Reel Innocence

When hotshot reporter Bitsey Bloom -- who has a reputation for being "Mike Wallace on PMS" -- gains an exclusive interview with a high-profile death row inmate in the forthcoming fictional thriller, "The Life of David Gale," she's downright dismissive.

"It's not a story," she announces, "it's an interview." Her distaste for the assignment is apparent when an overly eager intern pipes up: "Maybe the guy's even innocent." "Yeah, right," Bloom responds.

The film follows Bloom's evolution from a skeptical journalist who has little regard for convicted criminals to someone who begins to question the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty system (which is clearly the journey that the filmmakers intend the audience to make).

Bloom (played by Kate Winslet) has been granted three interviews with convicted murderer and rapist David Gale (Kevin Spacey), formerly a charismatic and popular philosophy professor, mere days before his execution. Bloom is initially sure of Gale's guilt, but as she continues to learn more about the case, she becomes convinced of his innocence. In a race against the clock, Bloom tries to gather enough evidence to save Gale from his impending execution by fatal injection.

Though films like "Dead Man Walking" have provided complex portrayals of an issue that often inspires emotional responses from all sides, "The Life of David Gale" is one of the first major motion pictures to take an explicitly anti-death penalty perspective (though the filmmakers would likely backpedal from this assessment). But the film is not a political tirade; screenwriter Charles Randolph makes his argument via a suspenseful and entertaining plot, which asserts, in its own quiet way, that the death penalty is problematic because innocent men find themselves on death row.

Certainly, "David Gale" could not have come at a better time. It will be released at the end of February, a little less than two months after Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of Illinois death row inmates based on repeated examples of flaws within the criminal justice system. The film also comes amidst a remarkable growth in "innocence projects," or organizations dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions, across the country. According to these organizations, which now number in the 30s, more than 100 men have been released from death row as a result of their work since 1992. Marketing executives for "David Gale" could not have hoped for more.

And yet, despite the buzz, a majority of Americans still support capital punishment. Depending on the poll and the way the question was asked, between 65 to 71 percent of Americans favor the death penalty as of 2002.

Still, could it be possible that the specter of the debate has shifted so much that we can now find mainstream anti-death penalty movies (albeit masked as suspense thrillers) in suburban cineplexes?

During a question-and-answer session at a recent San Francisco preview screening, director Alan Parker hinted that this kind of film was not the easiest sell to a major studio. "This got greenlit the moment Kevin Spacey said he wanted to do it," Parker said. "The rest of us worked for nothing before that, for a year. It's getting more and more difficult these days to do thoughtful films of a certain scale."

Parker also hinted that the key to getting major studio backing for films with political content is to create a multi-layered product with mass appeal. "This will find a wider audience because obviously, from a movie point of view, it's a thriller," he said. "From an actor's point of view, it's absolutely about drama and character. And for perhaps me as a filmmaker, it has a political heart to it." Still, Parker deliberately did not make "David Gale" just as a vehicle for his views. "It's not a political diatribe in any way," he says. "If you stand on a soapbox, no one's going to listen to you anyway."