A Time to Kill

"Experience a time you'll never forget."

1996 2h 29m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🍅

66%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 3,118🍅66%Rotten Tomatoes●53Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 192,181

CrimeDramaThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.

“Experience a time you'll never forget.”

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Cast

Matthew McConaughey
Jake Brigance
Sandra Bullock
Ellen Roark
Samuel L. Jackson
Carl Lee Hailey
Kevin Spacey
Rufus Buckley
Ashley Judd
Carla Brigance
Donald Sutherland
Lucien Wilbanks
Oliver Platt
Harry Rex Vonner
Charles S. Dutton
Ozzie Walls

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joel Schumacher
Writers: Akiva Goldsman
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

30 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joel Schumacher, shot by Peter Menzies Jr.. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Original score by Elliot Goldenthal. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor William Steinkamp shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Experience a time you'll never forget.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0117913 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joel Schumacher directs. Peter Menzies Jr. behind the camera. Elliot Goldenthal scores. William Steinkamp cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 3.8× over at the box office.
230 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Directed by Joel Schumacher, shot by Peter Menzies Jr.. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Elliot Goldenthal. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor William Steinkamp shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Experience a time you'll never forget.".
8IMDB entry: tt0117913 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 27 themes, including "sniper", "rape", "court", "jurors".
10Released under 40 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Original score: Elliot Goldenthal
Editing: William Steinkamp
Production design: Larry Fulton
Costume design: Ingrid Ferrin
Makeup / hair: Pamela S. Westmore
VFX supervisor: Andrew Adamson
Sound: Adam Jenkins
Stunt coordinator: Mickey Gilbert
Runtime: 149 min · 2h 29m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $40,000,000
Box office: $152,266,007
Return: 381% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: A Time to Kill (1996)
Rotten Tomatoes: 66% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 53/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 192,181 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

7 wins & 12 nominations total

Also by

Joel Schumacher

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-06-16
★ 7/10
It's a good movie, but I've seen better courtroom dramas. I saw this film not long ago and was very impressed with its quality. I didn't know, however, that it was based on a novel by John Grisham (I've never read it, and I have doubts if it was translated into Portuguese), and based very lightly on the emotional testimony of a young girl victim of rape. It should be noted, moreover, and by mere curiosity, that, in the real case behind the novel, the victim was a white girl and the man accused of having raped her was black. In summary, it's very good, but it's not a perfect film, and it pales in comparison to other much more consistent and effective courtroom dramas. Joel Schumacher is the director of this movie, and that's really surprising me because his work rarely pleases me. I was able to appreciate the qualities of “Number 23”, the beauty and musicality of “Phantom of the Opera” were able to captivate me, but on the other hand, I hate the two “Batman” films he made, and I felt that “8 mm” is one of those films full of potential that ends up not living up to expectations. And then, this movie. And I'm still wondering whether I should consider the director responsible for the film's biggest weaknesses, or as a redeeming work that shows that, despite the crap, Schumacher had some talent. The cast is strong. Despite the downward trajectory that his career has taken after his consecration, Matthew McConaughey is in good shape here and gives the public an enjoyable job. It's not the actor's best, it's nothing original, especially if we think about courtroom dramas, but it's effective and it looks credible. Samuel L. Jackson also does a good job, but the character is the most ambiguous in the film, and he can be a villain or a hero depending on our opinion (and the film makes an effort to sell him a hero). Kevin Spacey is good in a highly stereotyped character, and Donald Sutherland gives an air of his grace when the material allows. Less interesting were the appearances of Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock. Technically, it's a low-key film, without major visual strokes or effects, which is good as it gives all the necessary space to the story and the actors' performance. It does, however, have good cinematography, a clever use of filming locations and sets, and also good costumes. It's a little long for the story it brings, but that fact doesn't constitute a very serious problem here. The story has problems that we have to consider. It begins beautifully, presenting the opening incident with shocking colors and tones. The scene where the father kills his daughter's rapists is also incredibly well done, but the rest, and especially the scenes outside the courtroom, are bland. Bullock's character is so expendable that it was preferable that it had never been added: she appears to throw some adulterous romance into the script, but that never goes beyond a succession of flirtations because the main character does not have the nerve to really cheat on his wife. For the rest, she gives him some good ideas, aiding an incompetent lawyer to do a job well done, but that would have been better if it had come from Donald Sutherland, giving him a greater utility and better material. I had serious problems with the trial of this film, starting with the judge's attempts to focus the facts on the death of the rapists. This would never be acceptable by a real court or a real defense, considering that, after the obvious failure of the transient insanity claims, the defense would have to rely on a clean criminal record, good citizenship and a truckload of extenuating circumstances in order to lighten the penalty to which that man was fatally to be condemned. And the most credible and convincing mitigating factor for a judge or jury would be, exactly, the enormous commotion that the rape would have caused, leading that father to act in a way that would have been impossible under other circumstances. And the insertion of the KKK in the film, not being a problem in itself, only serves to exaggerate a racial problem that is already there and that doesn't need to be exaggerated anymore.
CinemaSerf2023-08-27
★ 7/10
The opening scenes of this movie are the sort that stay with you for ever: the brutal assault and murder of a young girl by two rednecks in Mississippi. Before their trial, they are gunned down in the courthouse by the girl's bereft father "Carl Lee Hailey" (Samuel L. Jackson) and it falls to "Brigance" (Matthew McConaughey) to defend the man in a state riddled with institutional and communal bigotry. Kevin Spacey is effective as the DA ("Buckley") who assumes the all white jury will never countenance the murder of these two odious creatures by a black man, but he doesn't count on the resolution - despite threats to himself and to his family - of "Brigance" and of his feisty assistant "Ellen" (Sandra Bullock). Joel Schumacher really does capture the almost viscerally racist elements of John Grisham's book cleverly here with frequently potent, but not unnecessarily graphic, scenarios depicting just how "justice" was expected to flow, even though there is never any doubt about the guilt of either the initial rapists/killers or of her avenging father. McConaughey is super. Sure, he has the boy next door looks but here, also, he portrays his determined character in a convincing manner. So does Bullock - demonstrating, through one especially harrowing scene, that she has more to her than we see with her more regular smart-mouthed comical roles. As ever, Patrick McGoohan excels - this time as the aptly named judge "Noose" and both Donald and Kiefer Sutherland and a few short scenes from Oscar winning Brenda Fricker all serve to demonstrate that there is still some semblance of hope (and futility) against the inherently malevolent prevailing attitudes of the time. The closing speech at the end from "Brigance" is especially potent. SLJ was nominated for a Golden Globe, his appearances are fine but sparing, but there was a curious dearth of plaudits for McConaughey which I found astonishing - he holds the threads of this menacing, at times quite sickening drama together well till the end. Not an easy watch, but well worth it.