movie review a time to kill

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A time to kill, common sense media reviewers.

Legal drama candidly tackles race relations in America.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes the idea that people of different ethnici

Jake, a white man who's supposed to be "one of the

The opening segment shows a rape scene from the ey

Sexual innuendo.

Language includes many uses of the "N" word and a

Many adults smoke and drink at bars. Two character

Parents need to know that A Time to Kill is a drama set in Mississippi about a white lawyer (Matthew McConaughey) who defends a black man (Samuel L. Jackson) accused of killing the two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter. The chain of events following the death of these men creates an atmosphere of…

Positive Messages

Promotes the idea that people of different ethnicities can interact peacefully, even in the South. Some of the film’s characters show that practicing integrity and judging someone by their character, rather than skin color, can have a lasting effect on humanity. Highlights the notion that everyone deserves social justice, no matter their social class, history, or ethnic identity.

Positive Role Models

Jake, a white man who's supposed to be "one of the bad guys," helps a disenfranchised black man receive a fair trial in the South. Their relationship is aspirational and shows that human instinct, compassion, and empathy can overcome racial prejudice. Liberal lawyers and a former civil rights activist show that it's possible to defend someone fairly without letting racism block their judgment. A man whose leg has to get amputated as the result of a stray bullet forgives; a man who lost his home and almost lost his wife doesn't give up on what he believes to be right. Many characters within the film personify integrity, perseverance, and bravery in the face of challenging times.

Violence & Scariness

The opening segment shows a rape scene from the eyes of the 10-year-old victim. Two men tie her up, one gets undressed, and they thrust on top of her. Fist fights and brawls. Scenes show a cross burning and someone torching a home. Gun violence, murders, bloodshed, and race-induced tension and violence.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes many uses of the "N" word and a few uses of "s--t," plus "damn," "crap," "ass," "piss," and "God" (as an exclamation).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Many adults smoke and drink at bars. Two characters are alcoholics who drink throughout the film. Characters drink and drive.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that A Time to Kill is a drama set in Mississippi about a white lawyer ( Matthew McConaughey ) who defends a black man ( Samuel L. Jackson ) accused of killing the two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter. The chain of events following the death of these men creates an atmosphere of tension within the small Southern town, and revenge is sought by the Ku Klux Klan. Expect to see racial violence (including a cross burning) and the use of guns/weapons; characters are killed, and the rape scene is very upsetting. Characters swear ("s--t" and more) and use racially charged slurs (the "N" word); they also drink and smoke. The movie is based on the popular novel by John Grisham and has themes of integrity and perseverance. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (2)

Based on 1 parent review

The best and most accurate review

What's the story.

A TIME TO KILL takes a candid look at America's judicial system while giving viewers a glimpse of the psychological and physical trauma and consequences that come along with racial injustice, systemic racism, and oppression. In a small Mississippi town, bold young lawyer Jake Brigance ( Matthew McConaughey ) and his assistant, Ellen Roark ( Sandra Bullock ), defend Carl Lee Hailey ( Samuel L. Jackson ), a poor black man accused of killing the two white men who raped his young daughter. This incites fury, and the Ku Klux Klan seeks revenge. The movie is based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham.

Is It Any Good?

This film candidly depicts the residual effect of racism on the next generation. Viewers get the opportunity to see things from a different perspective and consider what life is like for both a white man and a black man in the South. While A Time to Kill fairly portrays unjust crimes committed against Carl Lee and his family, the film also allows viewers to see the intense experiences of a white man and his legal team who choose to defend a black man in the South during a pivotal time in America's history. A Time To Kill doesn't shy away from revealing topics, attitudes, and the realities of many who lived in the South during this time period.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the subject matter of A Time to Kill . Has the social climate in America changed since this film came out in 1996? Has racial tension in America lessened or increased? Why do you say that?

Do you think that black men in America have the right to a fair trial? Why or why not?

Did you notice any stereotyping in this movie? What about in other movies that deal with race? What's the danger of stereotypes?

How do the characters and story show the value of perseverance and integrity ? Why are those important character strengths ?

Why do you think that Jake told the jury, in reference to 10-year-old Tonya, during his final closing statement to "imagine she is white"?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 24, 1996
• On DVD or streaming : April 30, 1998
• Cast : Matthew McConaughey , Sandra Bullock , Samuel L. Jackson
• Director : Joel Shumacher
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters
• Character Strengths : Integrity , Perseverance
• Run time : 149 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence and some graphic language
• Last updated : February 23, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Our editors recommend.

The Green Mile

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12 Angry Men

Courtroom dramas, great movies with black characters, related topics.

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• Book Characters

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

A Time To Kill Review

13 Sep 1996

149 minutes

A Time To Kill

So enamoured was he with Joel Schumacher's solid if unremarkable handling of The Client, that one-time legal eagle turned author-of-the-moment John Grisham handed the director the reins to his precious debut novel. By far his best work, A Time To Kill carried semi-autobiographical overtones that the scribe (and, now indeed, producer) had, fearing the worst, been unwilling to fritter off onto the Hollywood production line.

It proved less a gift than a hot potato: a moral tightrope of a subject, casting antipathy between director and author (over who would play the lead) and a shoot in the inflammatory and sweltering atmosphere of a Mississippi summer haunted by the ghosts of movies past - To Kill A Mockingbird casts a long shadow. Yet bad karma has led to enriched moviegoing. This is easily the most thought-provoking and stimulating of the Grishamised movies.

Unknown beforehand but now a superstar in the offing, McConaughey is Jake Brigance, the local boy lawyer embroiled in a case that is more akin to a legal firebomb. After two redneck bullyboys brutally rape his black eight-year-old daughter and then slip through a hole in the law, impassioned father Jackson dispenses home-made justice by a lethal injection. Of lead. It is, of course, Brigance who elects to defend his vigilante actions and blow issues of justice wide open. Enter the Ku Klux Klan, led by the sneering lustre of Kiefer Sutherland, to stir up the locals, propping up the thriller elements with top quality nastiness. And enter hotshot law student Sandra Bullock to boil up some serious sexual chemistry and add right-on viewpoints.

The rest of the rangy cast reads like a talent devotee wish-list: Kevin Spacey smarming away as the egotistical prosecutor; Ashley Judd as the fretting wife; Donald Sutherland the drunken old-timer with sly advice; and Oliver Platt providing comic asides as a cynicism-sodden buddy lawyer. Even down on the third echelon the players are still hot: M. Emmet Walsh, Charles Dutton, Brenda Fricker.

Once it is assured McConaughey can do the business, whipping up sex appeal and camera hoggage like a thoroughbred, it is hard for Schumacher to mess up. An actual niggle is, ironically, talent overload: there are hints of too many cooks with scant opportunity to savour the likes of Sutherland, Platt and Spacey, even top billed Bullock is only a support player. With all the acting bases covered - jail-bound Jackson, as taut as a piano string, is fantastic - and the stormy southern location squirming with sweaty confrontations, lynchings and racial tension, there comes the reliable bluster of the movie courtroom complete with stir-'em-up staples - rent-a-mob riots, objections, last ditch evidence, wholesale implausibilites and Patrick McGoohan's sneery judge.

It's all very Grisham - swish courtroom antics by blue-eyed golden boy win day - but one balanced precariously on an ethical quagmire. What would you do if it were your daughter? Can vigilantism ever be acceptable? Schumacher is never quite smart enough to keep the debate neutral, and the unrestrained hero worship at the close leaves a nasty taste. But a rare thing is a courtroom thriller daring to venture into the grey areas of the law, and A Time To Kill is a prime slice of legal Americana.

A Time to Kill

Although it has its share of implausibilities, "A Time To Kill" is generally the most satisfying of the John Grisham screen adaptations to date. An absorbing tale of racial tensions as seen through the prism of a highly controversial murder case, this sweaty Southern courtroom drama is well served by a stellar cast that, along with the notably tony production values, puts a classy stamp on the rather contrived melodramatic proceedings.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

• Remember Me 14 years ago
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Although it has its share of implausibilities, “ A Time To Kill ” is generally the most satisfying of the John Grisham screen adaptations to date. An absorbing tale of racial tensions as seen through the prism of a highly controversial murder case, this sweaty Southern courtroom drama is well served by a stellar cast that, along with the notably tony production values, puts a classy stamp on the rather contrived melodramatic proceedings. As all the previous Grisham entries have grossed roughly $ 100 million or better, it would be surprising if Warner Bros. couldn’t propel this one to the same upscale commercial neighborhood.

