How does 'The Life of David Gale' use conventions of a thriller?

The Life of David Gale is a crime thriller directed by Alan Parker, the plot consists of the protagonist David Gale who is on trial for murder and rape of his closest friend on death row, days before his trial where he hires a journalist to conduct his final interview where she unravels his story to determine if he is truly innocent or indeed guilty.
   The crime thriller uses many typical genre conventions that are expected from a thriller film, such as the obvious suspense building, enigma codes used throughout, unclear character roles, a complex and developed non chronological story line, and typical expected thriller locations. 
For example, the use of flashbacks used throughout is frequent and used to tell the story of the protagonists life, this is a common thriller convention used widely across the genre to throw the audience into a faced paced plot that immediately grabs their attention and also will usually create a false sense of security for the audience as it makes the audience believe they understand what is going on, as well as why, as they believe that they have already seen how the film ends, which is when the director usually takes the opportunity to completely twist what the audience have been shown to shock and surprise them.

A good example of this, is the first scene that the audience are introduced to, whereby they see a vulnerable, tired isolated female throwing herself out of a car and running down a long stretching road. This makes the audience believe that she is in trouble and attempting to escape some kind of danger, which, because of her gender and eagerness to escape, the audience assume is something such as rape, and the audience from then on begin to empathise and pity this character as they believe they know what the outcome of her life will be. 
This is when the director chooses to project another plot involving other characters entirely upon the audience, which the audience naturally choose not to focus on as they believe it to not be the main focus as they were just shown a scene with this female character and not the man the story seems to be centralised around. Many sub-plots within this film are used which again, mainly seem irrelevant to the audience, but cleverly intertwine which in the end, exposes the bigger picture to the audience. 
This carefully structured and heavily developed plot is a typical feature of the thriller genre as it is an effective way to build shock by surprising an audience, as well as creating a sense of tension upon the audience.

The settings used are also typical of the thriller genre and connote certain ideas that are relevant to the story line and create the ominous sense of mood desired by the director. For example, a majority of the scenes that the film is set in, is a state prison. This setting immediately gives the audience certain ideas about dangers, villains, entrapment, and therefore creates a sense of unease.
Another example is when the two journalists check in to a hotel, and this is the first glimpse of where they will be staying for the night, it immediately makes the audience feel apprehensive for the lives of the characters, as the night time setting, pathetic fallacy, and blacked out hotel greeting sign, immediately connote a sense of abandonment, isolation  and misfortune, which also creates a sense of enigma as to why this setting has come to be this way.
However, the director also manipulates the setting to make it seem more realistic and therefore dangerous to the audience, by using a perfectly pleasant setting of open countryside in broad daylight to make it seem more menacing that dangers do in fact take place in a setting that the audience are more likely to relate to, and do not expect anything bad to occur.


The use of lighting in The Life Of David Gale is also very conforming to the thriller genre, as chiaroscuro lighting is quite commonly used throughout the film. This is a vintage thriller technique that was a common feature in Noir films, but is still equally as effective and therefore still used today and incorporated into many modern day thrillers.
In addition, lighting is also limited in certain scenes, such as the hotel scene (as shown above) which creates a sense of tension as the audience don't know what is being kept from them as they are literally 'in the dark' and oblivious to any other dangerous that could possibly impact them.
Lighting is also used to portray moral ambiguity, which is important when establishing character, as this shot is one of the first glimpses of the potentially innocent or potentially guilty prisoner, and the lighting helps to portray this idea of innocence and the possible lurking dangers within the character by the light and the dark shadows.

The character roles are also more complex than the structured in place 'hero' and 'villain' which is again expected from the thriller genre, as the audience are at first introduced to a 'criminal' and later introduced to the good father, husband, and human rights campaign activist, and are essentially left to interpret the character for themselves, meaning that the audience are left with the debate on whether to trust, or not trust the character, which depending on what the audience decide to do, dramatically changes the outlook on the entire film.

Dusty Wright is a characters role which in the film drastically changes as the film develops, from a minor suspicious character, to a good friend of the victim, to a dangerous murder and so on, and the audience are constantly given a misleading impression of the character which, when his true role is exposed, again shocks and surprises the audience. 
The use of complex character roles adds depth to the plot and overall viewing experience, as it differs from the over used stereo types so frequently common in films.

The use of Enigma is fluent throughout the film, as to whether the character is innocent, if the journalist will solve the crime, if he will survive, why the journalist was hired to begin with, where the tape is etc. These questions are constantly playing on the audiences mind, and the director makes the audience wait until the very end to answer all of their questions so that the audience are actively engaged, immersing themselves in the drama of the plot, and consequently strengthening the relationship between characters and the audience, as well as making the audience have the desire to watch the end of the film.

Suspense is also excellently created throughout the film as there is constantly the element of time against them, meaning that especially towards the end of the film, when he has just minutes in which time to be saved, the audience are feeling extremely tense as the whole film has been built up to essentially that one moment. Another good example of how suspense was built, was when the journalist Bitsey Bloom broke into somebody's house to investigate, and the camera stays very close to her, using tight shots so that the audience cannot see who else may be present, and especially as the audience are aware that this character could come home at any moment, and could result in Bitsey potentially being in huge danger, this creates a huge sense of tension amongst the audience.