„The life of David Gale” Review

       Recently i have seen movie called „The life of David Gale” from 2003 by Alan Parker. My favourite actress , Kate Winslet, is playing the role of one of the antagonists -  together with Kavin Spacey.

She is a well known reporter who is been signed to a case completly different from her department, it then appears that it was on the request of main character - David Gale  (Kevin Spacey) who is a well educated profesor on university in Teksas. He has been accused of rape and a murder with a death penalty.

The action takes place over three days before his death verdict and Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) is supposed to make an interview with him over these three days, to get the whole truth story and then expose it to the daylight… At first she is completly against him and she does not understand the purpose of her doing the interview, but she could not do anything about it. With the flow of hours she is starting to understand that her presence in the prison is not accidental…

       I must say that the opening sequence is rather random. The first scene is a wide shot showing us a field, in the middle of no where. Then from afar we can see a car that goes on from the right side of the shot towards the left, slowly reducing speed. A few moments later we can see vehical stopping in the middle of the road and a lot amount of smoke around it.

 Then the viewer can hear swearing in the distance really quietly. The driver gets out of the car energetically, not even closing the door, and start to run very quickly. We can not see who is the person.

 The next long shot captures a woman running, from her side, so we authomaticlly assume that she was the person that was driving the car.

 In the following shots we can see her with a cassette in her hand. She keeps going, passing shops and buildings and finally she gets to the little town. Suddenly she sees a truck and by blocking its way she screams for help. The car passes her selflessly.

 She is not giving up and starts running again, and thats the end of the opening sequence.

When i was watching these first minutes at first i was confused - i did not know who is that woman, why is she in such a hurry and what is this cassette. With the duration of the movie you realize that it was connected to the plot. After watching these first minutes it is hard to define the genre and tone of the film. First things that came into my mind while watching it were : „This woman looks very determinated, but what is she actually doing and why?”. I had mainly questions in my head and no information about the direct location, pace, genre or characters… But because there were so many unknows i got intrigued, i wanted answers to my questions.

I think that this opening sequence broke „stereotypes” - nothing was served on a platter. After watching the most common opening sequences, the viewer is able to predict what the plot is going to be about.

These two minutes were extraoridinery - there was no music, you could only hear her steps, breathing, birds singing and the sound of drums in the background. Because of this simplicity the viewer feels like a part of an action, like observer. The beginning does not reveal any details about further events. With the flow of time there are answers to all the questions that bothered the viewer at the beginning.

       In conclusion. The openning sequence in the movie called „The life of David Gale” is out of context, it is not like the majority of films openning scenes, instead showing the viewer what it is going to be about or what is the pace and location of the movie it makes you think more intensively about it. No information has been revealed and becuase of that the viewer is more interested in the plot and what will happen in a minute. I think it broke basic standards of general openning sequences and it made me feel more excited for exploaring the movie and more like a character in the film than a viewer becuase of the simplicity.

Maybe it doesnt introduce you to the movie and it does not make it easier to understand the film but it forces you to think about it and deepen your knowledge about the fact that you already have…