A Time to Kill

 

A Time to Kill 1996

• Director: Joel Schumacher
• Seen by this director: Phantom of the Opera, Veronica Guerin, Flawless, The Client, The Lost Boys
• Based on the book by John Grisham
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Charles S Dutton, Brenda Frisker, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Patrick McGoohan, Ashley Judd, Tonea Stewart
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matthew McConaughey – The Gentlemen, The Dark Tower, Interstellar, The Wolf of Wall Street, EDtv, Amistad, The Lincoln Lawyer
• Samuel L Jackson – The 51^st State, Glass, The Hateful Eight, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Django Unchained, Jumper, 1408, Star Wars, Kill Bill, Changing Lanes, The Red Violin, Jackie Brown, The Long Kiss Goodnight, True Romance, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Sea of Love, Do the Right Thing
• Sandra Bullock – Gravity, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Crash, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Miss Congeniality 1&2, 28 Days, Practical Magic, Two Weeks Notice, While You Were Sleeping, Speed
• Kevin Spacey – The Men Who Stare at Goats, Superman Returns, The Life of David Gale, The United States of Leland, The Shipping News, Pay It Forward, American Beauty, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Usual Suspects, Glengarry Glenn Ross. Working Girl
• Oliver Platt - Ginger & Rosa, 2012, Frost/Nixon, Casanova, Postcards from the Edge, Working Girl
• Charles S Dutton – American Violet, Honeydripper, Secret Window, Alien 3
• Brenda Fricker – Tara Road, Milk, Inside I’m Dancing, Veronica Guerin, My Left Foot
• Donald Sutherland – Ad Astra, The Hunger Games 1-4, The Eagle, The Pillars of the Earth, Cold Mountain, A Dry White Season, Klute, Johnny Got His Gun, M*A*S*H, Ordinary People
• Kiefer Sutherland – Melancholia, Dark City, The Lost Boys, Stand by Me
• Tonea Stewart – Mississippi Is Burning
• Ashley Judd – Frida, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Double Jeopardy, Heat, Smoke
• Why? Worth seeing again.
• Seen: Once before. Now 21 February 2023.      

       Deep South, USA. Two young drunken white racists rape and nearly murder a little black girl. She survives and there are witnesses. The two rapists are arrested. The girl’s father Carl Lee (Jackson), knowing from similar cases that they will go free, kills them. Young, struggling, white lawyer Jake (McConaughy) defends him in the murder trial. The power-hungry and unethical DA (Spacey) is out for the death penalty. Jake gets unexpected help from an eager law student Ellen (Bullock).

       For a film about racism, the KKK, the complexity of justice, it mostly offers white voices, although Carl Lee actually points this out to Jake towards the end, lifting the film. The sexual tension between Jake and Ellen is an unnecessary Hollywood-type distraction and lowers it.

       Otherwise, it’s a decent film, well-structured for excitement with strong performances, especially by Jackson and McConaughy. The ending is strong and lifts it up again. 

4 * of 5