In the course of the film a cross is burned on the front lawn of the Brigance house, an old man is badly beaten, a house is burned down, a woman is kidnapped and left to die tied to a tree, and a national guardsman is shot in the neck, in broad daylight, with a high powered sniper rifle. The search for justice in a straightforward vigilante violence case made much more complicated by racial overtones presents a juicy social dilemma.īut the film suffers from several issues, not the least of which is the multiplicity of crimes that cascade from the original murders but seem to come and go with no consequence. The performances are solid within the courtroom and on the streets, and Schumacher creates a sweat-drenched Southern aesthetic where different rules apply, and deep racial divides are hidden just below the surface. With the small town rocking with violence and protests, Jake has to find a way to defend a distraught black father in front of an all-white jury.Īnother John Grisham adaptation and again directed by Joel Schumacher, A Time To Kill is a glossy production, filled with familiar faces in every role, and with enough going on to maintain interest over 150 minutes.
They start a campaign of intimidation against Brigance, placing his wife Carla (Ashley Judd) and young daughter in harm's way.
Meanwhile, the black community rallies behind Carl Lee, while Freddie Lee Cobb (Kiefer Sutherland), a brother of one of the victims, reaches out to the Ku Klux Klan. Young and idealistic law student Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock) offers her help to the defence team. Brigance reconnects with his retired mentor Lucien Wilbanks (Donald Sutherland) and prepares a defence based on temporary insanity. The case generates a media circus, with District Attorney Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey) seeking the death penalty. Sure enough, Carl Lee goes ahead and guns down the two perpetrators and seriously wounds police officer Dwayne Looney (Chris Cooper) in the process. Jackson) approaches his friend and lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) and strongly hints that he will be seeking vigilante justice and would want Jake to subsequently defend him. Before their trial can start, Tonya's dad Carl Lee (Samuel L. She survives and identifies the attackers, who are summarily arrested. In rural Mississippi, two redneck white trash supremacists brutally rape Tonya, a ten year old black girl.
An overstuffed legal drama, A Time To Kill offers an all-star cast and plenty of incident, but quickly sprawls into too many crimes and loses touch with reality.
0 kommentar(er)