With its “ To Kill a Mockingbird ” setup of an earnest white lawyer defending a black man of a crime that’s a particular affront to rednecks, pic stokes the political and emotional coals in ways calculated to appeal to middle-of-the-road and liberal humanist whites as well as to blacks, whichcould translate into sizable crossover business.

Just as much of a synthetic fabrication as other Grisham yarns, this one nonetheless emerges as more substantial due to the social fabric and unavoidably contentious legal issues at its core, as well as its colorful cast of characters.

Blood-boiling opening has two bad ol’ boys grabbing a 10-year-old black girl off a country road, tying her up, and beating and raping her within an inch of her life. The white trash perpetrators are easily apprehended, but the girl’s infuriated father, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), can’t restrain himself and guns down the goons as they are being led through the county courthouse, blowing away the knee of an innocent deputy (Chris Cooper) in the process.

To whom should Hailey turn for his defense but to another of Grisham’s patented down-and-out Southern lawyers, in this case young, good-looking Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), who previously got Hailey’s brother off on a charge. With little going for him other than the moral support of his disbarred and drunken former law professor (Donald Sutherland), secretary (Brenda Fricker) and lawyer buddy (Oliver Platt), Brigance takes on the murder case and begins to get a taste of what he’s up against when he’s threatened with dire personal consequences if his defense is successful.

Indeed, the case inspires a revival of the largely dormant Ku Klux Klan in Canton, Miss., a movement led by the brother (Kiefer Sutherland) of one of the murdered men. As the trial approaches, the Klan becomes increasingly brazen, burning a cross in front of Brigance’s house and generally making modern Canton look like the South in pre-civil rights days.

Arriving from left field, both dramatically and politically, is perky rich girl law student Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock), who keeps pestering Brigance to let her pitch in with the defense. His persistent refusals unfortunately point up one of the story’s biggest weak points, as Brigance would seem to need all the help he can get.

In one of the tale’s more interesting passages, the NAACP and the local black minister try to dump Brigance by imposing some high-powered legal representation , but the shrewd Hailey resists the move and sticks with his man. When his wife (Ashley Judd) and daughter conveniently leave town, Brigance has a change of heart and welcomes the assistance of the foxy Northerner with the black Porsche convertible, which throws a measure of sexual tension into the mix as well.

The trial itself is intense and provides numerous surprises and twists. With the crafty, ambitious Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey) leading the prosecution and an all-white jury hearing the case, Hailey would seem to be as good as dead. Despite some vital help from Roark, it all comes down to Brigance, in his summation, to convince the jurors that, perhaps, if they had been in Hailey’s shoes, they might have done the same thing.

As originated by Grisham and adapted by Akiva Goldsman, this is a story of elemental emotional and legal issues splashed across a large canvas, and director Joel Schumacher has done a solid job of keeping the many components in focus and balance. The picture is handsomely, even elegantly made, conspicuously well shot by Peter Menzies Jr. and scored with unusual subtlety and suppleness by Elliot Goldenthal .

Anointed for stardom by Schumacher and Grisham, the tall, blond, lanky McConaughey possesses traditional movie-star good looks and is up to the varied demands of the central role. At the same time, there are some built-in liabilities with the part, not only his puzzling passivity in building his case but some hackneyed scenes with his wife, the problems with which are no fault of the actors.

Jackson has the most potent dramatic opportunities and makes the most of them in the film’s most riveting performance. His careful, deliberate readings automatically heighten attention to what he’s saying, and his blunt speech about race relations and the law to his attorney the night before the latter’s summation is a high point.

Although she receives top billing, Bullock plays a somewhat peripheral character who hovers around the edges of the central events until rather late in the game. All the same, she is very fetching as a young woman who knows her worth and proves it time and again.

Supporting cast provides a vast amount of authority, amusement and sheer professionalism, especially Spacey as the slick prosecutor, Donald Sutherland as Brigance’s dissolute mentor and Patrick McGoohan as the old-school presiding judge. Chris Cooper delivers a brief but exceptionally vivid turn as the injured deputy, while M. Emmet Walsh is curiously unbilled for his appearance as a key trial witness.

All tech contributions are top-drawer.

• Production: Warner. Director Joel Schumacher; Producer Arnon Milchan, Michael Nathanson; Screenplay Akiva Goldsman.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor, Panavision widescreen), Peter Menzies Jr.; editor, William Steinkamp; music, Elliot Goldenthal; production design, Larry Fulton; art direction, Richard Toyon; set design, Keith P. Cunningham, Maya Shimoguchi; set decoration, Dorree Cooper; costume design, Ingrid Ferrin; sound (Dolby/SDDS), Petur Hliddal; associate producer-assistant director, William M. Elvin; casting, Mali Finn. Reviewed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, June 21, 1996. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 150 min.
• With: Ellen Roark ... Sandra Bullock Carl Lee Hailey ... Samuel L. Jackson Jake Brigance ... Matthew McConaughey Rufus Buckley ... Kevin Spacey Ethel Twitty ... Brenda Fricker Harry Rex Vonner ... Oliver Platt Sheriff Ozzie Walls ... Charles S. Dutton Carla Brigance ... Ashley Judd Judge Omar Noose ... Patrick McGoohan Lucien Wilbanks ... Donald Sutherland Freddie Cobb ... Kiefer Sutherland Tim Nunley ... John Diehl Pete Willard ... Doug Hutchison Billy Ray Cobb ... Nicky Katt Rev. Isaiah Street ... Joe Seneca Deputy Looney ... Chris Cooper Cora Cobb ... Beth Grant Dr. Rodeheaver ... Anthony Heald Norman Reinfield ... Jonathan Hadary Brent Musgrove ... Byron Jennings Gwen Hailey ... Tonea Stewart Tonya Hailey ... Raeven Larrymore Kelly Stump Sisson ... Kurtwood Smith Willard Tyrell Bass ... M. Emmet Walsh

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A Time to Kill

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

No one takes the film of John Grisham’s 1989 novel, his first and most personal, more seriously than Grisham. He withheld selling the film rights (for a very impressive $6 million) until he had a say in who would play Jake Brigance, the young Mississippi lawyer defending a black father, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), on trial for killing the two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter. Grisham felt close to Jake since he, too, was a young Mississippi lawyer before quitting to write such best sellers-turned-movie blockbusters as The Pelican Brief and The Client.

Grisham rejected the usual star suspects (Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Woody Harrelson) but sparked when director Joel Schumacher brought him Matthew McConaughey, a Texas greenhorn best known as Drew Barrymore’s cop loverman in Boys on the Side. Grisham was right to hold out. McConaughey, 26, is dynamite in a performance of smarts, sexiness, scrappy humor and unmistakable star sizzle.

Still, there should have been limits to pleasing Grisham. Schumacher and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman adroitly pared down The Client to its emotional core. In A Time to Kill, way long at 148 minutes, they cram in too much, including Grisham’s polemics about racism, the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and the moral dilemma of the death penalty.

This distracts from the heart of the picture, which is in the bond between Carl Lee (the brilliant Jackson is quietly devastating) and Jake, a husband and father who knows he, too, would have shot anyone who raped his little girl. Jake’s summation to the all-white jury, instructing the members to close their eyes and imagine their own child being brutalized, is a stirring climax. A female juror delivered the speech in the book, but, hey, this is Hollywood.

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In fact, A Time to Kill is at its most compelling and entertaining when Schumacher lets it rip in the old potboiler tradition. He draws prime performances from a rich cast, notably Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey as a treacherous prosecutor, Brenda Fricker as Jake’s cheeky secretary, Patrick McGoohan as a hanging judge named Noose, Charles Dutton as a football hero-turned-sheriff, M. Emmet Walsh as a boozy shrink and Donald Sutherland as a boozy, disbarred lawyer.

