were negative but on the whole it did not dampen my appreciation of how they managed to hold and keep my attention to the screen until the end of the story.
not a perfect film, but a captivating one, and did it live up to parker's high standard? i don't know, maybe not, the structure of the film and the spirit of the story may have meant to end the story well, especially when the media exclaim at the end that david gale finally achieved in death what he could not achieve while he was alive. i thought it strange though, i think, if one were to really think, there is another side to this and the climax or the anticlimax of the picture, efficiently and obviously betrays the very ethics gale and constance stood for.
well, thats just my opinion, but despite it all, i loved spacey. and winslet, she was beauty in entirety!! :-)
