timetokill

Courtroom dramas can be either captivating or an irrevocable letdown. Take for example the polar
opposites between the Nazi war trial drama “Judgment At Nuremberg” and the Barbara Streisand
courtroom melodrama, “Nuts.” Yep, one is amazing and one is a mediocre turkey and both have
the same setting. Courtroom dramas are complicated too because it’s not dependent on the kind
of case but the intensity and authenticity of the performances.

Fortunately for “A Time to Kill,” the actors had a story based on a John Grisham novel and a solid
dramatic scenario. Trust me, it doesn’t get any more gruesome and inflammatory than this. A
young black girl in the South is waylaid by two white miscreants and brutally raped and left for
dead. When her father, Samuel L. Jackson, finds out that the two goons will likely get off without a
hitch, he shoots them to death right in the courthouse, hosing them with an assault rifle. Yeah, it’s
going to be a tough case for the defense, and Matthew McConaughey, the young blood in town,
takes the case.

Sandra Bullock tags along as the overzealous aide and Oliver Platt is McConaughey’s quipping
sidekick. Watch for a young Ashley Judd as his loyal wife as well.

“A Time to Kill” is a morally complicated story. On the one hand, we want to root for Jackson, a
man who may be forced to watch his daughter live scarred forever and on the other hand, he is
trying to use the system to get away with murder. There’s no disputing the fact that he killed them
in cold blood and yes, they did attack a helpless little girl and do heinous things to her, so our
psychology is torn. What is the right side? Is there one? What is the right move?

Jackson and McConaughey rob this film from the rest of the cast in the performances of their
careers, especially for the latter who pulls off the closing argument of all closing arguments at the
climax of the film. It’s a brilliant performance. Keep in mind that this is after he’s been forced to
watch his family tormented by racists and witness the Ku Klux Klan rip a town apart, with a sinister
Kiefer Sutherland at the head of the hooded uber-bigots.

This was also the beginning of Jackson’s career as an angry guy on trial, a role he would reprise in
“Rules of Engagement” a few years later. Here however, it is a superior effort and viewers walk
away from this one with little doubt that Jackson is either the ultimate family man, willing to risk all,
or possibly a cold-blooded psycho who has finally been pushed too far.

Like I said earlier, this film will force you to seriously question your dearest beliefs about justice,
vengeance, the death penalty, mercy, racism, and in a tongue in cheek way, gun control. Granted,
the story goes to dramatic extremes, but crazier things have happened in the world.

My one small disappointment is the somewhat needless subplot in which Bullock and McConaughey
flirt with a romance that never gets off the ground. It’s a waste of time, a contrivance really and I
think the writers realized it, which is why it’s so half-hearted and brief. Next time, just delete it guys.
You’ve got a killer story here. Why slow it down?

Despite this small nit pick, “A Time to Kill” is unforgettable storytelling. The very definition of
riveting.