Kiefer Sutherland, Donald’s son, doesn’t fare as well as a stereotyped racist. Neither does the gifted Ashley Judd as Jake’s sexy but strident wife (“They’re burnin’ crosses on our lawn!”). Oliver Platt, as Jake’s cynical lawyer crony, is obvious but welcome comic relief. The oddest turn comes from adorable Sandra Bullock. She’s top-billed in the film, yet she’s saddled with a supporting role as a Boston law student, a babe genius who assists Jake with the case and pays a tall price for messing with Southern politics and Jake’s marriage. Audiences expecting more Bullock or more weighty import from A Time to Kill will have to adjust expectations and settle for the kick of a good yarn.

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A Time To Kill – Movie Review

The Low-Down:

A Time To Kill is a compelling and tense legal thriller based on John Grisham’s first novel. It is one of those rare movies that actually turned out to be better than the book it was based on. The movie is about an African American man convicted of murdering two white men, who had raped his daughter, and almost killed her and his defense lawyer, who goes against all odds to save him from the death penalty. Themes like vigilantism, racial discrimination and lack of faith in the judicial system, were skillfully dealt by veteran director Joel Schumacher. The ensemble cast with heavyweights like Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Samuel L Jackson and Mathew McConaughey in the lead add a certain gravitas to the movie and ensure that you are glued to your seat from the very first scene.

Samuel L Jackson gave a memorable performance playing Carl Lee Hailey, the avenging father who had killed the rapists in broad day light because he lacked faith in the justice system. Mathew McConaughey was convincingly solid as Jake Brigance, a young, sharp and witty but inexperienced defense lawyer. The relentless and untiring determination towards his commitment to seek justice is a lesson for all the young and aspiring lawyers.

The Legal Angle:

Grisham’s unapologetic depiction of vigilante justice as a brutal consequence of distrust in the justice system may resonate with some people but it also poses a legal and moral conundrum. Can someone be allowed to take the law into their own hands? Is there any justification for vigilantism in a jural society? Joel Schumacher’s careful treatment of these sensitive issues present a compelling case for vigilante justice, but scholars of law are bound to disagree with the methods of Carl Lee Hailey.

The idea that courts are a medium through which justice must be dispensed is reinforced and packaged in an emotionally charged tale of a helpless father. The distinction between justice and deciding matters in accordance with the law, is maintained throughout the movie. While the purpose of law is to establish justice in a society, in practice this purpose is usually ignored in favor of what has already been defined (law). This divide between law and justice has been a bone of contention among jurists for thousands of years and this movie adds yet another take on the age old debate.

The main idea being, “will a black man receive a fair trial in the south?” was a recurring theme through out the movie and in a broader context can easily be applied to societies where socio-legal discrimination is still prevalent against racial/religious minorities. At the heart of this, the story is about the importance of civil rights and dangers of unchecked social privileges.

Final Verdict:

A spectacularly entertaining movie made believable with impeccable acting and brilliant direction. It will leave the audience with an aftertaste of justice in their mouths and questions in their minds. Not a dull moment guaranteed.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any organization with which he might be associated.

Author: Ali Zaidi

The writer is a final year law student at Punjab University Law College, Lahore.

• A Time To Kill - Movie Review - Courting The Law

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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW;A Father's Revenge For His Child's Rape

By Janet Maslin

• July 24, 1996

This must be an author's dream: to start in obscurity, write books that make their way to every airport and drugstore, then belatedly sell a favorite first novel to the movies. And have one's fictionalized stand-in (in the case of John Grisham, a dashing and principled young Mississippi lawyer), played by a bright new matinee idol who sends the film's Adonis factor through the roof.

"A Time to Kill," adroitly styled by Joel Schumacher to make the most of John Grisham's story and Matthew McConaughey's captivating swagger, matches Mr. Schumacher's "Client" in its success at bringing a Grisham best seller to the screen. That pegs "A Time to Kill" as something resembling a lavishly illustrated beach book, but this film version still has much to recommend it: an outstanding cast, a gripping and racially charged story, a tumultuous Southern backdrop and good old-fashioned dramatic sweep. All those ingredients would keep things lively even if Mr. McConaughey lacked dimples, charisma and a profile that belongs on a coin.

Arriving on a wave of such breathless advance publicity that half the moviegoing public already knows the name of his dog, Mr. McConaughey succeeds in anchoring the film with a performance worth taking seriously. He plays Jake Brigance, the small-town lawyer who becomes embroiled in a murder case that violently polarizes Clanton, Miss., and bitterly contrasts the new South with the old.

Amid these tensions, the hero of the 1989 novel (by the then-obscure Mr. Grisham, who drew on his own experiences as a lawyer) eagerly courts the press to hang onto his client and keep his career afloat. Mr. Schumacher, who flatters his star with care and attention rarely seen since the demise of the studio system, and whose crisply decorative approach to courtroom drama makes even the courtroom look good, has the sense to spare Mr. McConaughey publicity-hound scenes like those.

The case is that of Carl Lee Hailey, who is played by a scorchingly terrific Samuel L. Jackson and who by any reasonable measure should be the film's most important character. When Carl Lee, a rural black factory worker, learns that his 10-year-old daughter has been raped and beaten by two drunken rednecks, he becomes distraught and insists on avenging this outrage. It happens that Jake and Carl Lee are friendly, since Jake once defended Carl Lee's brother. And it happens that Carl Lee tells Jake of his intentions before murdering the two rapists in front of witnesses.

What makes "A Time to Kill" Mr. Grisham's most interesting novel is the gray area into which this black-and-white case wanders. In Clanton, where a jury will be mostly white, can Jake really play by the rules? Or should he recognize the realities of small-town Southern justice and try more unconventional means of saving his client's life? As Carl Lee pleads insanity to this murder charge, even though Jake knows his crime was premeditated, "A Time to Kill" succeeds in evading the troubling issues it raises with a wealth of entertaining walk-ons. If the film doesn't add up to a cogent legal argument, neither does it have trouble delivering 2 hours and 20 minutes' worth of sturdy, highly charged drama.

As adapted efficiently by Akiva Goldsman, the film finds room for most of Mr. Grisham's colorful characters, like Jake's one-time mentor (Donald Sutherland), a debonair drunk who can be found wearing his dressing gown and Panama hat in the daytime. Then there are Jake's long-suffering legal secretary (Brenda Fricker), his wisecracking crony (Oliver Platt, providing rueful comic relief) and his gorgeous wife (Ashley Judd), who conveniently leaves town midway through the movie. Her departure coincides with the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan, whose presence in Canton in broad daylight inflames tensions and drives the film slightly off course in the overblown later stages of its story.

The departure of Jake's wife is also made to dovetail, with the kind of tidy plotting that has become endemic to Mr. Grisham's more recent writing, with the arrival of Ellen Roark, an improbably pert and brilliant young law student. Ellen is played by Sandra Bullock, who is too mature for this role and too flippant for this movie. But she does provide ample window dressing when she rolls into Canton wearing tight clothes and driving a black Porsche.

Ms. Bullock's presence in this smallish, jarring role also allows for mildly charged repartee between Ellen and Jake, who takes her on as an unpaid assistant and covert romantic interest. Mr. McConaughey, who does no small amount of flirting with the camera, also easily holds up his end of seductive banter with his co-star. She (late at night): "Do you want me to stay?" He: "Yeah, I want you to stay. So you better go."

Mr. Schumacher is at his better-than-"Batman" best in bringing out the sizzle in such situations, and in casting even the film's smaller roles with dependably strong actors. Of special note are Chris Cooper, in police uniform again after his wonderful performance in "Lone Star"; Charles S. Dutton as the tough local sheriff, and Tonea Stewart as Carl Lee's anguished wife. Rounding out the trial scenes is an expert Kevin Spacey, playing the natty prosecutor whom Jake teasily addresses as "Governor," in honor of his political ambitions. "And today ain't even my birthday!" Mr. Spacey's character exults, upon learning that he will be sparring with Jake Brigance in court.

"A Time to Kill" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes violence, profanity, racial epithets and a brief but very disturbing rape scene.

