A Time to Kill

Plot synopsis:
Two white racists, Billy Ray Cobb (Nicky Katt) and Pete Willard (Doug Hutchison), come across a 10-year-old black girl named Tonya Hailey (Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly) in rural Mississippi. They violently rape and beat Tonya and dump her in a nearby river after a failed attempt to hang her. She survives, and the men are arrested.Tonya's father, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), seeks out Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), an easygoing white lawyer. Carl Lee is worried that the men may be acquitted due to deep-seated racism in the Mississippi Delta area. They discuss a similar case further south in which four white teenagers were acquitted of the rape of a black girl. Brigance admits the possibility that the rapists will walk free in this case as well. Carl Lee acquires an M16 rifle, goes to the county courthouse and opens fire. This results in the deaths of both rapists and also in the unintended injury of Deputy Looney (Chris Cooper), who has to have his leg amputated. Carl Lee is soon arrested without resistance. Brigance agrees to provide defense for Carl Lee for a much smaller amount of money than such a trial would usually require. He intends to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.The rape and subsequent revenge killing gain national media attention. The Ku Klux Klan begins to organize in the area. Freddie Lee Cobb (Kiefer Sutherland), the brother of Billy Ray, calls Brigance and his family with death threats and organizes the formation of a Klan chapter in the county. The district attorney, Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey), decides to seek the death penalty, and presiding Judge Omar Noose (Patrick McGoohan) denies Brigance a change of venue. Brigance seeks help for his defense team from sleazy divorce lawyer and close friend Harry Rex Vonner (Oliver Platt). He seeks guidance from long-time liberal activist Lucien Wilbanks (Donald Sutherland), a once-great civil rights lawyer who was disbarred for violence on a picket line.Brigance is approached by Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock), a fiery liberal law student from Massachusetts who belongs to the ACLU. Brigance is initially reluctant to accept Ellen's cooperation, but he later agrees to let her help with the case. The trial begins amid much attention from the media and public. The Klan, which has a member inside the sheriff's department, burns a cross on Brigance's lawn. This incident causes an argument between Brigance and his wife to the effect that if Jake had heeded Carl Lee's warning, this would not have happened. The police evacuate Jake's family from their house. Brigance and the police capture one of the Klan members, and they find a case with a bomb inside it. Brigance throws the bomb into the air, where it explodes. This motivates Jake to send his wife and young daughter away while the trial continues.As the trial begins, the KKK march down Canton's streets and meet a large group of mostly black protesters at the courthouse. Chaos ensues outside the courthouse as the police lose control of the crowd. A black teenager kills the KKK Grand Dragon (Kurtwood Smith) with a Molotov cocktail, burning him to death. Brigance's attraction to Roark grows, and they nearly begin an affair before Brigance regains his wits. He goes home, finding that arsonists have burned down his house, nearly killing his dog Max in the process. The next morning, as the Mississippi National Guard is called in to take care of the rioting, Brigance sits on the still-smoking steps of his house, calling for his dog. Harry Rex arrives at the remains of the Brigance home and tells Jake that it is time to quit the case. Brigance argues that to quit now would make his sacrifices meaningless. The jury secretly discusses the case in a restaurant, going against the judge's instructions. All but one are leaning toward a guilty verdict and Carl Lee's fate looks sealed.Freddie Lee Cobb shoots at Brigance as he exits the courthouse, but misses. The bullet hits a national guardsman policing the demonstrations, paralyzing him. Roark is kidnapped by Klansmen, beaten, tied to a stake in the wilderness in her underwear and left to die. She is saved by an informant called "Mickey Mouse," who is one of the Klansmen: Tim Nunley (John Diehl). Out of options, Brigance goes to see Carl Lee in his jail cell and advises accepting a lesser guilty plea. Carl Lee refuses and rejects Brigance's notions of race and justice, noting that although Brigance considers himself a "friend" to Carl Lee, Brigance has never visited his home and that "our kids will never play together." Carl Lee tells Brigance that he chose Brigance to be his attorney because Brigance is in fact his "enemy", as