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A Time to Kill (1996)

Director: Joel Schumacher

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Justice may be blind, but rarely have courtroom dramas presumed quite so heavily on cultural myopia as this heinous version of John Grisham's first novel. An apologia for vigilantism masquerading as a liberal race-movie, it has McConaughey as small town Southern lawyer Jake Brigance, defending Jackson's Carl Lee after he shoots down the white trash who raped his daughter. The defendant's black, the crime was committed on the courthouse steps, and the judge is called Noose. No wonder Jake's reduced to tears - an unusual legal manoeuvre, but on this evidence, effective. An insulting travesty of Faulkner and Harper Lee, riven with such politically correct confusion that it implicitly equates the KKK with the NAACP, this would be more insidious if it weren't altogether botched. Jake's allies are idealistic student Bullock, boozy old mentor Donald Sutherland and sleazy divorce specialist Platt; that they have nothing to contribute to the plot but phoney histrionics is indicative of the fact that they don't have a case, legally speaking - everything is designed to disguise that void.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • Colin said...
    Posted on Aug 11 2008 19:43 Dreadful. Clich
    e ridden, every character seems almost a cartoon caricature. Simplistic, one-dimensional cobbling together of The Verdict and Mockingbird. Joel should stick to making batman films.
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Cast & crew

Director: Joel Schumacher

Producer: Arnon Milchan, Michael Nathanson, Hunt Lowry, John Grisham

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Donald Sutherland, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Brenda Fricker, Charles Dutton, Kiefer Sutherland, Patrick McGoohan full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 149 mins


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