"A Time to Kill", directed by Joel Schumacher, based on the novel by John Grisham.

Essay by gwemma88Junior High, 9th grade September 2005

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"A Time to Kill" has it all. Disbarred lawyers, Ku Klux members, corrupt police officers, bombs, courtroom drama, fraudulent church preachers, romance and psychiatrists, but most of all, racial tension in the southern states of the USA.

Set in the southern Mississippi town of Canton, "A Time to Kill" is about a young, up-coming lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) who is hired to defend a black man, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) who gunned down two young rednecks who kidnapped and viciously raped his 10 year old daughter. His case is made that much harder as he comes up against the ruthless District Attorney Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey) who figures that winning this case will be his ticket to becoming governor and who also happens to be a good friend of the judge, Judge Omar Noose (Patrick McGoohan). The townsfolk of Madison County do not take kindly to a white lawyer defending a black man who gunned down two young white boys, and so the Ku Klux Klan emerges, led by Freddie Cobb (Kiefer Sutherland) who's brother was one of the boys accused of rape.

The newly initiated KKK members take to terrorizing Jake and all of those around him by burning a cross in backyard and scaring his wife (Ashley Judd), bashing his secretary's (Brenda Fricker) husband and kidnapping, tying up his legal assistant (Sandra Bullock) and finally setting fire to his house and burning it to the ground.

One of the best elements of "A Time to Kill" is the cast members. With a top-notch cast with acting ability and credentials to match, "A Time to Kill" was a sure winner from the beginning. Samuel L. Jackson's performance is outstanding and powerful as an outraged and grief stricken...