Trailer
Cast
Matthew McConaughey ... Jake Tyler Brigance
Sandra Bullock ... Ellen Roark
Samuel L. Jackson ... Carl Lee Hailey
Kevin Spacey ... D.A. Rufus Buckley
Plot
Two white southerners, drunk, go out for a good time [in the black community because of southern racial problems]. They see a single black prepubescent girl walking home from the grocery store and decide to have fun with her. They beat her, rape her, tie her up and almost leave her for dead. I don't remember how but she is found and brought home. The black community is devastated and demands for justice but the white police don't do much for them. The father of the girl, Carl Lee Hailey played by Samuel L. Jackson, takes revenge into his own hands when they are brought to court (because they were probably just going to get a slap on the wrists and nothing more) and shoots them down.
Hailey is arrested and asks for Jake Tyler Brigance, played by Matthew McConaughey, to be his lawyer. Why? Because Jake is white and probably sees Hailey as a black man, which brings up bias / racial issues. But Hailey says that if Jake uses it right, he can get the jury to see him as something other than just another black man that used a weapon against some white men.
Things heat up for Jake, his lawyering practice (and staff), his family, and for all those involved. An assistant named Ellen Roark, played by Sandra Bullock, gets captured by the Ku Klux Klan and beaten (nearly to death) before being left to die. Someone saves her but she had been attacked for standing with Jake and Hailey. Jake's house gets burned down (luckily when his family isn't there, but probably lost his dog). Everything and a lot of the populace of the southern community are against this whole situation mainly because a black man shot and killed two white men, though those two white men raped and beat his daughter so severely that she barely survived and will never be able to procreate.
Can Jake, Hailey and everyone else survive the whirlwind of emotions and overcome the racial prejudices so that justice can be served?
Review
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3.5/5 - This movie was very hard to deal with, especially with the fact that the girl was beaten and raped. It was hard emotionally to feel the pain of the Hailey family, crying for this 10 year old girl and not seeing any help to resolve the crime. I was not surprised that Mr. Hailey shot down the two men that molested his daughter. The battle over justice, however, was difficult to digest. I wanted Hailey so badly to be released but the racial problems just kept coming up again and again. Of course, my first reaction was "oh, southerners had/have a strange way of dealing with things and have racial bias" but this was more than an area have bias. This was bitter poison attacking every nerve. The movie kept me watching, searching for some sort of glimmer of hope. The ending statement by Jake was the start of what I wanted, so here is the story-part of the *SPOILERS* statement:
I knocked down the rating for the graphic details of the dark racism that can be present in every person but this story, especially with how Jake starts identifying with Hailey, has value to it. DO NOT show to young children as this is boring and has a lot of violence, not even mentioning the outright hatred of a section of the white community towards the black community. It isn't a movie that I would say is "MUST SEE" but isn't bad. I wonder if it would have been as good with a different black actor other than Samuel L. Jackson? Who knows, but Jackson played a pretty decent role in this movie.
Well, that's my review for "A Time to Kill"! Thanks for reading! Next blog post for movie reviews will be "Wrath of the Crows", whenever I get to writing it.
Keep writing and ingesting (via reading or watching) those creative words/stories!
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
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