A Time to Kill (1996)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 51
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 17
Overlong and superficial, A Time to Kill nonetheless succeeds on the strength of its skillful craftsmanship and top-notch performances.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 6
Overlong and superficial, A Time to Kill nonetheless succeeds on the strength of its skillful craftsmanship and top-notch performances.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 92,878
Movie Info
Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the law into his own hands after the legal system fails to adequately punish the men who brutally raped and beat his daughter, leaving her for dead. Normally, a distraught father could count on some judicial sympathy in those circumstances. Unfortunately, Carl and his daughter are black, and the assailants are white, and all the events take place in the South. Indeed, so inflammatory is the situation, that the local KKK (led by Kiefer Sutherland) becomes
Jul 24, 1996 Wide
Aug 22, 1997
Warner Home Video
Watch It Now
Cast
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Matthew McConaughey
Jake Brigance -
Samuel L. Jackson
Carl Lee Hailey -
Sandra Bullock
Ellen Roark -
Kevin Spacey
Rufus Buckley -
Brenda Fricker
Ethel Twitty -
Oliver Platt
Harry Rex Vonner -
Chris Cooper
Deputy Looney -
John Diehl
Tim Nunley -
Charles S. Dutton
Sheriff Ozzie Walls -
Beth Grant
Cora Cobb -
Jonathan Hadary
Norman Reinfield -
Anthony Heald
Dr. Rodeheaver -
Doug Hutchison
Pete Willard -
Ashley Judd
Carla Brigance -
Nicky Katt
Billy Ray Cobb -
Terry Loughlin
Jury Foreman -
Benjamin Mouton
KKK militant -
Joe Seneca
Rev. Isaiah Street -
Kurtwood Smith
Stump Sisson -
Tonea Stewart
Gwen Hailey -
Donald Sutherland
Lucien Wilbanks -
Kiefer Sutherland
Freddie Cobb -
Graham Timbes
Male Juror -
M. Emmet Walsh
Defense Psychologist -
Patrick McGoohan
Judge Omar Noose -
Mark W. Johnson
Hastings -
Andy Stahl
Juror -
Byron Jennings
Brent Musgrove -
Greg Lauren
Buckley's Asst. -
Alexandra Kyle
Hannah -
Tim Parati
Winston -
Rae'Ven Larrymore Ke...
Tonya Hailey -
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All Critics (53) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (17) | DVD (4)
A likable -- maybe even lovable -- movie.
Top CriticAlthough it has its share of implausibilities, A Time To Kill is generally the most satisfying of the John Grisham screen adaptations to date.
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.
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.
Untrained as an actor, with only three minor roles to his credit, McConaughey holds the screen against Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock and Kevin Spacey, and completely justifies the buzz surrounding his role...
McConaughey, 26, is dynamite in a performance of smarts, sexiness, scrappy humor and unmistakable star sizzle.
What craven offal!
A gritty, intense and engaging courtroom drama.
Only a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman could make things worse--and lo and behold, speak of the devil and Old Scratch appears.
With Joel Schumacher's tasteful but second-rate-Sidney-Lumet direction and Akiva Goldsman's nuts-and-bolts script, these boys have created a surprisingly stirring indictment of racism.
Looks aren't enough. In the lead, McConaughey isn't there.
McConaughey nails with such laconic grace that some critics are comparing him to the young Paul Newman and to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The best Grisham to hit the screen yet.
Dumbed down debate on the death penalty.
Insight into black/white relations is superficial -- disappointing when you consider that the moral of the story is supposed to be how large a role race plays in the execution of justice.
Gripping suspense in this southern set drama. Sandra Bullock is oddly matched to McConaughey who lights the fire. Unfortunately, Samuel L. Jackson waits in the wings.
This may be a case where you have to read the book to appreciate the film, but if that's true, the film hasn't done its job.
Nothing more than an entry in Matthew McConaughey's filmography.
Proves that imaginative lawyers can sometimes tease justice out of her hiding places.
There are no surprises here except for the indecipherable motivations and exacting length of two hours and twenty minutes.
Audience Reviews for A Time to Kill
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Movies Like A Time to Kill
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- Jake Brigance: I want to tell you a story. I'm going to ask you all to close your eyes while I tell you the story. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to yourselves. Go ahead. Close your eyes, please. This is a story about a little girl walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon. I want you to picture this little girl. Suddenly a truck races up. Two men jump out and grab her. They drag her into a nearby field and they tie her up and they rip her clothes from her body. Now they climb on. First one, then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure with a vicious thrust in a fog of drunken breath and sweat. And when they're done, after they've killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to have children, to have life beyond her own, they decide to use her for target practice. They start throwing full beer cans at her. They throw them so hard that it tears the flesh all the way to her bones. Then they urinate on her. Now comes the hanging. They have a rope. They tie a noose. Imagine the noose going tight around her neck and with a sudden blinding jerk she's pulled into the air and her feet and legs go kicking. They don't find the ground. The hanging branch isn't strong enough. It snaps and she falls back to the earth. So they pick her up, throw her in the back of the truck and drive out to Foggy Creek Bridge. Pitch her over the edge. And she drops some thirty feet down to the creek bottom below. Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she's white!
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- Carl Lee Hailey: Yes they deserve to die and I hope they burn in Hell!
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