A Time to Kill is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
film adaptationFilm adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even other films...
of
John GrishamJohn Ray Grisham is an American author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. Before becoming a writer, he was a successful lawyer and politician...
's 1989
legal thrillerThe legal thriller is a sub-genre of crime fiction in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters...
novel of the same nameA Time to Kill is a 1989 legal suspense thriller by John Grisham. Grisham's first novel, it was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing...
. Directed by
Joel SchumacherJoel Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life and career:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee who died when Joel was four years old...
, the film features an
ensemble castAn ensemble cast is a cast in which the principal performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on different characters in different episodes...
that includes
Sandra BullockSandra Annette Bullock is an American actress who came to fame in the 1990s, after roles in successful films such as Speed and While You Were Sleeping. She has since established her career as a well-known leading Hollywood actress, with films such as Miss Congeniality and 2005 movies Crash, which...
,
Matthew McConaugheyMatthew David McConaughey is an American actor. After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s , he appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Sahara, and We Are Marshall...
,
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
,
Kiefer SutherlandKiefer William Fredrick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland is a British-born Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox thriller drama series 24. He is an Emmy Award- and Golden Globe award-winner...
,
Donald SutherlandDonald McNicol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian character actor with a film career spanning over 50 years. He is currently working in the American television series, Dirty Sexy Money. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, in...
, and
Kevin SpaceyKevin Spacey is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
.
Set in
Canton, MississippiCanton is a city in Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,911 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Madison County, and situated in the northern part of the metropolitan area surrounding the state capital, Jackson....
, the film revolves around the rape of a young girl and the subsequent arrest and murder of the rapists by the girl's father, Carl Lee Hailey. The remainder of the film then focuses on the trial of Carl Lee Hailey for murder. Upon its theatrical release,
A Time to Kill was regarded as a commercial success, taking nearly $110 million at the box office.
Plot summary
Two white men (
Nicky KattNicholas Lee "Nicky" Katt is an American actor known for his role as unorthodox teacher Harry Senate on David E. Kelley's Fox drama Boston Public. He has costarred in many movies and received critical praise for performances in The Limey and SubUrbia...
and
Doug HutchisonDouglas Anthony "Doug" Hutchison is an American actor, known for his roles in The Green Mile, as corrections officer Percy Wetmore, Eugene Victor Tooms in The X-Files, and as Horace Goodspeed in Lost. He owns the production company Dark Water Inc.-Early life:Hutchison was born in Dover, Delaware,...
) come across a 10-year-old black girl named Tonya (Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly) in rural Mississippi. They violently rape and beat Tonya and dump her in a nearby river, after an attempt to hang her, they fail, she survives and the men are arrested. Word spreads of the brutal rape. Tonya's father, Carl Lee Hailey (
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
), seeks out Jake Brigance (
Matthew McConaugheyMatthew David McConaughey is an American actor. After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s , he appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Sahara, and We Are Marshall...
), an easygoing white lawyer. Carl Lee is worried that the men may be acquitted, due to deep-seated
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
in the Mississippi Delta area. Brigance admits the possibility. Hailey acquires an
M16 rifleThe M16 is the U.S. military designation for the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle....
, goes to the county courthouse and opens fire, killing both rapists and unintentionally injuring Deputy Looney (
Chris CooperChristopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s, having appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including American Beauty, Capote, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and Adaptation., for which he won an Academy...
), with a ricochet. Carl Lee is soon arrested without resistance.
Brigance agrees to provide defense for Hailey 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, and the
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
begins to organize in the area. A brother of one of the dead rapists, Freddie Lee Cobb (
Kiefer SutherlandKiefer William Fredrick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland is a British-born Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox thriller drama series 24. He is an Emmy Award- and Golden Globe award-winner...
), 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 SpaceyKevin Spacey is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
), decides to seek the death penalty. Presiding Judge Omar Noose (
Patrick McGoohanPatrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and the cult classic The Prisoner...
) denies Jake a
change of venueA change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or its defendant to another...
. Jake seeks help for his defense team from sleazy divorce lawyer and close friend Harry Rex Vonner (
Oliver PlattOliver Platt is an Canadian stage, film, and television actor.-Early life:Platt was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to American parents Sheila Maynard, a clinical social worker who worked in Islamabad, and Nicholas Platt, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Zambia and the...
). He seeks guidance from long-time liberal activist Lucien Wilbanks (
Donald SutherlandDonald McNicol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian character actor with a film career spanning over 50 years. He is currently working in the American television series, Dirty Sexy Money. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, in...