Brigance is white and was thus raised amid the same racial prejudices harbored by the jury members. Carl Lee tells Brigance to sway the jury by presenting to them whatever argument it would take to get Brigance himself to vote for acquittal, were Brigance a member of that jury.The courthouse is packed to see the attorneys' closing arguments. Brigance tells the jury to close their eyes and listen to a story. He describes, in slow and painful detail, the rape of a young 10-year-old girl, mirroring the story of Tonya's rape. He then asks the jury, in his final comment, to "now imagine she's white." This final burst of imagery challenges the very nature of the trial itself, raising the very real specter - within the racist culture of the community in which the crime took place - that the actions of Hailey would not have been called to question before the court of law had the victim been white. Had it been so, it is implied that the father's motive in murdering the rapists would have been seen by the public as justified, and there would not have been any prosecution.The argument Brigance then makes is that if the jury can - at any time - be compelled to spare the life of a white man for a vengeful murder, then they must be able to do the same for a black man. After deliberation, an African-American child runs out of the courthouse and screams, "he's innocent!" Jubilation ensues amongst the supporters outside. The KKK, enraged, become violent again. Sheriff Ozzie Walls (Charles S. Dutton) arrests Freddie Lee, as well as his own racist deputy. The movie ends when Brigance brings his wife and daughter to a family cookout at Carl Lee's house. Carl Lee is surprised and standoffish. Jake explains, "just thought our kids could play together," and Carl Lee smiles at that.

Tags: tragedy, revenge, murder, violence

Review:
ALL of the cast gave a superb performance; the story did not drag; the places that were filmed were true-to-life; to some folk's surprise, there ARE people who live in the state who do not speak like idiots: people think I'm English!; Mathew Mc was astounding and Sandra Bullock's performance was exactly as it should have been, as an activist "little rich girl"; Southern gave a true performance of a alcoholic lawyer; Sam Jackson was masterful and expressed the difference in being "white" and "black"; Kevin Stacy's portrayal of a Southern lawyer with all the connections, right on; I can think of no one who wasn't brilliantly cast.Missed by many people who made comments, this film is a statement that today we are brutally MEAN to one another: "Crash" re-states this fact, although it is not nearly as poetic.
From the beginning I was thinking "they left out a whole mess of details." I was irritated that they did not develop the characters better like in the book.But by the 3rd quarter of the movie this was the last thought in my mind.
And by the end I understood that the screenwriter had very skillfully budgeted his (limited) screen time for the most important parts of the movie, where it is well spent.I think the acting of the principals was very good, and I found especially for Sandra Bullock as Ellen Roark - who was the most believable character.
Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Kiefer Sutherland, his father Donald Sutherland, Ashley Judd, Chris Cooper and more, all of which are lead by Matthew McConaughey.
not one actor wasted a cent of the money we paid to see it.Matthew McConaughey's "Jake Brigance" was an incredibly lucky shot of an acting debut that he took and ran with like the wind, turning in an amazing, heart-stopping, truly star-making performance, which may prove to be the crowning achievement of his entire career when all is said and done..
It will be a treacherous climb to try and top it, certainly.Class act Donald Sutherland is superbly cast in a quiet, and profound role, as "Jake"'s, {now no longer practicing}, professor, a perfect fit, this role, for a man of such rare eloquence~ There is a sizzling sub-story going on between "Jake", a devoted family man, and Sandra Bullock's character that could not have been tighter, steamier, nor more well written and played out.I recommend this movie to anyone who believes in justice, who has a child, or only knows one.You want cheap, tawdry, sleazy, violent 'entertainment'?
One of the best dramas I've seen.Great performances from Samuel Jackson, Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey.I've seen this movie four times and each time I see it, his closing speech has made me cry loudly.I highly recommend it.
For me this is actually one of the best movies I've ever seen, not only 'cause of the great performances of all main- and supporting actors, but most of it all because of the message and the feelings it gave me while I was watching it and even still gives me.