A TIME TO KILL

Directed by Joel Schumacher; written by Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by John Grisham; director of photography, Peter Menzies Jr.; edited by William Steinkamp; music by Elliot Goldenthal; production designer, Larry Fulton; produced by Arnon Milchan, Michael Nathanson, Hunt Lowry and Mr. Grisham; released by Warner Brothers. Running time: 128 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Sandra Bullock (Ellen Roark), Samuel L. Jackson (Carl Lee Hailey), Matthew McConaughey (Jake Brigance), Kevin Spacey (Rufus Buckley), Brenda Fricker (Ethel Twitty), Oliver Platt (Harry Rex Vonner), Charles S. Dutton (Sheriff Ozzie Walls), Ashley Judd (Carla), Patrick McGoohan (Judge Omar Noose), Tonea Stewart (Gwen Hailey), Chris Cooper (Looney), Kiefer Sutherland (Freddie Cobb) and Donald Sutherland (Lucien Wilbanks).

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A Time to Kill [Movie Review]

A Time to Kill is a 1996 film based on a book by John Grisham that takes place in a relatively small community in Mississippi . A courtroom drama, A Time to Kill follows the case of a Black man who is on trial for murdering two racist White men who viciously attacked and raped his daughter. Needing legal representation, he seeks the help of a local lawyer with a struggling law practice. The pair face off against a prosecutor who is hoping to use the case to advance his career and the murdered men’s supporters who are seeking revenge for their deaths.

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A young Black girl, Tonya (Rae’Ven Larrymore Kelly), is walking home from buying groceries and runs into two White men who are out joyriding and causing trouble. Billy Ray Cobb (Nicky Katt) and Pete Willard (Doug Hutchison) have mullets but let’s not stereotype. They’re two raggedy-looking White guys driving around annoying and pestering residents of the Black community within this town.

The pair are merely a nuisance at first but things take a turn when they come across Tonya who is walking alone on what I would consider a desolate road. They viciously attack the child. Assaulting, raping, and attempting to hang her before leaving her for dead. Fortunately, she’s found and taken to a hospital where she survives her injuries.

Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), Tonya’s father, is concerned for his daughter’s safety and health. There was a similar case in another nearby town where four White young men raped a Black girl and got away with the crime. With that in mind, Carl has little faith that his daughter will be able to get justice in a town like his.

Taking matters into his own hands Carl arrives at the courthouse when the two guys are going to be arraigned. Opening fire on the men, Carl kills them both and wounds a member of law enforcement who was helping to provide security. He intended to kill the two young men but not harm the police officer who was hit in the crossfire. With that Carl now finds himself on trial for his vigilante act.

It seems as though up to this point there might not have been open hostility in the town between the two races. The White residents mostly live within the town in what appear to be nicer homes. The Black residents live on the outskirts of town and while their houses aren’t ramshackle, they seem to be older and less fancy or well-maintained.

Carl Lee appeals to Jake Tyler Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) a local lawyer who had previously done some legal work for his brother. With that, you now have what is squaring up to be a courtroom drama. On one side, you have McConaughey playing the defense attorney. On the other side, you have Kevin Spacey playing the prosecutor, Rufus Buckley.

Buckley is currently the district attorney but has ambitions to become governor. Winning this case would be a tremendous opportunity for him to further increase his chances of being elected. The case is also important to Jake because it would present an opportunity to maybe get some attention and drum up business for his struggling legal practice. He has a partner in the firm but he has some issues with alcoholism and has lost his law license.

On the surface, you have these two sides that are fighting this legal battle. But they also have other motivations that are pushing them to try to win the case. Sure there’s the glory of winning the case in and of itself but also the long-term benefits and opportunities that it might bring for their careers.

This is a relatively small town where there’s probably not a lot going on. And given the nature of the rape and assault of Tonya, many members of the community had gathered at the courthouse. Before that case even began, people had likely already taken sides. When the two men were killed in the courtroom, their mother and brother were watching as were several other members of the community. Such a case would already have some simmering hostilities but the two men being white supremacists creates further division and adds to the tension.

It’s not surprising that Billy Ray and Pete receive support from their friends and family. But Billy Ray’s brother Freddie Lee Cobb (Kiefer Sutherland) and a friend decide that something needs to be done about this. Nevermind that the two men had been out looking for trouble and found it. Their friends and family still view them as having been wronged. They pay little attention to the harm that has been done to this little girl who was minding her own business. Instead, they focus on the loss of their loved ones.

I understand them feeling upset but they’re delusional for carrying on like they’re the wronged party. Freddie gathers with friends and they take it upon themselves to establish a local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. They feel as though things are getting out of hand. America is changing, and they believe they have to fight to not only get revenge for Billy Ray and Pete but also to fight against these changing tides. They take issue with Black people having the nerve to fight back and defend themselves or seek vengeance against White people that have done them wrong.

To play devil’s advocate, it wasn’t the smartest idea for Carl to kill these two men out of revenge for his daughter. First, they hadn’t gone to trial. While I understand his distrust of the system, I also understand waiting to see how things might have worked out. Tonya is his daughter who he loves and wants to protect. He wanted to get some type of retribution to make them and their loved ones feel his pain.

But he has his wife, three sons, and especially Tonya. She experienced a traumatic event that has changed her life and even after healing physically, she will need all the support she can get to cope emotionally and psychologically. If Carl Lee is convicted and goes to jail or worse, is executed, he won’t be there to help provide the support that she needs. I understand the urge to get revenge and make these men pay for what they did. But risking sitting in jail for decades or being executed would leave his daughter without her father at a time when she needs him the most.

The smarter thing would have been to let the case play out and in the meantime, offer your daughter the support that she needs. If we’re suspending disbelief, it would have made more sense to shoot them after they get off and claim it was a crime of passion or in defense of others. But that would have changed the movie.

Sticking with the story as its written, Carl Lee is facing the death penalty. He happens to know an attorney so that’s who he appeals to for help. But let’s say if he didn’t know this attorney, and had to rely on a public defender, that might change things. There’s a scene where the sheriff and deputies bring Billy Ray and Pete to the jail after they’ve been arrested. They’re placed in a cell by themselves so it’s just the two of them and we don’t see any other White prisoners. Yet, when the camera moves to the cell next to them we see that quite a few Black men are being held together in that cell.

We don’t have deep insight into the community at that point in A Time to Kill . But there is a clear disparity between the representation of races in the jail. That disparity is noteworthy because there’s a conversation about the population in the area being about 20% Black and otherwise White. In some of the surrounding counties, the Black population is the majority or makes up a greater percentage of the population. Here in this county where Black people are the minority within the community, they are seemingly the majority being held in jail. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t necessarily reflect the percentage of people committing crimes, just those being held in jail.

There is some discussion about attempting to get justice within the justice system or simply moving through the system as an individual. Carl committed a crime as a Black man in a predominantly White county. There’s a good chance that he will end up with a White jury. And if he is judged by a White jury, there’s a good chance that he’s going to be convicted and might receive a death sentence.

This is a man who works a regular job. He’s a blue-collar worker and not wealthy at all. To mount a proper legal defense would cost quite a bit of money. I believe Jake estimated it would be about $50,000. And that’s $50,000 in 1980s money which was a lot then and adjusted for inflation would be quite a bit more in the present. Carl Lee doesn’t have that kind of money but thinks he might be able to put together $10,000.

Let’s take a step back from his particular case. Just imagine being on trial and defending yourself in such a case would cost about $50,000. How many people have that kind of money laying about or through whatever means would be able to obtain that kind of money? How do you mount a vigorous defense if it costs money that you don’t have?

Carl Lee hopes to come up with $10,000 but realizes even that isn’t so easy to put together. The bank won’t extend him any kind of credit, because it’s his first time in prison, and they’re worried about being able to get back their money. In addition, he’s lost the job at which he’s worked for 20 years after missing just five days. His family still needs to survive. How are they going to continue to support themselves while also providing the funds to fight his court case?

That’s another part of why I feel it was an emotional and seemingly illogical move to kill these two individuals in such a manner. It’s going to make his life very complicated. But then as I was writing this review, I began to think that it was kind of smart though risky.

The circumstances of the assault and Carl Lee shooting the men in the courthouse in front of all those people would lead one to believe that he’s not thinking logically. That he’s so blinded by hurt and rage that he does something illogical and makes no effort to escape justice seems like a good setup for a plea of temporary insanity. Well played.

There’s an increasingly ominous feeling that tensions that have been brewing beneath the town’s surface are going to break into the open. People begin attempting to intimidate Jake, his practice, and the people close to him before it gives way to less subtle threats. They’re hoping that with enough pressure he might drop the case, creating a path to an easy guilty verdict.