), a once great civil rights lawyer who was disbarred for violence on a picket line. Jake's secretary, Ethel (
Brenda Fricker-Life and career:Her mother, Bina, was a teacher at Stratford College, and her father, Desmond, was an officer in the Department of Agriculture and a journalist for The Irish Times. In her teens, she aspired to follow her parent's footsteps into journalism....
), is wary of the racially explosive case.
Jake is approached by Ellen Roark (
Sandra BullockSandra Annette Bullock is an American actress who came to fame in the 1990s, after roles in successful films such as Speed and While You Were Sleeping. She has since established her career as a well-known leading Hollywood actress, with films such as Miss Congeniality and 2005 movies Crash, which...
), a fiery liberal law student from
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
who belongs to the ACLU. At first Jake is reluctant to accept Ellen's cooperation, but later agrees to let Ellen help with the case. The trial begins amongst much attention from the media and public. The Klan, who has a member inside the sheriff's department, burns a cross on Jake's lawn, forcing Jake to send his wife and young daughter away while the trial continues. As the trial begins, the KKK march down Canton's streets, meeting 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 hits the KKK Imperial Wizard (
Kurtwood SmithKurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
), with a
Molotov cocktailThe Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, or Molotov bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
, burning him to death.
Jake's attraction to Roark grows, and they nearly begin an affair before Jake gains his wits and goes home - to find that arsonists have burned down his house. The next morning, Jake sits on the still-smoking steps of his house and meets with Harry Rex, who says it is time to quit the case. Jake refuses, saying that to quit now would make his sacrifices meaningless. When the jury secretly discusses the case in a restaurant, against the judge's instructions, all but one are leaning toward a guilty verdict, and Carl Lee's fate looks sealed. Soon after, Freddie Lee Cobb shoots at Jake as he exits the courthouse, but misses and hits a national guardsman policing the demonstrations. That evening after leaving Jake's office, Roark is abducted by Klansmen; she is beaten, tied to a stake in the wilderness, and left to die. She is saved by an informant "Mickey Mouse," whose identity is revealed as one of the Klansmen, Tim Nunley (
John DiehlJohn Diehl is an American actor, particularly known for his roles as Charles Kawalsky in the 1994 film Stargate, Det. Larry Zito on the 1980s cop show Miami Vice, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy on The Shield, and as "the Cruiser" in Stripes. His other notable roles include Pvt...
), working with Cobb.
Out of options, Jake goes to see Carl Lee in his jail cell and advises accepting a lesser guilty plea. Carl Lee refuses, telling Brigance that his views on justice and race are wrong. The courthouse is packed to see the attorneys' closing arguments. Jake 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. His final comment to the jury is to tell them to imagine the victim was white. Hours later, after
deliberationLegal deliberation is the process in which a jury in a trial in court discusses in private the findings of the court and decides by vote with which argument to agree of either opposing side...
, an African-American child runs out of the courthouse and screams "He's innocent!" Jubilation ensues amongst the supporters outside. Sheriff Ozzie Walls (
Charles S. DuttonCharles Stanley Dutton is an American actor and director.With a lengthy, divirse and award-winning career on stage, film and television, Dutton is perhaps best-known for staring in the television series Roc .-Career:...
) arrests Freddie Lee as well as his racist deputy. Jake 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. This is a reference to an earlier scene when Carl Lee remarks that Brigance's and his children would never play together because of their skin colour.
Cast and crew
| Role |
Cast |
Other notes |
| Jake Brigance |
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor. After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s , he appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Sahara, and We Are Marshall...
|
Defense attorney for Carl Lee Hailey |
| Ellen Roark |
Sandra BullockSandra Annette Bullock is an American actress who came to fame in the 1990s, after roles in successful films such as Speed and While You Were Sleeping. She has since established her career as a well-known leading Hollywood actress, with films such as Miss Congeniality and 2005 movies Crash, which...
|
Law student working free for the defense |
| Carl Lee Hailey |
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
|
Defendant |
| Rufus Buckley |
Kevin SpaceyKevin Spacey is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
|
Prosecuting attorney |
| Carla Brigance |
Ashley JuddAshley Judd is an American actress, well known for playing a number of strong women characters in films such as Ruby in Paradise, Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, and High Crimes.-Early life:...
|
Jake's wife |
| Ozzie Walls |
Charles S. DuttonCharles Stanley Dutton is an American actor and director.With a lengthy, divirse and award-winning career on stage, film and television, Dutton is perhaps best-known for staring in the television series Roc .-Career:...
