The Life of David Gale

Fantasies have to be unrealistic because the moment, the second that you get what you seek, you don't, you can't want it anymore. In order to continue to exist, desire must have its objects perpetually absent. It's not the "it" that you want, it's the fantasy of "it." So, desire supports crazy fantasies. This is what Pascal means when he says that we are only truly happy when daydreaming about future happiness. Or why we say the hunt is sweeter than the kill. Or be careful what you wish for. Not because you'll get it, but because you're doomed not to want it once you do. So the lesson of Lacan is, living by your wants will never make you happy. What it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideas and ideals and not to measure your life by what you've attained in terms of your desires but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self-sacrifice. Because in the end, the only way that we can measure the significance of our own lives is by valuing the lives of others.

We spend our whole life trying to stop death. Eating, inventing, loving, praying, fighting, killing. But what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back. Then there comes a point - a moment - in life when your mind outlives its desires, its obsessions, when your habits survive your dreams, and when your losses... Maybe death is a gift. You wonder. All I can tell you is that by this time tomorrow I'll be dead. I know when. I just cannot say why. You have 24 hours to find out.

[Governor Hardin and David Gale are engaged in a debate on Batter's Box]
Governor Hardin: Alan, let me say something I always say and I'm gonna keep on saying. And that is that I HATE killin'. That's why my administration is willing to kill to stop it.
David Gale: So, you don't subscribe to the idea that 'a good state is the one that protects its most despised members?'
Governor Hardin: It's a nice liberal idea. But, like most nice liberal ideas, naive.
David Gale: It's a quote from you, Governor. From your first state attorney campaign
Governor Hardin: [flustered] You've got me, Professor. But let me, in my defense, offer YOU a quote. Winston Churchill: 'If you're not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart, if you're still a liberal at thirty, you've got no brain.'
[studio audience laughs]
David Gale: So, basically, you feel, to choose another quote, 'society must be cleansed of elements which represent its own death.'
Governor Hardin: Well, yes. I'd have to agree.
[laughs]
Governor Hardin: Did I say that too?
David Gale: No, that was Hitler.

73% of all serial killers vote Republican

When you kill someone, you rob their family - not just of a loved one, but of their humanity. You harden their hearts with hate, you take away their capacity for civilized dispassion, you condemn them to bloodlust. It's a cruel and horrible thing, but indulging that hate will *never* help. The damage is done, and once we've had our pound of flesh, we're still hungry. We leave the death house muttering that lethal injection was just too good for them. In the end, a civilized society must live with a hard truth: he who seeks revenge digs two graves.

Hate's no fun if you keep it to yourself.

Death is a gift.

The Life of David Gale 
2003
Alan Parker 
EUA 

David Gale é um brilhante professor universitário e activista contra a pena de morte.
Após o assassinato da sua amiga e colega de trabalho, Constance, Gale é acusado pelo crime e condenado à pena de morte.
Às vésperas de sua morte, David pede a presença da repórter Bitsey Bloom para que ele lhe conceda uma entrevista exclusiva, onde finalmente contaria toda a verdade sobre o caso.