On the prosecution’s side, they’re angling to manipulate the situation so they’re in the best position to win. They discuss the county’s demographics and how best they can swing things to ensure that they get a predominantly White jury. Buckley also speaks about trying to get a judge that might be sympathetic to them. He resorts to sending alcohol to Jake’s partner who is an alcoholic to render him unable to assist.

Usually, with movies of this nature, you might see the crime, and then they just launch into the courtroom drama but there’s a slower build-up here. It’s not just people getting on the witness stand and the presentation of evidence. There’s some discussion in the lead-up to the trial about how juries are put together and manipulating little details leading up to a court case helps to better ensure the likelihood of getting your desired outcome.

Whether or not a defendant can afford a good defense is key. But so is where the trial takes place as that affects the composition of the jury. And then there are all of these other little levers that you can adjust before the trial that can then have a tremendous impact on the verdict.

Outside of the courtroom, Freddie Cobb and his friends who have formed a local Klan group are stirring up trouble. In a sense, they are juxtaposed against the NAACP which is a false equivalence. I don’t have an issue with the NAACP nor am I its biggest fan but it feels icky to have them facing off against the Klan to control the narrative and sentiment in the community. In this instance, the NAACP is a real organization but also serves as a stand-in for similar organizations and individuals.

In these types of cases where some crime has been committed against a Black person and race is a factor, they tend to get involved. When you have these kinds of situations the press is used to generate attention in hopes of getting some kind of justice. It’s often needed to get the ball moving or to keep everyone honest. Some people get involved because they genuinely want to do some good and see justice done but others rush in with ulterior motives. Their involvement is really a ploy to get press for themselves.

You might have people requesting donations supposedly on behalf of the individual and/or their family. Think of when a person dies or has some traumatic experience and some random person pops up with a GoFundMe. But the exact plans for the funds might be unclear if stated at all. Before strategies are discussed or plans are put in place, there are calls for money. Others rush in and attach themselves to the situation and take it upon themselves to become the spokesperson.

A legal team is put together for Carl Lee but under the guise of consideration for potential ramifications of the case, the NAACP offers to step in and provide help. Representatives from the organization push for replacing Jake with lawyers from the NAACP’s legal defense arm. To be fair, Jake wants to get paid like anyone else as there are associated expenses. Yet, he has been there from the outset and has been putting in effort despite Carl’s money situation still being in limbo. They also have a past relationship as Jake previously represented Carl Lee’s brother.

I get that mounting a vigorous defense requires money. But seemingly before they even make contact with Carl to discuss the legal strategy or build rapport, they’ve already begun raising money. They’ve gone to the community and appealed to the local church to fundraise. It was implied that the money they gathered would be used to help Carl Lee’s defense but also his family, Tonya in particular. Obviously, they’ll have expenses as well if they step in as Carl’s lawyers. But in this instance, they’re taking all of the money for their legal expenses but haven’t given any to Carl’s family.

I would give the NAACP the benefit of the doubt that this isn’t actually how they operate in real life. To be quite honest I wish that the filmmakers used a made-up organization’s name instead of the actual NAACP because it feels like a specific attack on them. Their representatives seem like shady hustlers.

For example, there is a little man with gray hair who appeals to the reverend to raise money through the church and take a cut of that money for himself as an administrative fee. People and organizations using these situations to enrich themselves is a valid point but it wasn’t fair to specifically single out the NAACP.

Yet, it’s especially valid in light of recent unfortunate events regarding racially motivated acts of violence against Black people. There have been several activists and organizations rushing in only for it to be found out that they’ve collected all this money and can’t show how it’s been put to use. That or they’ve used their proximity to these situations to become influencers and obtain cushy jobs and/or purchase assets.

This is a two-hour-plus movie and while it’s technically a courtroom drama, just about the last hour or so takes place in the actual courtroom. Much of A Time to Kill is the lead-up to the two sides facing off in court. In addition, you still have the simmering battle going on outside the courtroom between the side that supports Carl Lee and the side that supports openly racist child rapists.

It’s quite telling that the jury is sequestered but they’re out to dinner early on in the trial. They’re not supposed to be sharing notes or discussing the trial at this point. But they take an informal poll to see where things stand. One person thinks Carl Lee is innocent, four people are undecided, and the rest believe he’s guilty. The polling in and of itself isn’t an issue because it’s still early. But what’s troubling is that one of the jurors refers to Carl Lee as the N-word and states his belief that he will be found guilty.

This is something that’s kind of touched upon within A Time to Kill . What leads to this whole situation is the belief that with this situation taking place in the South things will go awry. First that the two White men who raped and nearly killed this little Black girl wouldn’t be seriously prosecuted and if convicted that they would not receive a sentence fitting the seriousness of the crime. Second that this Black man now on trial for the murder of these two White men would not receive a fair trial. That he wouldn’t be treated in the same way that a White man might be treated under these circumstances.

It’s going to be very difficult to get the right judge and jury while also dealing with the prosecutor. If you have this individual on the jury who openly uses the N-word to describe Black people, what’s the likelihood that he’s going to be unbiased? You’re fighting an uphill battle rather than starting from a neutral position.

As we get towards the end of A Time to Kill , things go left with one of the witnesses for the defense. Jake expresses that he thinks Carl should take a plea because he doesn’t think they’re gonna win the case. Carl reassures him by referring back to the earlier meeting between them and the NAACP lawyers. Jake feels he might not be the right lawyer for the case but Carl explains that he is the right attorney for the environment. There was a reason for him selecting Jake, a White guy, over the Black attorneys.

Carl realizes that Jake might not be openly prejudiced or a rabid racist like some of the other people in town but he’s from the same society. He and Jake live in completely different parts of town and their lives are very different. Under normal circumstances, they likely wouldn’t have any dealings with each other. Carl sees Jake as being the perfect representative because he thinks Jake understands how other members of his community think. He can speak to them on their level and make them understand.

They have a conversation about White people’s inability to simply sympathize or empathize with Black people. This is because they regard Black people as unlike themselves. Thus a White person judging another White person would be more understanding and sympathetic. Whereas a White person judging a Black person sees them as other and is less inclined to put themselves in that person’s shoes.

At first, Jake denies this but it gets the wheels turning for him. Presenting his closing argument, Jake leans into this idea and switches tactics. He recounts the attack on this little girl and the rape and attempted murder that set all of the other events in motion. It creates a shared feeling where they’re asked to imagine that they were Carl and someone had done this to their child.

It might not be legally right but they could understand someone taking the law into their own hands. Especially if they felt that there wasn’t going to be justice for their loved one. While presenting this argument, Jake has the jurors close their eyes and imagine the situation. But instead of imagining the victim as being a little Black girl, they’re to imagine her as a little White girl. And with that, they’re able to connect with this little girl on a human level within their minds.

The jury ends up finding Carl Lee innocent and for the most part, A Time to Kill ends there. At the end of A Time to Kill Jake and his family journey out to Carl Lee’s side of town where they’re having what appears to be a celebratory cookout and they join in the festivities while their daughters play together. It’s a nice Hollywood ending. But at the same time, I find it incredibly troubling yet also very honest. Do I think the case would have ended like this in real life? Not necessarily.

It does speak to the reality that there is a definite inability on the part of many White people to relate to and view Black people as human beings. We see this with these excessive force situations where law enforcement or even individuals are often the instigators and later claim to have been afraid for their life. People call the cops on Black people for no real reason beyond being petty, even in situations when they’re the aggressor. A Time to Kill presents a very realistic explanation of why even decades later, you still have this disparity between the two racial groups.

The reality is that this is due to how American society is structured, how Black people are represented in media, and the things children learn from the people around them. I do believe that many White people (and arguably other groups as well) are conditioned to not view Black people as being humans. Society encourages negative perceptions of Black people. This contributes to the disparity when it comes to the prosecution and sentencing of White people versus Black people. Crime is crime.

A Time to Kill is adapted from a John Grisham book. It’s a film with a Hollywood ending so things come together at the end and it works out fine. But there’s a lot of commentary throughout A Time to Kill about the different ways in which the justice system is unfair concerning race but also income.

Carl Lee was lucky to get Jake to take on the case and to receive media attention. Most defendants aren’t able to hire private attorneys or receive support from the NAACP. This is part of why when these cases happen in real life that they try to get media attention. They know that with media attention they might be able to get lawyers and other people involved who might otherwise be uninterested.

