The Life of David Gale is a 2003 crime thriller film directed and co-produced by Alan Parker, written by Charles Randolph, co-produced by Nicolas Cage, and starring Kevin Spacey as the title character, a college professor and longtime activist against capital punishment who is sentenced to death for killing a fellow capital punishment opponent; Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, and Gabriel Mann co-star.
With only a few days until his execution, his lawyer negotiates a half-million dollar fee to tell his story to Bitsey Bloom, a journalist from a major news network.
She is tailed several times in her car by Dusty Wright, an alleged one-time lover and colleague of Harraway, whom she suspects was the real killer.
Bloom pursues this lead until she finds a tape revealing that Harraway, who was suffering from terminal leukemia, had committed an elaborate suicide made to look like murder.
Wright is seen on the videotape, acting as her accomplice, implying that they framed Gale as part of a plan to discredit the death penalty by conspiring to execute an innocent person, and subsequently releasing evidence of the actual circumstances.
Later, Wright receives the money that Bloom's magazine agreed to pay for the interview, and delivers it to Sharon, along with a postcard from Berlin confessing that the rape accusation that derailed Gale's life and career was false.
He then looks at the camera and ends the recording, leaving Bloom stunned with the truth that the couple deliberately sacrificed themselves to discredit capital punishment.
The critics consensus reads, "Instead of offering a convincing argument against the death penalty, this implausible, convoluted thriller pounds the viewer over the head with its message.
"[9] The soundtrack (composed by Alex and Jake Parker) has been used in various film trailers, specifically the tracks "The Life of David Gale" and "Almost Martyrs".
[10] In the Philippines, long-time senator and 2022 presidential aspirant Ping Lacson credited this film in changing his mind on capital punishment.