Gale force

The Life Of David Gale – a controversial death penalty thriller set in Texas – received its Irish premiere at the recent Dublin International Film Festival. Both the director, Alan Parker, and one of the movie’s stars, Laura Linney were in town for the occasion.

Parker (now Sir Alan) is the veteran director responsible for films as diverse as Bugsy Malone, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments and also holds the distinction of dragging the only decent screen performance ever out of Madonna for the movie adaptation of Evita.

Linney, meanwhile, though nearly forty, has only just started to command the attention she deserves. Having spent many years as a working actress, she has recently chalked up acclaimed performances in The Truman Show, You Can Count On Me and Primal Fear.

Movie House caught up with them both to talk about the death penalty, Ireland and being bound and gagged for your art.

CF: There have been a number of very well-received films with an anti-death penalty stance, most notably Dead Man Walking – but despite their relase, despite the high-profile campaigning of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and despite its obvious brutality and occasional fallibility, the death penalty remains a hugely popular sanction in the USA. Why is this the case?

LL: “You know, I think that’s just part of the history of my country. It’s always been there. And in America, it has to do with how people perceive justice. I’m not saying that’s right, I’m saying that in America there is a very large number of the population who perceive it as justice. And it’s such a hot topic in the States, it’s such a controversial topic and people feel very passionately about whatever side they’re on. But people are also very defensive about their positions.”

AP: “It’s not unanimously popular in America – there’s a lively debate there, I think about 55% of people are for it, which isn’t actually very different from opinion in most places in Europe. I don’t know what the figures are here, but our government got rid of it even though the people are still quite up for it. So you can’t be too snotty about the Americans, although I have heard it argued that, if anything, they’re a more democratic society in that none of their politicians would dare run against a measure that was popular.

To answer your question more directly, it’s popular because fear of violent crime runs so deep in society that it’s felt there should be this final act of retribution, and that’s the logic behind it. Opinion polls in Britain on the isssue are quite scary, too.

I doubt it could ever be re-introduced in Britain no matter how right-wing the Commons was, since you can’t be a member of the European Union if you still have it, and all the new members are pretty keen to get rid of it for that reason.”

CF: If David Gale had been a real-life case, would his colour have given him a better chance of escaping Death Row?

LL: “That would depend on how much money he had. The issue is money.”

AP: “Death Row in Texas is still predominantly white. There are a disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics who get executed, no doubt about that – Death Row is drawn from the lowest end of society. If you’re white and affluent, your chances are far better. It’s totally to do with legal representation.”

CF: In southern States such as Louisiana and Texas, though, the death-penalty laws seem to be a very efficient means of exterminating the black ‘underclass’ that little bit faster.

LL: “Well, I think that’s going a little far. I can understand why you would see it that way. And it is absolutely true that far more men who are black or Hispanic, when they commit capital offences, there is no way they’re going to get off, they don’t stand a chance. If there’s a white man who has money? Absolutely. If it’s OJ Simpson, fine. Without doubt, if you’re Hispanic or African-American, particularly if the crime was violent, the cards are stacked against you. Because they have no resources, and the lawyers and public defenders are just not as good as the lawyers on a million dollars per hour.”

AP: “I’ve visited Death Row in Texas, it’s a very scary place. The one thing you will find agreement about on either side of the argument, though, is the fact that an innocent can be executed, and even people who are very pro-death penalty accept this and find it a concern.
The other side of the argument, which was brought home to me going over so dead-set against it and thinking ‘nothing can change my mind’, is that you learn an awful lot from talking to someone who had a family member murdered. It becomes much harder to look at it from your own little political/intellectual point of view, and if you look up the crimes that the people on Death Row tend to have committed, they’re pretty severe.

The notion of millions of innocents being fried for stealing a loaf of bread three times is miles off the mark, it just doesn’t happen if you take a cursory glance. These generally are people with no place in society. But should you take their lives? No. Is one in a hundred one mistake too many? Of course.”

CF: Do movies such as David Gale influence people’s opinions on the topic?

LL: “You know, I think what Alan is trying to do is spark debate and also just get people to talk about political issues whether it’s the death penalty or abortion or prayer in school, because people talk about politics and they just get angry and mad at each other, as opposed to really having a conversation, and a movie like this does give you a safer umbrella under which to discuss things. At least that’s my hope. There’s a political context in which the story and these characters live, but at the end of the day it’s just a movie. And there are so many people who want to just nail this as a political movie, which it’s not, but because the context is saturated and heavy it tends to raise a bit of a red flag, so people can lose sight of the fact that it’s just a murder thriller.”

CF: This is one of the more harrowing roles an actress could undertake (nudity: bound and gagged): had Linney any serious doubts about going through with it?

LL: “The death sequence was very very difficult to do, there’s no question about it. But Alan was very clear, even before I was offered the role, that he needed to be able to film it exactly as he wanted to film it. And when you do something like that, you really have to judge in your own mind whether the impact of that scene could be reached any other way. And in this particular case I didn’t think it could. Of course you’re nervous and it’s diffficult, and it was uncomfortable for everyone, not just for me. But Alan was very considerate in that he left it until the last day of filming. So I knew the crew, knew that the crew genuinely cared about me and didn’t want me to feel more vulnerable than I needed to. And there was a real sense of concern, ’cause it was dangerous too.”

CF: Alan Parker worked here on The Commitments & Angela’s Ashes. Are they just two projects that happened to interest him, or is he particularly fond of the country?

AP:“I am, yeah – I had such a great time doing The Commitments, it was the most joyous film I ever made. I’ve done so many films where you wake up full of dread thinking ‘fuck, I’ve got to go to work’, whereas on that one I couldn’t wait to get going every day, and no-one was pestering me about the size of their caravan or what size their limo was. I’ve been sort of hooked on coming here since – it’s strange, I’ve just written a novel and the hero’s an Irish Catholic, and here I am, an English Protestant, where the hell does that come from? Some other life, maybe!