A Time to Kill

“A Time to Kill,” based on the first novel by John Grisham, is an expertly built 1996 movie that pushes all the right buttons and comes at all the right conclusions. It starts with the cruel rape of a 10-year-old black girl (Rae’Ven Larrymore Kelly) by two rednecks (Nicky Katt and Doug Hutchison) in a pickup truck. The girl’s father (Samuel L. Jackson) kills the rapists in cold blood on their way to a court hearing and handicaps a deputy (Chris Cooper) at the same time. The local white liberal lawyer (Matthew “Alright, Alright, Alright” McConaughey) agrees to defend him. The Klan plans to get revenge. Good obviously wins – but we’ll return to that momentarily.

Roger Ebert said in his review, “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.”

Ebert goes on to say, “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 are there to case suits. However, one could practically ask whether the criminals would have done the murder without taking the drugs. One might also ask if Grisham quits his right to good advantage by including a subplot in “A Time to Kill” that gives the Ku Klux Klan reputation and a certain collapse charm. Yes, the Klan is the enemies. Ebert said, “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 psycho, you don’t have a movie left – or a free society, either. Artists cannot put themselves prisoner to the possibility that imperfects might abuse their work. Grisham should just 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 successfully. (Ebert said, “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 understand his reasons. (Even the handicapped deputy says, under oath, that he would have done the same thing.) However, can a black man get a fair trial after murdering two white men, even in the “new” South? The movie asks this question for all it’s worth, which isn’t much; unless the everyday audience thinks Hollywood will let Klan members to win 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 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, played by Ashley Judd, moves their family somewhere safe.

That’s perfectly timed to make room for another character, the young lawyer Ellen Roark, played by Sandra Bullock, a right Northerner who studied law at Ole Miss and wants to be Brigance’s intern. He doesn’t let her, but she arrives with useful leads, and he needs someone to help him fight the expert local district attorney, played by Kevin Spacey.

The movie climaxes with the required courtroom scenes. Ebert said, “Brigance's summation is well-delivered by McConaughey, but his tactics left me feeling uneasy.” He describes the aggressive works against Hailey’s daughter in almost adult detail, and then asks the jury, “Now imagine she’s white.” That’s a strange line, meaning that the white jury wouldn’t be offended by the crimes if the victim was black.

Yet the movie itself has trouble picturing its black characters. The subplots involve mostly Brigance’s white friends and coworkers: 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 intern (Bullock). Another string involves the planning of the Klan, led by the fierce Cobb, played by Kiefer Sutherland. There are a few scenes that has the NAACP’s legal defense people, who convince the local pastor to hold a fundraiser for Hailey’s legal defense – but claim the money be used for a black lawyer. Ebert mentioned, “Hailey turns them down, in an awkward sequence intended, I think, to equate the NAACP lawyers with figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton.”

One questions why more screen time wasn’t found for black characters like Hailey’s wife, played by Tonea Stewart. 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. Ebert suggested, “My advice to the filmmakers about the black people in town: Try imagining they're white.”

Ebert goes on to say, “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.”

Ebert admits, “This review doesn't sound much like praise. Yet I recommend the film.” What we have here is an interested example of the way the movies work. “A Time to Kill” brings up a lot of questions, but they don’t happen while you’re watching the film. The acting is so convincing and the direction is so flowing that the material seems believable while it’s happening. Ebert said, “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 ...”

I highly recommend this film. Be careful though because this film is heavy. Emotionally speaking, it is difficult to watch, but you will be rooting for Hailey the whole time. From beginning to end, you will want Hailey to come out of this case clean. I think that Ebert spoiled the ending for you, but I still say watch it.

Look out next week for the finale of “Black History Month Part 4,” where I will be looking at a recent movie that is magnificent.