I try not to select movies for review that are merely entertaining without any social commentary or deeper value. I also try to ensure that the films center on either a Black person or some issue that affects Black people. That’s not to say that there can’t be any White characters or that the filmmaker can’t be White. But I try to avoid films that might feature a Black character but they’re in the background while the film revolves around the White characters.

Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock certainly star in A Time to Kill . But there was some degree of balance with regards to Samuel Jackson portraying Carl Lee but also with regards to the sheriff. I felt this character was a bit more fleshed out and fully formed in comparison to characters in other films.

One that comes to mind would be Ghosts of Mississippi . It’s a different take on a courtroom drama but follows the prosecution of the murderer of Medgar Evers. In that film, you see next to nothing about Medgar Evers as a man it’s like his life which was quite significant is boiled down to one moment, his assassination. He’s an afterthought in the story.

I liked that Carl Lee wasn’t a passive character or a stereotype. This could have easily devolved into a typical “magical negro” or White savior film where the Black lead is just there with no real personhood. Early on in A Time to Kill , he’s the one that puts together the strategic meeting with the NAACP and Jake. He comes up with the strategy for getting some of the money that had been collected on his behalf to Jake and his family.

Overall A Time to Kill is a good movie as it’s entertaining and can be enjoyed at face value. But it also makes some valid points with regards to the justice system and some of how it can be unfair. It’s not only an entertaining movie on the surface but if you were to go a bit deeper there’s more substance. I recommend it as a good watch because there’s quite a bit to discuss. It’s worth checking out and I highly recommend it.

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Natasha is a marketer by day and a voracious reader at all other times. She developed a passion for history and storytelling as a child and became increasingly interested in global Black nonfiction and literature as an adult.

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A TIME TO KILL

What You Need To Know:

(C, LLL, VVV, A, D, M) Christian worldview which examines the issues of man's law, God's Law and Grace and which includes negative portraits of black and white individuals and groups that try to use Christianity for their own purposes; 41 obscenities & 4 profanities; extreme violence including on-off camera rape of little girl, shootings, clubbing, hangings, torching, a man burns in his clan outfit, a woman is hung from a post to die, houses burn, man is beaten up, man is knifed, woman is beaten up; no sex except off-camera rape; no nudity shown though woman's blouse is torn off & a man has to remove pants for medical treatment; alcohol use; smoking; and, racism including cross burning, deceit, misuse of funds.

More Detail:

A TIME TO KILL is a carefully crafted attempt at surgically removing the cancer of racism. It is a story of Carl Lee Hailey, a father whose young daughter is cruelly attacked by two drunk white men out to harass the Black community. It is also the story of a young lawyer, Jake Brigance, who defends Hailey after he murders these white rapists in the courthouse. Around this courtroom drama swirls a tornado of racist passions. On one side is the KKK, re-established in the wake of Carl Lee’s vigilante justice. On the other side, are the NAACP and the black church who are trying to use the case for their own purposes. We soon learn that all men are sinners, including Jake, who took this case at the expense of all of his loved ones.

Novelist John Grisham’s faith is the foundation of this story, but there are those in the film who misuse and abuse this faith and the film seems to condone vigilantism as it plumb’s the depths of racism. The movie doesn’t treat the fact that Jesus died for our sins, but it has moments of forgiveness. Regrettably, the violence is raw, but not exploited. The language is raw, but Jesus’ name is not misused. A TIME TO KILL contains something to upset everyone, and yet at its core, it tells us that we are all called to love our brothers.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

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A Time to Kill Reviews

No All Critics reviews for A Time to Kill.

A Time to Kill

1996, r, 145 min. directed by joel schumacher. starring sandra bullock, samuel l. jackson, matthew mcconaughey, kevin spacey, brenda fricker, oliver platt, charles s. dutton, ashley judd, patrick mcgoohan, donald sutherland, kiefer sutherland, tonea stewart, chris cooper., reviewed by marjorie baumgarten , fri., july 26, 1996.

They sound so very Ecclesiastical… those words, A Time to Kill. To everything there is a season, and to the justifiable homicide defense A Time to Kill is the equivalent of Christmas in July. A Time to Kill, the newest legal thriller based on a John Grisham novel, takes a legal issue soaked in lots of difficult gray matter, tosses in some pointed racial factors that make it clear that American justice is not color blind, and then buttresses the events with the kind of star turns that charge ahead with swoopingly emotional, if not always legal, logic. The movie tells the story of Jake Brigance (McConaughey), a young white lawyer in a small Mississippi town, who chooses to defend Carl Lee Hailey (Jackson), a black mill worker who shoots and kills (on the courthouse steps, no less) the two drunken white rednecks who raped, brutalized, and left his ten-year-old daughter for dead. Furthermore, Carl Lee forewarns Jake of his intentions to kill the men, thus implicating his defense attorney in, at least, the failure to thwart the deed. Surely, one need not be an aggrieved parent in order to understand the selfless vengeance prompting such a crime of passion. But issues of understanding and culpability are wrapped up with larger issues of politics and race, and black and white divisions quickly overshadow the field of gray. To its credit, A Time to Kill allows the debate to snake through the entire movie, engagingly pitting characters and speeches against each other, creating a dramatic forum for ethical debate uncommon in most commercial American films. Still, the debate hardly ever rises above shallow sloganeering and arch rivalries. By the time of Jake's closing arguments, the movie “plays the race card” by subsuming all the “iffier” matters of jurisprudence to his direct and sole appeal to the jurors' racial biases. Director Schumacher (Batman Forever, The Client, St. Elmo's Fire) is becoming a master tactician of this form of sleek entertainment that lulls us into believing that we've witnessed more than we really have. By now, the backstory about the making of A Time to Kill has reached the publicity-overkill stage -- how McConaughey was picked from the obscurity of Dazed and Confused and Boys on the Side to win the plum lead role, and so on. And even though he receives third billing to secondary player Bullock and the ever-scorching Jackson, McConaughey is clearly possessed of star greatness. Schumacher does all he can to amplify McConaughey's star “arrival” by shooting the actor from dynamic angles and with plentiful close-ups. One wishes, however, that Schumacher had paid as much attention to the subtleties of the story. Although A Time to Kill also can boast of its wonderful cast of supporting players (stand-outs include Platt as Jake's comic-relief sidekick, Stewart as Carl Lee's long-suffering wife, and Fricker as Jake's long-suffering secretary), it's McConaughey's commanding performance (or the way scenes between him and the equally camera-friendly Bullock practically eat through the screen) that will make this movie one for the history books.

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Marjorie Baumgarten, Aug. 6, 2010

Josh Rosenblatt, March 2, 2007

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A Time to Kill , Joel Schumacher , Sandra Bullock , Samuel L. Jackson , Matthew McConaughey , Kevin Spacey , Brenda Fricker , Oliver Platt , Charles S. Dutton , Ashley Judd , Patrick Mcgoohan , Donald Sutherland , Kiefer Sutherland , Tonea Stewart , Chris Cooper

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“A Time to Kill,” based on the first novel by John Grisham , is a skillfully constructed morality play that pushes all the right buttons and arrives at all the right conclusions. It begins with the brutal rape of a 10-year-old black girl by two rednecks in a pickup truck. The girl's father kills the rapists in cold blood on their way to a court hearing and cripples a deputy in the process. The local white liberal lawyer agrees to defend him. The Klan plots to gain revenge. Good of course triumphs--but we'll get back to that in a moment.

I was absorbed by “A Time to Kill,” and found the performances strong and convincing, especially the work by Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey, the avenging father, and Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance, the lawyer. This is the best of the film versions of Grisham novels, I think, and it has been directed with skill by Joel Schumacher .

But as I watched the film, other thoughts intruded. Grisham recently attacked director Oliver Stone , alleging that Stone's “ Natural Born Killers ” inspired drugged-out creeps to murder a friend of Grisham's. Stone should be sued by the victim's family, Grisham said, offering the theory that “NBK” was to blame under product-liability laws.

Well, Grisham is a lawyer, and lawyers exist to file suits. But one might reasonably ask whether the creeps would have committed the murder without taking the drugs. One might also ask if Grisham forfeits his right to moral superiority by including a subplot in “A Time to Kill” that gives the Ku Klux Klan prominence and a certain degenerate glamor. Yes, Klan members are the villains. But to a twisted mind, their secret meetings and corn-pone rituals might be appealing.

