2 hours 15 minutes, USA 1996
Director: Joel Schumacher; Producers: Arnon Milchan, Hunt Lowry, Michael G. Nathanson and John Grisham; Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by John Grisham; Photography: Peter Menzies Jr.; Production Design: Larry Fulton; Editing: William Steinkamp; Music: Elliot Goldenthal.
Stars: Matthew McConaughey (Jake Brigance), Sandra Bullock (Ellen Roark), Samuel L. Jackson (Carl Lee Haley), Brenda Fricker (Ethel Twitty), Kevin Spacey (Rufus Buckley), Charles S. Dutton (Sheriff Ozzie Walls), Patrick McGoohan (Judge Omar Noose), Donald Sutherland (Lucien Wilbanks), Oliver Platt (Harry Rex Vonner), Ashley Judd (Carla Brigance), Kiefer Sutherland (Freddie Cobb).
Back when John Grisham was nothing more than a humble lawyer in a backwoods Mississippi practice, he wrote a semi-autobiographical courtroom thriller entitled A Time To Kill. Almost every publisher turned it down and, when it finally got printed, it only sold a few thousand copies. Now, almost a decade later, John Grisham is a multi-millionaire screenwriter, after successful film adaptations of his books The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client., and now Grisham has given the go ahead for the film version of his most cherished and, some say, best book to date - A Time To Kill.
The film follows the fortunes of Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), a humble lawyer in backwoods Mississippi practice, who suddenly finds himself thrown into the midst of a sensational murder trial. A few days earlier, a young black girl (Rae'ven Kelly) had been abducted, brutally raped and assaulted, and left for dead by two white youths (Doug Hutchison and Nick Katt). However, the young girl didn't die, and the two men are arrested by the local sheriff (Charles S. Dutton). However, the young girl's father, Carl Lee Haley (Samuel L. Jackson) is so distraught and angry that he decides to take matters in to his own hands and guns down the men in full view of a hundred people. Brigance, with the help of law student Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock), takes the case, and immediately becomes embroiled in a racial and judicial war involving the Ku Klux Klan as he fights to prove Haley's innocence.
A Time To Kill asks a lot of interesting and challenging questions surrounding the still-taboo subjects of racism and vigilantism. Is it possible for an all-white jury to give a black man a fair trial, even in the 1990s? Is it right for a single man to exact justice on another when he knows the system will fail him? Both these points are raised and discussed in this engrossing drama.
Samuel L. Jackson, despite only getting third billing, gives possibly the performance of the year as the decent man driven to terrible deeds by his love for his daughter. The film asks the viewer to put themselves into Haley's shoes and say "If that was my child, what would I do?". Adding to this are the racial undertones the movie projects, showing the differences that still exist today in America. In one scene, Jackson sums up the feeling of the entire state, and possibly the country where he says to Jake Brigance that "America is at war, and you are on the other side". The cast are excellent, with Matthew McConaughey excellent in debut role. He is now Paul Newman, by any means, but his delivery and emotion are very good, especially in the very moving summation scene at the end of the movie. Sam Jackson, as I mentioned above, is brilliant as Carl Lee Haley, and Sandra Bullock shows that she can act in 'adult' serious roles to good effect. A top notch supporting cast, including Kevin Spacey as the slimy prosecution lawyer, Oliver Platt as Jake's wisecracking but good-hearted sidekick, Patrick McGoohan as the old judge and Donald Sutherland as Jake's inebriated mentor. There are also a few cameos worth pointing out, like Kurtwood Smith as a vicious Klan leader, M. Emmett Walsh and Anthony Heald as trial psychiatrists, and an unbilled Kiefer Sutherland, who is very good as the bigoted brother of one of the rapists. The only let down for me was Brenda Fricker as Jake's secretary, who never seemed to be able to get past the necessary deep south accent.
A Time To Kill is an excellent film, full of talking points, intelligence and very good performances. If only Hollywood could tackle films issues like this more often, then people would see the stupidity of a narrow mind.