John Grisham and Joel Schumacher are two men who've never much cared whether the stories they tell make sense, and it shows.We're supposed to believe that a small Mississippi town is BOTH progressive and liberal enough to elect a black sheriff AND so racist that a black crime victim can never get justice.
Jackson's character claims the right to kill the men who attacked his daughter, because he insists black people can't get justice from a white jury.
Racism Is Bad -- But Only Mean Rednecks Must Pay. The problem I have with this movie is not that a black father loses his cool and shoots two white men who raped his daughter.
The premise of 'A Time to Kill' is relatively simple: little black girl is raped by big white men, bigger black father (played by designated scary black man Samuel L.
Maybe it's the thrill of watching Armageddon fall upon a small and decidedly fragile town, with white supremacists having Molotov cocktails thrown at them and courtrooms playing host to drunkards and snide doctors; or maybe it's because Schumacher actually does a pretty good job of directing some utterly wonderful supporting actors (Donald Sutherland, Kevin Spacey, Kurtwood Smith, Oliver Platt) and some rather mediocre main ones (Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock).
Unlike Grisham's novel, the film hooks you from the get-go and keeps you practically on the edge of your set until the beautifully delivered closing statement by McConaughey (his talent did not live through the 90's, but this scene is at least a marvelous requiem to it), after which things starting getting a bit anti-climatic.Ultimately, 'A Time to Kill' is a very solid film that does not deserve to be condemned purely on the basis of its fallacious morals.
I hear this is the most faithful Grisham adaption yet, and if that is true, I can see why so many publishers turned down the novel when Grisham introduced it as his first work."A Time to Kill" is one of those films that is seriously confused and wants to do too many things at once.
Let's face it, those two types of films do not go together in Hollywood, which is why "Dead Man Walking" had to be made independently.The story involves a young lawyer named Jake (Matthew McConaughy) out to defend a black man named Carl (Samuel L.
To help out with the defense, Jack accepts the help of a former law student (Sandra Bullock), who proves that her role in this film was totally unnecessary, and put in the film only for marketing purposes.Meanwhile, one of the rapist's kid brother (Kiefer Sutherland) was angered that a black man killed his brother and decided to act out a revenge.
Films like 'A Time to Kill', which champion personal vengeance, no matter how bloody, contribute to the kind of political climate in which leading politicians can express sympathy with crazed loons who murder judges.
This "movie"(I cannot call it a "film "as it would give it the respect it does not earn.) No doubt "A Time To Kill" does justice to the Grisham book in the sense it portrays the fictional novel correctly.
Set in apparently modern day rural Mississippi, A black ten year old girl's brutally attacked, raped and left for dead by a pair of viscously depraved racists (needlessly to say white) The father, fearing his daughter's assailants would not get justice from the white jury, guns down the rapists before their trial.
Jackson) believes his daughter's rapists will be acquitted by a white jury, the same white people who elected a black man for sheriff(a position of power in a rural county) And are viewers expected to believe a prosecutor with an eye for higher office, bring charge of first degree murder to a father of a brutally raged child?
Bad dialog, the usual self-aggrandizing acting by McConaughey (look ma, I'm cute and sexy), his and Spacey's overacting and predictable corny ending.I'm generally a fan of Bullock's, the Sutherlands', SLJ's and Spacey's, but I feel embarrassed for these fine actors to have been associated with a badly written film.
As for the rest, I found the acting reasonable, with the exception of Sandra Bullock, who seems to be playing her usual bubbly self (doesn't really work in a courtroom drama), but what's the point when the film's message is as poor as this one.
The director Joel Schumacher tries to force his own terms on the audience.The movie so obviously pictures the character of Carl Lee (Samuel L.
"In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year- old daughter, inciting a revolt by local racist groups."What this summary doesn't tell you, is, that 'A Time to Kill' is one of the most heartbreaking, soul-shattering and mind-tearing movies you could ever watch.The novel, with the same title, by John Grisham​ from 1989 was already almost too much to bear and it took every ready many tears to cope with the pain this story caused.