|
Canton Sheriff |
| Lucien Wilbanks |
Donald SutherlandDonald McNicol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian character actor with a film career spanning over 50 years. He is currently working in the American television series, Dirty Sexy Money. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, in...
|
Disbarred lawyer; Jake's mentor |
| Freddie Lee Cobb |
Kiefer SutherlandKiefer William Fredrick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland is a British-born Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox thriller drama series 24. He is an Emmy Award- and Golden Globe award-winner...
|
Klan member; brother of one of the shot rapists |
| Judge Omar Noose |
Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and the cult classic The Prisoner...
|
Presiding judge |
| Harry Rex Vonner |
Oliver PlattOliver Platt is an Canadian stage, film, and television actor.-Early life:Platt was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to American parents Sheila Maynard, a clinical social worker who worked in Islamabad, and Nicholas Platt, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Zambia and the...
|
Attorney assisting defense |
| Ethel Twitty |
Brenda Fricker-Life and career:Her mother, Bina, was a teacher at Stratford College, and her father, Desmond, was an officer in the Department of Agriculture and a journalist for The Irish Times. In her teens, she aspired to follow her parent's footsteps into journalism....
|
Secretary to Brigance |
| Tonya Hailey |
Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly |
Carl Lee's daughter, rape victim |
| Stump Sisson |
Kurtwood Smith Kurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
|
KKK Grand Dragon |
| Billy Ray Cobb |
Nicky Katt Nicholas Lee "Nicky" Katt is an American actor known for his role as unorthodox teacher Harry Senate on David E. Kelley's Fox drama Boston Public. He has costarred in many movies and received critical praise for performances in The Limey and SubUrbia...
|
Rapist |
| James Louis "Pete" Willard |
Doug HutchisonDouglas Anthony "Doug" Hutchison is an American actor, known for his roles in The Green Mile, as corrections officer Percy Wetmore, Eugene Victor Tooms in The X-Files, and as Horace Goodspeed in Lost. He owns the production company Dark Water Inc.-Early life:Hutchison was born in Dover, Delaware,...
|
Rapist |
| Tim Nunley |
John Diehl John Diehl is an American actor, particularly known for his roles as Charles Kawalsky in the 1994 film Stargate, Det. Larry Zito on the 1980s cop show Miami Vice, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy on The Shield, and as "the Cruiser" in Stripes. His other notable roles include Pvt...
|
Klansman, later informant |
| Dr. Wilbert Rodeheaver |
Anthony Heald Philip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
|
State Psychiatrist |
| Dr. Willard Tyrell Bass |
M. Emmet Walsh Michael Emmet Walsh is an American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions.-Life and career:...
|
Defense Psychiatrist; Uncredited |
- Screenwriter: Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman is an American screenwriter and producer in the motion picture industry. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
; Director: Joel SchumacherJoel Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life and career:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee who died when Joel was four years old...
; Composer: Elliot GoldenthalElliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways.-Biography:Elliot Goldenthal was...
for soundtrack page see soundtrackElliot Goldenthal scored the movie A Time to Kill in 1996, its emotional, sweeping themes are typical of Goldenthal's other scores with, often, intense and/or stark emotional motifs; something he had by this time become adept at...
page.
Production notes
John GrishamJohn Ray Grisham is an American author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. Before becoming a writer, he was a successful lawyer and politician...
has worked with director
Joel SchumacherJoel Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life and career:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee who died when Joel was four years old...
before on the
film adaptationThe Client is a 1994 American legal thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones and Brad Renfro in his film debut. It is based on the novel of the same name by John Grisham...
of
The ClientThe Client is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a mix with various legal elements and suspense.-Plot:...
with
Susan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1970, and won an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 film, Dead Man Walking...
and
Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and director.His film roles include federal marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive and U.S. Marshals, the villain "Two-Face" in Batman Forever, the mysterious Agent K in the Men in Black films, Western peace officers Woodrow F. Call in Lonesome Dove and Ed Tom...
. While only his book was the basis for his involvement with that film, Grisham took an active role in this film's production as a producer. The reason, as Grisham explained it, was that
A Time to Kill was his first book and the favorite one out of all of his works, and he wanted to see its adaptation done to his standards.
Before the part of Jake Brigance went to Matthew McConaughey, other actors, such as
Val KilmerVal Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a role in Top Gun and a lead role...
