A Time to Kill - Definition and Overview

A Time to Kill is the name of a legal suspense thriller authored by John Grisham in 1989, and also of the novel's feature film 1996 adaptation.

The story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, in Ford County, Mississippi -- a portmanteau of two Jackson, MS suburbs-- Clinton and Canton. The 1996 movie was filmed in Canton.

Plot teaser

The story revolves around a small southern Mississippi town where a young black girl is raped and beaten by two white men. The father, Carl Lee Hailey (Jackson), distraught and seeking vengeance, guns down the two men involved in the courthouse. Now, local lawyer Jake Brigance (McConaughey) works to defend Hailey in the midst of now-growing racial tensions that threaten to break out into a full-fledged race riot.

List of characters

• Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) - Defense attorney for Carl Lee Hailey
• Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock) - Freelance paralegal working for the defense
• Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) - Defendant
• Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey) - Prosecuting attorney
• Ozzie Walls (Charles Dutton) - Clanton town Sheriff
• Lucien Wilbanks (Donald Sutherland) - Retired lawyer; Jake's mentor
• Freddie Lee Cobb (Kiefer Sutherland) - KKK member; brother to the shooting victims
• Judge Omar Noose (Patrick McGoohan) - Presiding judge
• Carla Brigance (Ashley Judd) - Jake's wife

Film crew

• Joel Schumacher -- Director
• Akiva Goldsman -- Screenwriter

External links

• A Time to Kill - Grisham's Official Website (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/grisham/books/timetokill/)
• IMDb Entry on A Time to Kill (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/)