I'd like to place the blame for this abominable movie at John Grisham's feet, but in view of Joel Schumacher's history of morally irresponsible filmmaking, he probably deserves it more.This courtroom drama follows the case of a black man (Jackson) who murders the two white men accused of raping and killing his daughter.
Joel Schumacher is a terrible director under the best of circumstances, but he can scrape together moderately competent films when he's dealing in pulpy genre pictures like "Flatliners" or "Phone Booth." God help us all, though, when he decides to get serious and make socially "important" films like "A Time to Kill." This screen adaptation of the John Grisham novel takes on race relations in America's deep South, and Schumacher and company commit themselves so eagerly to the sub-par material it's almost sad they couldn't manage to make a better movie out of it.
Was it that the movie tried so dam hard to get us to believe that the Samual L Jackson character was justified in killing the two men accused of raping his daughter?
And the lawyer is aided by the kind hearted but tough norther liberal Sandra Bullock.To further enlist our sympathy, the film shows the kin folk of the victims, led by Keifer Sutherland, as being stereotypical, dumb white bigots who go to the KKK for support.
Inside the courtroom, a opportunistic prosecutor, played by Kevin Spacey shoots the works to try to get poor(???) Samual Jackson to justice.So where this this well intentioned little movie go wrong?
Or still worse, it was that the racially charged morality play hits you over the head with a sledge hammer of self Righteousness.So what this movies boils down to is a "death wish" in black face as Samual L Jackson takes the law into his own hands.
A very thin plotted courtroom melodrama that says its OK for anyone to take vigilante action, provided its not the Klan, particularly with McConaughey's final summing up to the jury I'm not at all racist, but from my own studies of law and indeed, from the film, The Samuel L.
For instance, in the movie, a black guy who guns down two white people in cold blood and it is deemed "okay." I'm not making this up - it's in the film!
I just wanted to a watch a crime story, that had a good cast and an interesting story....period but, judging from the material in here, that is not the idea of this movie.There are just too many clichés and stereotypes in here to make this rise about the normal crud Hollywood puts out, no matter what side of the fence you sit.
The class actors (not this time though)) such as Jackson, Spacey and a few others in minor roles must be highly ashamed to have their names credited to this utter piece of -insert bad word- excuse for a drama.See this movie only for its unintended parodical values..
I really wanted to like "A Time To Kill," it has big time actors like Matthew McConaughey, the beautiful Sandra Bullock, Samuel L.
I watched this movie feeling so many different emotions until the legal aspect of this became the focal point.While Spacey and McConaughey were very convincing as an assistant district attorney and criminal defense attorney, respectively, their actions inside the courtroom were laughable at best.
Matthew MacConaughey was touted as the new Marlon Brando / Paul Newman (depending on your point of view) but he didn't have the presence or talent of either of those old pros.The story is one of racial hatred set in Mississippi, where the Ku Klux Klan still rage war on the black population, and where Samuel L Jackson's little daughter is raped and killed, causing his to shoot the accused white trash at the start of the film.
Kiefer Sutherland plays a nutty Klan member (a couple more roles like this would make his star wane considerably in movies thereafter), and his dad Donald makes an appearance as well.'A Time to Kill' is half-baked, unpalatable and not particularly good.
I happen to hate that movie and like Grisham, but after seeing A TIME TO KILL, this is definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Instead, they caricature everybody, on both sides, they trade sadism in for thrills(especially with what happens to Bullock's character), and instead of having a debate on vigilante justice(like they do in SLEEPERS, a far superior film on the same question), they manipulate us into only seeing it one way, especially in the speech McConaughey gives at the end.
It is a well made movie, and the acting is generally O.K., but in the Law I know...Samuel Jacksons character..HAD TO BE..found guilty.
