A Time To Kill 1996

John Grisham wrote the book, so of course there is an exceptional plot line. A controversial plot where a 10 year old african-american girl is raped by two southern bigot, rednecks and in return the father, Carl Lee Haley (Samuel L Jackson) kills both of these rapist right on the court room steps just before they went to court. The whole basis of the movie is about the ensuing capital trial of Carl Lee Haley. There is an interesting scene at the beginning of this movie between Jake (McConaughey) and Lucien (Sutherland) in which they discuss the trial before it starts and comment how, if he is convicted of murder, which he clearly committed, then justice would prevail and if he is let go then in a way justice would also prevail. That one scene is an excellent depiction of the movie as a whole and really "makes you think."

The movie does not have the best acting McConaughey has a strange smirk of his face in even some of the most serious scenes. I might even go so far as to say maybe McConaughey should stick to his romantic comedies, he acts better with his shirt off. I believe that the Grisham books attention to detail actually hurts some of the acting in this movie because there is such dry dialog in some parts of this film. Although, Sandra Bullock is a nice distraction from some of the drawn out legal jargon.

Having seen this movie brings up a lot of questions and you will be glad you watched this movie. It does not leave you wanting to watch it again or wanting more detail, like I stated earlier it may even be a little too detailed to a fault. It is a movie that is very straight forward, well thought out, and fairly good adaptation of a still prejudice Mississippi in the late 20th century.


This movie gets a rating of: In my collection (click to see rating system)

Questions to ponder while watching this movie:
How does one walk right into the lobby of the court house with a automatic weapon?
What year is this film set?
Am I really routing for a guy to get away with murder?
Am I really routing for a guy to cheat on his wife... just so I can see Sandra Bullock in a sex scene?