METAPHYSICAL OVERVIEW:
To most people, death is an extreme measure in any context. To many, when death is meted out as punishment for an action…any action or behavior…the punishment exceeds ‘the crime’ and the consequent execution becomes inexcusable in and of itself. The Life of David Gale is an important movie because of the subject matter…as well as the artistry and skill of the group involved in the actual movie. Actors with proven track records like Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, and Laura Linney, directed by the prestigious Alan Parker, known for his important and often controversial films, all add up to a magnificent face of the huge body of people that created this endeavor championed by Universal Studios with Dirty Hands, Intermedia Films, Saturn Pictures as production collaborators.

Whether the viewer knows their stance on this subject or not, this film is worthwhile. Certainly, it will cause many to again ponder this highly distasteful, yet necessary, ethical question. In the 38 states in our country where there is execution of people, death is dealt by a lethal injection of three chemical dosages…first to sedate, then stop the breathing and finally to stop the heart of that person (all in the space of about ten minutes.) Most states still retain the right to end the alleged criminal life force with electrocution, gas chamber, hanging or firing squad. According to the research done by the director, Alan Parker, there are some 3,697 ‘offenders’ under sentence of death in our country. Last year, half of the ones executed met their fate in Texas, a state that has led the cry for the death penalty. Texas, which was electrocuting their death row inmates, waited during the ‘70’s while the Supreme Court, which had ruled against the death penalty in the late ‘60’s, ultimately labeling the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972…then reversing itself in 1976 with instructions for restructuring capital crimes trials and rhetoric about counseling jurors on discretion, was back at it in 1982 adding enough notches to its belt to account for over 25% of the executions in this country.

Actually, the question is not whether they should be executed for the crime for which they were found guilty, but whether any such person should be executed at all…especially, if, say, they weren’t actually guilty, for instance. In the past twenty-five years, 102 death row inmates were turned out onto the streets…they were innocent and found guilty due to dishonest witnesses and ineffective evidence (for instance, new DNA testing has been the key to some inmate’s restored freedom.) Many…most of our death row inmates undoubtedly did exactly what they were charged with doing. This, however, may not give us the clear conscience to execute them. Granted it costs considerably more than the $86 lethal injection method (priced out by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/deathrow.htm) to incarcerate them in our prisons, but the moral price we now pay may be insurmountable—both to ourselves and most of our allies. And if the alleged criminal is an innocent lacking adequate science, testimony or honor amongst the witnesses to keep his freedom, can we compound this injustice with such an irrevocable act as the ultimate punishment for any crime—death at someone else’s hand?

LOCAL NOTES (Las Vegas, Nv.)
You can take classes on filmmaking and screenwriting. Try UNLV’s Educational Outreach, formerly Continuing Education (http//edoutreach.unlv.edu/index.html), or Women In Film Las Vegas Chapter found at website www.wiflasvegas.org, which offers seminars and workshops. On the immediate horizon is the Independent Cinema Expo (www. icexpo.com), which will take place at the Alexis Park on March 8th and 9th.

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