Added to which, the character played by Sandra Bullock must be one of the flimsiest ever to insult a big money blockbuster.Not a night to propose marriage, after all.We watched Casablanca on video a few nights later, thankfully, and we've been happily married ever since.If you want a truly brilliant legal/racial drama, then get out the classic from which all the best scenes are shamelessly stolen, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Grisham's original novel realistically portrays lawyering as a profession that crushes idealism mercilessly, but the movie shows Brigance as a starry-eyed sentimentalist out to "save the world one case at a time."The best part of Schumacher's A TIME TO KILL is Samuel L.
While Grisham's Hailey seems to kill the rapists just because he thinks he can get away with it, Jackson makes it clear that he wants these two men dead even if it means he will be convicted or even executed for it.
Another court movie, "A time to kill" stars Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Samuel L.
He is arrested and a young lawyer is called to defend him, but the trial calls the whole country's attention because of the simple fact that the little girl is black and the two guys were white.From this point on, the movie stars to expose the racist American society.
Jackson last speech, when he tells McConaughey "we are not friends, we could never be friends, our children don't play together." In U.S.A., black people can have the same rights as white people, but they will always be treated like they were different.
When a ten-year-old African American girl is beaten and raped by two white men in Mississippi her father, Carl Lee (Samuel Jackson), decides to take matters in his own hands.
It's funny because I completely forgot about who all was in it: the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Ashley Judd, and Sandra Bullock--even Octavia Spencer had a small role.This type of movie is a difficult one to tackle due to its sensitive nature yet I think Grisham and Joel Schumacher did an excellent job.
I re watched this the other night on a slow TV night "A Time To Kill" is already 11 years old, which you realize pretty quickly when you see Matthew McConaughey is playing a lead role in a serious movie.
Not sure what he did after this to send his career down the toilet, but he showed here he's got some skills, especially reflected in his final summation, one of the greatest 10 movie scenes of all-time.The movie is about a father (Jackson), who takes justice into his own hands after a couple of hillbillies rape his 10 year old daughter.
You've got your Matthew McConaughey's and your Samuel L Jackson's, but you've also got your Sandra Bullock's, your Ashley Judd's, your Kiefer Sutherland's (in the post "Young Guns 2", pre "24" period),your Donald Sutherland's, your Kevin Spacey's plus a stack of "hey it's that guy's".Thought provoking and well worth seeing..
Putting aside the great looks of Matthew McConaughey, I think his acting was excellent along with Sandra Bullock's and the others actors and actresses of this movie!
Jackson plays Carl-Lee Hailey a man who takes matters into his own hands when he kills 2 redneck caucasians when they rape his 10 yr.
"A Time to Kill" is far and away the best movie (so far) based on a John Grisham novel.
A Time to Kill is an entertaining movie that makes people think long and hard about very important issues, which is great; I just hope it doesn't inspire too many people to take the law into their own hands by either committing a crime, or exonerating those who do.
***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Far fetched and convoluted story about rape revenge and murder in the deep south circa 1995 that seems to get itself lost in the both translation as well as the screenplay.There's no doubt to anyone in the film "A Time to Kill" that outraged father the hard working family man Carl Lee Hailey, Samuel L.
Matthew McConaughey overacted and like many of the others seemed afflicted with a case of sort of over the top white guilt, Sandra Bullock's character was completely pointless and just seemed to be forced into the movie for eye candy purposes, Samuel L Jackson was good portraying a sympathetic character.......
A Time To Kill is the best movie I have ever seen in my life.
Jake did see Carl Lee as different, but he wasn't one of the bad jury guys.In conclusion, I would like to say again that A Time to Kill was my favorite movie that I had ever seen.
Involving pretty much the same situation as "To Kill a Mockingbird", "A Time to Kill" portrays white lawyer Jake Tyler Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) defending black man Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L.
Murray Abraham played a similar character in "the Bonfire of the Vanities").I have not liked all the Grisham-based films I have seen, but "A Time to Kill" is one of the better ones; I preferred it, for instance, to "The Client", which was also directed by Joel Schumacher.