However, if you leave out everything that might inspire a nut, you don't have a movie left--or a free society, either. Artists cannot hold themselves hostage to the possibility that defectives might misuse their work. Grisham should simply be honest enough to recognize that he does the same things he says Stone shouldn't do.

As a story, “A Time to Kill” works effectively. (I will have to discuss certain plot points, so be warned.) Everyone in the county knows Carl Lee Hailey killed the two men who raped his daughter, and many of them share his feelings. (Even the crippled deputy blurts out, under oath, that he would have done the same thing.) But can a black man get a fair trial after murdering two white men, even in the “new” South? The movie milks this question for all it's worth, which isn't much, unless the average audience thinks Hollywood will allow Klan thugs to prevail over the hero. “You're my secret weapon,” the black man tells his white lawyer. “You see me the way the jury will see me. What would it take, if you were on the jury, to set me free?” As Brigance prepares his case, crosses are burned on lawns, anonymous phone calls are made, and his wife ( Ashley Judd ) moves their family to safety.

That's well-timed to clear space for another character, the young lawyer Ellen Roark ( Sandra Bullock ), a rich Northerner who studied law at Ole Miss and wants to be Brigance's unpaid aide. He discourages her, but she turns up with useful leads, and he needs someone to help him counter the expert local district attorney ( Kevin Spacey ).

The movie climaxes with the obligatory courtroom scenes. Brigance's summation is well-delivered by McConaughey, but his tactics left me feeling uneasy. He describes the sadistic acts against Hailey's daughter in almost pornographic detail, then asks the jury, “Now imagine she's white.” That's an odd statement, implying that the white jury wouldn't be offended by the crimes if the victim was black.

Yet the movie itself has trouble imagining its black characters. The subplots involve mostly Brigance's white friends and associates: his alcoholic old mentor ( Donald Sutherland ), his alcoholic young mentor ( Oliver Platt ), his alcoholic expert witness (M. Emmet Walsh), his secretary ( Brenda Fricker ), his wife (Judd), and his unpaid assistant (Bullock). Another strand involves the plotting of the Klan, led by the vicious Cobb ( Kiefer Sutherland ). There are a few scenes involving the NAACP's legal defense people, who persuade the local pastor to hold a fund-raiser for Hailey's legal defense--but insist the money be used for a black lawyer. Hailey turns them down, in an awkward sequence intended, I think, to equate the NAACP lawyers with figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton.

One wonders why more screen time wasn't found for black characters like Hailey's wife. Maybe the answer is that the movie is interested in the white characters as people and the black characters (apart from Carl Lee Hailey) as atmosphere. My advice to the filmmakers about the black people in town: Try imagining they're white.

The ending left me a little confused. (Again, be warned I'll discuss plot points.) A child bursts from the courtroom and tells the waiting crowd that Hailey is “innocent.” A cheer goes up. There is joy and reconciliation. But hold on. Hailey's own defense admits he killed those men. The jury probably found him not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. But “innocent?” Maybe the device of the shouting child was used to avoid such technicalities, and hasten the happy ending.

This review doesn't sound much like praise. Yet I recommend the film. What we have here is an interesting example of the way the movies work. “A Time to Kill” raises a lot of questions, but they don't occur while you're watching the film. The acting is so persuasive and the direction is so fluid that the material seems convincing while it's happening. I was moved by McConaughey's speech to the jury, and even more moved by an earlier speech by Jackson to McConaughey. I cared about the characters. And then I walked out, and got to thinking about the movie's choices and buried strategies. And I read about Grisham's attack on Stone. And I thought, let he who is without sin ...

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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A Time To Kill (1996)

Rated R For A Rape Scene and Occasional Strong Language

145 minutes

Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance

Kevin Spacey as Rufus Buckley

Donald Sutherland as Lucien Wilbanks

Kiefer Sutherland as Freddie Cobb

Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey

Sandra Bullock as Ellen Roark

Patrick McGoohan as Judge Noose

Directed by

• Joel Schumacher

Produced by

• Arnon Milchan
• Michael Nathanson
• John Grisham
• Akiva Goldsman

Based On The Novel by

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The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live finale ending explained

Creators Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, and Scott M. Gimple take us on set for that last scene.

California Dreams was better than Saved by the Bell. There, I said it.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about the season finale episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live , titled “The Last.”

The Walking Dead franchise often ends seasons with scenes containing big violent shockers (see Negan’s baseball bat at the end of TWD 's sixth season) or by setting up what is to come next in the universe (the trip to a French lab at the end of World Beyond or the Rick and Michonne reintroduction as the mothership coda scene.) But the final scene of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live ’ s season (and perhaps series? ) finale did something else entirely.

The finale began with Andrew Lincoln’s Rick and Danai Gurira’s Michonne on a mission to take down the CRM from the inside. And that they did. Rick finally got the Echelon Briefing from Major General Beale ( Terry O’Quinn ) and responded by stabbing the CRM leader in the chest. He and Michonne then rigged the toxic gas meant to take out Portland with explosives and detonated it outside of a military briefing, essentially zombifying the entire strike team. Michonne then took out the last remaining obstacle in their path by subduing CRM skeptic-turned-convert Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt) while explaining that “love doesn’t die.”

Gene Page/AMC

Audio of a Civic Republic newscast informed us that Beale’s nefarious plans had been made public and there were new levels of oversight installed with free movement established within the Republic and new arrivals welcomed. And then came the reunion everyone had waited for, as Rick and Michonne walked off a chopper and were met by their children Judith (Cailey Fleming) and R.J. (Anthony Azor). It was a tender and moving moment, especially since Rick had not seen his daughter in more than six years and had never met his son.

Why did show creators Scott M. Gimple, Gurira, and Lincoln decide to end the season on such a sweet note? What was it like filming that big reunion? And why did pretty much everyone not named Rick or Michonne die along the way? We spoke to the three executive producers to get the inside story behind the finale and that final scene. (Also make sure to read our article on what they had to say about a possible season 2 .)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me about deciding on this family reunion as the final scene. From very early on, did you guys knew it was going to end there, or did that develop as you had your discussions? How did you decide that's where you were going to end this story?

SCOTT M. GIMPLE: To my recollection, that was the ending and we were working on the journey to that. But I have horrible working memory and I have two people that were there with me, so I want to get a confirmation on that. I truly believe that that was always the ending and we were moving towards it. I don't think there was ever a world where either one of those characters didn't stay on with the other. I might be wrong.

DANAI GURIRA: It definitely was that we were journeying towards that ending. There was definitely never an idea of like, "Oh, let's let it be a tragic ending." That was not on the table, I don't think at any point. It was always like, how do we get them together? How do we bring Rick his happy ending, and Michonne her happy ending? That's what I recall.

ANDREW LINCOLN: Yeah. I think it would've been a bit of a gut punch if we'd done six episodes, got everybody back, and then killed them both. I mean, that would've been a bit rude.

Well, you guys pretty much killed everyone else. I mean, you guys offed Okafor, Beale, Nat , Thorne, Jadis ….

GIMPLE : Yeah, you're right.

LINCOLN : That is true.

Was that by design, to up the body count? In the last few seasons of The Walking Dead, we didn't see as consistently as big a body count as we saw here on this show.

LINCOLN : I think we sort of backed ourselves into a corner, really. I think the whole gas idea, we just relied on Scott to work out.

GIMPLE : I will say that so many characters died along the way because it was a story about Rick and Michonne, and it was so focused on them, it didn't seem like we could serve them. Further, the deaths of those characters individually affected Rick and Michelle so deeply. So those deaths, they were not for shock value or body count. It was a little bit more aspiring to Joseph Campbell stuff.

LINCOLN : But you also did want an army of the dead.

GIMPLE : As far as the army, the gas was very much about that.

Speaking of people you killed off… Danai, you had your big fight scene with Lesley-Ann Brandt as Thorne. You've talked about how this being a love story was really important to you, so tell me about sort of capping that off with the “love doesn't die” line.

