Review of A Time to Kill (1996) by Meritcoba — 08 Apr 2016

Down south in Mississippi everything is wrong as we can gather from this movie that starts with two white rednecks raping a black child and subsequently attempting to murder her. For your conscience there is no doubt about their guilt, for we witness the details in all its brutality. We are also left in no doubt that such deeds go unpunished in that part of the globe so that the father of the victim hands out his own justice by gunning the suspects down.

Enter white hero Matthew McConaughey who will fight for the cause of the black father Samuel L. Jackson against the likes of a slimy white prosecutor Kevin Spacey and the condescending white judge Patrick McGoohan and attempt to convince a totally white jury that Jackson was legally insane at the time of the murders.

Outside the courtroom the Klan resurfaces on instigation of Kiever Sutherland to fight for white supremacy and exact vengeance for the death of Kiever's buddies. Their prime target is McConaughey and associates who never get any proper police protection despite several attacks on their homes and lives. The law enforcement forces down south are rotten to the core as is shown when one of McConaugheys supporters, Sandra Bullock, gets abducted with the aid of a cop.

Bullock is hugely annoying as she plays a lady who thinks she is brilliant and is cocky enough to say so. Her argument: she is better informed about court cases than McConaughey is, which isn't saying much as he knows jack shyte. Not strange for he prefers to hold office in the local pub. Thus Bullock gets dropped in and also because we need a gal in the movie to chat up the male lead. It takes Bullock some time to convince him though, because he prefers Platt for a drinking buddy. Not because he is gay mind you, but because he is married. Which doesn't stop him from getting drunk with Bullock and sleep in one room with her.

This sounds like the movie is about some greezy white down-on-his-luck lawyer who finds himself on the black side of the racial divide. But no: this is a young brilliant promising lawyer who feels he has to show the truth against racial prejudice. Keep this in mind: to show the truth.

As viewers we are in no doubt about what occurred: we did see the rape, we did see the attempted murder and we did see the scumbags gloat about it. But one should not forget that nobody in the jury did.What they ought to know is this: two men accused of rape and attempted murder of a girl are killed by another man. But we know too much and the movie never stresses that the jury does not know what we know. But it will get worse.

It is also a bad ploy to make the prosecutor and judge out to be dubious characters. Why would they not be as devoted to their work as the defense lawyer is and perhaps as honest too, but just of a different disposition? But they are never given any leeway. They are bad.

And it is equally wrong to have violent Klan members appear so we can witness their misdeeds in full view.

The worst however is this: McConaughey wins not because he makes a brilliant case. He wins because he plays on the jury members feelings by using the rape of the child as an argument.. which was already been deemed to be inadmissible in court as it was never established that they had done the rape.

This movie is so far from To kill a mocking bird. In To kill a mocking bird we don't see the crime, we don't know much more than the jury does, the judge is a decent man and it is the white jury who convicts the black man against all fairness.

And here lies the real paint point that this movie avoids to address. Racism is embedded deep within society and it is not just something that drives some fringe members of society like the Klan and scumbag cops, lawyers and judges. It is in your neighbors next door and that white person who prays to the same god as the black person, but each in their own church.

But even worse: it does not in anyway explain why those people feel the way they do. They are just 'evil'.

All of the above illustrates how deeply flawed the story is.The 'bad' side is so dehumanized evil that we have no other option than to root for the 'good' side, even if you are an ardent Klan member. It does nothing to improve further understanding of racism and paints a wholly distorted picture of everyone involved.

A waste of a potential acting talent in a deeply flawed movie.