,
John CusackJohn Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He won the 1990 Most Promising Actor CFCA Award for Say Anything..., the 1998 Favorite Supporting Actor Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Con Air, and the 2000 Commitment to Chicago Award.-Early life:Cusack was born in Evanston,...
,
Robert Downey Jr.Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor, film producer, and musician. Downey made his screen debut at the age of five when he appeared in one of his father's films, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s, he had roles in a series of coming of age films...
,
Aidan Quinn-Early life:Quinn was born in Rockford, Illinois to devoutly Catholic Irish parents. He was raised in Chicago and Rockford, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His father was a professor in literature and his mother a homemaker. He has three brothers and a sister. His older...
and
Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men, a label that entices the media to report on his off-screen life...
, were considered.
Woody HarrelsonWoodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
had lobbied for the part and
Kevin CostnerKevin Michael Costner is an American actor, musician, producer, and director. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Oscars and a Golden Globe Award. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
was close to being cast, but Grisham axed Costner because the actor wanted complete control of the project. McConaughey was originally going to play Freddie Lee Cobb, but put his hat in the ring by speaking to Joel Schumacher and convincing him to let him audition. Schumacher videotaped the audition and decided that McConaughey was right for the part. He then approached Grisham and showed him the audition, which sold Grisham on casting him.
Bruce DernBruce MacLeish Dern is an American film actor. He also appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows. He frequently took roles as a character actor, often playing unstable and villainous characters...
was the original choice for the role of Judge Omar Noose. However, Patrick McGoohan was cast when Dern proved unavailable.
This movie was the second to feature both Donald Sutherland and his son Kiefer. The first was
Max Dugan ReturnsMax Dugan Returns is a 1983 American comedy-drama film starring Jason Robards, Jr. as the titular Max Dugan, Marsha Mason as his daughter Nora, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, and Matthew Broderick as grandson Michael .-Plot:Max Dugan , the long-lost father of Nora McPhee Max Dugan Returns is...
which was the film debut of Kiefer.
Box office performance
According to Boxofficemojo.com, the movie performed well earning over $108 million domestically. Among other Grisham films, only the The Firm had a bigger box office gross.
Critical reaction
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, earning a 76% "Fresh" rating on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
, based on 37 reviews, and a score of 54 out of 100 on
MetacriticMetacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, based on 21 reviews.
James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Biography:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and spent his early childhood in Morristown. At the age of nine, he moved to Cherry Hill. He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and...
gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "involving, energetic, and occasionally thought-provoking".
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
also gave the film three stars out of four, saying: "I was absorbed by
A Time to Kill, and found the performances strong and convincing," and added that "this is the best of the film versions of Grisham novels, I think, and it has been directed with skill by Joel Schumacher."
The film was not without its detractors, however.
Jonathan RosenbaumJonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
gave the film one star, calling it "worthless" and remarking: "
A Time to Kill argues for vigilantism but disguises its message by making the vigilante black, allowing viewers to think their blood lust and thirst for revenge is actually empathy for the oppressed."
Peter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
felt that "they [Schumacher and screenwriter
Akiva GoldsmanAkiva J. Goldsman is an American screenwriter and producer in the motion picture industry. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
] cram[med] in too much," adding, "This distracts from the heart of the picture, which is in the bond between Carl Lee (the brilliant [Samuel L.] Jackson is quietly devastating) and Jake, a husband and father who knows he, too, would have shot anyone who raped his little girl."
Grisham enjoyed the film, remarking: "When all was said and done I was happy with it, happy we were able to find a kid like Matthew McConaughey. It wasn't a great movie, but it was a good one."
Awards
Samuel L. Jackson received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
- 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Award - Favorite Actress - Suspense - Sandra Bullock - Won
- 1997 MTV Movie Awards - Best Female Performance - Sandra Bullock - Nominated
- 1997 MTV Movie Awards - Best Breakthrough Performance - Matthew McConaughey - Won
In popular culture
The line "Yes they deserved to die, and I hope they burn in hell!" was the last sentence uttered by
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
(played by
Dave ChappelleDavid Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, and actor. In 2003, he became widely known for his popular sketch comedy television series, Chappelle's Show. Comedy Central ranked him forty-third in the list of the 100 greatest stand-up...
) in a
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
beer commercial, a
Samuel AdamsSamuel Adams was a statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism...
beer commercial parody on
Chappelle's ShowChappelle's Show was an American comedy television series created by comedian Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan, with Chappelle hosting the show as well as starring in various skits. Chappelle, Brennan and Michele Armour were the show's executive producers. The series premiered on January 22, 2003 on...
.
External links