GURIRA : Well, firstly, I was very annoyed with that little poker I had to use versus my sword. That's just a wound I will eternally carry about our finale, so just putting that out there. But Gimple said this the other day, that Lesley-Ann did such a great job as Thorne and that she represented the Shane thing, even though she does come to a redemptive place at the end, which Shane kind of doesn't.

So it's that sort of idea of these very differing perceptions of how the world works, and the idea that no matter what's happened, no matter what we've gone through, no matter what has been experienced, our love, if anything, got stronger. So it doesn't die, it doesn't get diminished by the world's circumstances or by any dilemmas or traumas that come our way. It has stood the test of time. That's her belief system, and it's proven itself to her.

Thorne is a casualty, a fatality of the system. She bought into a system that Rick and Michonne could not and would not, and that's a result of those two very differing ideologies at the end. Consequently, it results also in Thorne's demise and Michonne's getting back to her love. So yeah, it's a crux of the whole ideology that is pairing that shown through.

I thought she was going to be the one to actually make it out alive, but you all killed her like you killed everyone off. I guess maybe Esteban is still out there somewhere, but that's about it.

GIMPLE : I mean, the title is The Ones Who Live .

LINCOLN : We should have just said We're the Only Ones Who Live .

Andy, tell me about filming this big scene with Terry O’Quinn with him giving you the lowdown on their plans and then the fight scene that finishes it off.

LINCOLN : I loved it. The reason why I came across to this country [was] to work alongside and to learn from people like him, and it was just a joy. As you know, he's one of the sweetest, coolest dudes I've ever met. We bonded on Joni Mitchell, randomly. He's got the most beautiful singing voice, and he plays the guitar. He's just one of those dudes, and he walks up with 43 pages of monologue, nails it every time. Then you have a couple of anecdotes in between sets, and off he goes again.

He allowed me to bruise his skin terribly with a fake sword, which I felt really sad about. He had really bad bruising the next day, and I felt terrible. We thought he wasn't going to do that much fighting, and he was absolutely game for all of it. He's a maniac and I love him to bits. I think we couldn't have wished for a better person to be charismatic, conflicting, a pragmatist, but also just a little unhinged. He sort of threaded the needle of all of those so perfectly.

The series is called The Ones Who Live and we know the importance of that line, but I heard another line repeated a few times in this episode, "This is the s--- we do." What's the significance of that line, because it seemed to be play a big role in this episode?

GIMPLE : Both of them do absolutely insane things, and it's an incredibly fun part of these characters. It's also a dark part of these characters. It's also a crazy part of these characters. They do insane things, but nine times out of 10, it's on behalf of others. That is something that both characters individually have always had in common. Then you put them together and they're insane on a grand scale, which they were this episode.

Both of them have very parallel experiences in this episode, but they were faced with the same question, which is, "People are going to die. What are you going to do?" But they both had the exact same answer, because they have the same soul.

I want to get back to the final scene. I know Scott was on strike then so couldn’t be on set, but Andy and Danai, what it was like filming that final scene? Take me on set for that day.

GURIRA : It was a very awesome day. It was also intense. I was very happy for both characters, interestingly, and I thought it was very special. There was something awesome about seeing both Cailey and Anthony. Anthony, he's a lovely young man. He can be very reserved, but he really opened up with Andy, which was really special to see. It was perfect.

For the character of R.J., this guy's been looming around like this absent father. And as an actor, he’s never met him. Anthony was really fascinated by him, and was joking on him and giving him a hard time. There was just a really great rapport they had, which was kind of poetic. I just saw him open up in a way I've never seen, so that was really, really special.

Cailey's always fantastic and just right on the money and she's always so incredible to be around. So it was a really great day. It was an emotional day in the sense that I wanted it to be a great day for our characters and it really turned out to be, so it was an intense day in a good way.

LINCOLN : Yeah, It was wonderful. The last time I saw Cailey, I was high-fiving her in the trailer for The Walking Dead as I was leaving season 9 and she was just joining. Then I see how accomplished an actress she is. She was just, as Danai said, every single take, so grounded, so moving. There's always an expectation of the last scene, the last line, just to make sure that we were focused and enjoying ourselves and quite free — that was really important.

I think Anthony saw through my beard and realized that I was more of a child than he was, and probably that's why we got on quite well. But it was a lovely day after quite an exhausting shoot. It was towards the end. It was one of those wonderful scenes and it's something that we've spoken about for years, that reunion, so it was glorious to finally do it.

We've talked a lot about what it was like coming back to the role after being away for a few years, but what did it feel like after you wrapped these six episodes?

GURIRA : We were so exhausted that it was just about sort of getting your bearings back, a lot of that. But we were so deeply involved almost right away in some degree of post-production. I remember my last day I just had to do some little tiny things, but I wanted to finish with Andy, so I was getting sentimental near the end. Andy's like, "What's the big deal?" I'm like, "No, I want to finish on the same day," so I came back and did some really unnecessary inserts. I mean, they were necessary, but they could have been done another day. Then I was just in the parking lot having a cookout with the crew and smoking cigars, while Andy was stuck.

LINCOLN : I had to f---ing cut my hand off again while you were partying in the trailer with most of the crew.

GIMPLE : Andy was being moved from one intense scene to the other intense scene to the other. It was emotional ping pong.

GURIRA : That was the day they were telling him he had to cry into a letter and he was writing.

LINCOLN : Yeah, that's right. They said, "We want seven tears onto the camera lens now."

GIMPLE : You were cutting off your hand, you were stabbing walkers in a fury building up to an emotional explosion, and then yeah, you were weeping over a letter.

GURIRA : I was literally smoking cigars. It was really funny.

LINCOLN : You were smoking cigars and having drinks.

GURIRA : Eating pizza and champagne. I felt bad for him. I was having a blast.

GIMPLE : I was picketing in New York, so a wild array of experiences.

LINCOLN : It was a wild ride.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sign up for  Entertainment Weekly 's free daily newsletter  to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live creators on future of the show
• Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira go deep on  The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live  sex scene
• On set for the Rick and Michonne reunion in  The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
• The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live  creators on helicopter cliffhanger
• Andrew Lincoln explains  The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live  premiere shocker

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Mami’s yaki onigiri are grilled rice balls worth getting to know

The Japanese snack gets filled with different ingredients at the Portland restaurant.

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Mami’s yaki onigiri. Photo by Peggy Grodinsky

I was introduced to onigiri, and yaki onigiri, 35 years ago when I lived in Japan. For years after I returned to the States, I could rarely find either, and onigiri was among the foods I missed most. Now, onigiri (sometimes, in Hawaii, called omusubi) have caught on in the U.S., but yaki onigiri remain – at least in my experience in Maine – harder to find. “Yaki” means grilled in Japanese; “onigiri” are rice balls, so these are, you got it, grilled rice balls, although often, as at Mami, they’re in the shape of a triangle.

Typically in Japan, onigiri have a small knob of filling – things like pickled plum or spicy tuna – whereas yaki onigiri are not filled. At least that’s how I remember it. But Mami fills its yaki onigiri, and I am not complaining.

At lunch one day late last month, that filling was a small amount of carrots and garlicy sweet potato rendered with pork fat. The yaki onigiri was brushed with a soy-miso glaze and chili crisp (that last also non-traditional) before it was grilled. After the snack had burnished to a deep, caramely brown, it arrived at my table, nice and warm and scattered with scallions and furikake. I broke it open with chopsticks: The medium-grain rice was moist, chewy and soft all at once, the crispy crust a perfect contrast. If “umami” were a smell rather than a taste, it’d smell like this did.

Mami, a lunch and dinner cafe, says it sells about 30 yaki onigiri a day in the winter, double that come summertime. Other recent fillings have included spicy salmon and beef with shishito peppers. In Japan, I encountered yaki onigiri mostly on nights out drinking and sharing small plates of Japanese bar food. You eat them with very fresh oshinko (Japanese pickles), said my friend Dan, who grew up in Japan, worked there for years and speaks fluent Japanese, explaining, “at the end of the meal to absorb all the alcohol. The capstone.”

For me, yaki onigiri bring back memories of (specifically) dark, snug izakayas under the train tracks in Tokyo, and (generally) being young and carefree and on a grand adventure.

And Mami’s yaki onigiri are delicious.

Yaki onigiri, $7; Mami, 339 Fore St., Portland, 207-536-4702, mamiportland.com

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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