The Life of David Gale wasn’t profound. It wasn’t shocking. It wasn’t even insightful. It added nothing to the cultural discussion of state-sponsored punitive killing. And if the point was to say, “innocent people die by capital punishment”, the response would have to be, “Yes, when they manipulate the system to do it intentionally.” The usual female reporter stereotype here: The character’s “tough” but the toughness amounts to being bitchy. She’s smart, but her smartness is a few wisecracks and some stoltifyingly simple deductions. She’s suppposed to be attractive in a sexually uptight, high maintenance sorta way, but she only succeeds in being generic. Not a sensual bone in her body. As a parody, she’d have been great, but one doubts that’s the intent. Gale is also a stereotype: horrendous killer/rapist behind bars, in command of the interview, knows something we all don’t, casual about his fate, stringing the heroine and so the audience, along. The Texas lawyer was the most interesting piece of work. Very Pulp Fiction meets X-files in style, with waist length silver pony-tail and his drawl. He’s a polite man of mystery. Now if the film had been about him…