A Time to Kill
Unclear and Present Danger
Jamelle Bouie
4.7 • 660 Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2024
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched “A Time to Kill,” Joel Schumacher’s 1996 adaptation of a 1989 John Grisham novel by the same name.
Starring Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson and Matthew McConaughey, with supporting performances from Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Charles S. Dutton, Ashley Judd, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris Cooper, “A Time to Kill” concerns the trial of Carl Lee Hailey, a black man on trial for capital murder after killing the two men who assaulted his 10-year-old daughter.
When Jake Brigance, a white lawyer who previously defended Hailey’s brother, takes the job to keep Carl Lee out of the execution’s chamber, the small Mississippi town of Canton, where the film takes place, is plunged into chaos. Brigance and his team must navigate national attention, a skilled and ambitious prosecutor, and a revitalized Ku Klux Klan, willing, able and eager to derail the trail and stop Brigance by any means necessary. All the while, Brigance must handle the strain on his family and his marriage.
The official tagline for “A Time to Kill” was: “A lawyer and his assistant fighting to save a father on trial for murder. A time to question what they believe. A time to doubt what they trust. And no time for mistakes.”
You can find “A Time to Kill” to rent or buy on demand at iTunes and Amazon.
For our next episode, we’re watching “Chain Reaction,” a science-fiction thriller directed by Andrew Davis and starring Morgan Freeman and Keanu Reeves.
Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You got a dollar, Jake. |
| 0:02.0 | What would you do? |
| 0:07.0 | I figure there's a lot of people out there |
| 0:09.0 | tired of all the raping, killing. |
| 0:12.0 | It'd be sympathetic to a man who took the law in his own hand. |
| 0:20.0 | Even if he's black. |
| 0:24.0 | Our society cannot condone men who take the law into their own hands, no matter what the circumstance. |
| 0:29.2 | How do you wish to plead? |
| 0:30.7 | Not guilty, Your Honor. |
| 0:32.0 | You're sure you want to be known as the man to defend that murderer? |
| 0:36.2 | Why, I toss away a promise of him. I'd really like like to help you with the trial. You ever seen a man executed? What I suggest you do is you go watch a man to be executed. You watch him die. You watch him beg. I don't like your politics, but you do have passion, and that's something Carly needs right now, and maybe so do I. If you was on that jury, what would it take to set me free? |
| 0:56.3 | You sat me down and you said to me, |
| 0:58.3 | what I can offer you is a chance to save the world one case at a time. |
| 1:02.3 | He's taking justice out of your hands and put it in his own. |
| 1:06.5 | You tell them boys, we need some clan down here in camp. |
| 1:11.0 | We're getting calls. |
| 1:12.6 | At home. |
| 1:13.8 | Sweats. |
| 1:15.0 | Your marriage is on the rocks. |
| 1:16.3 | You're about to have an affair. |
| 1:17.7 | Lately, you've become much more interested in getting your face on the news than what's going on with your own family. |
| 1:22.7 | Tell them about those bastards grind you down. |
... |
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