A playwright named Euripides is considered by many to be the cultural conscience of his society, that of Athens in the 5th century B.C. His writing is so deeply sardonic and his characters are all without exception so corrupt and evil, that even modern readers understand that Athens was in danger of collapse. And collapse it did in 404 B.C., after a long and fatal war with Sparta. Euripides plays are therefore entertainment, but also a poignant commentary on society.

        In the 1990s, novelist John Grisham is almost a modern day Euripides. He catapulted into fame in 1991 with The Firm, followed by A Time to Kill, The Client, The Chamber and most recently The Runaway Jury. All his novels have achieved great success, and to date, three of his novels have become movies. The most recent and most successful movie adaption is A Time To Kill.

        The movie, directed by Joel Schumacher remains very close to the novel. A Time To Kill is just as horrible and gut wrenching on the big screen as it is in the book.

        All the characters in this movie have their own agendas, except Carl Lee Hailey, as played by Samuel Jackson. The DA, the KKK, the NAACP and even Hailey's lawyer, Jake Brigance and his preacher, are more concerned with their image and their pocket than the fate of Carl Lee Hailey. Schumacher brings out this aspect of the movie in a very subtle way. The only actor on screen who seems totally at ease in his role is Samuel Jackson. He plays the father of a ten year old girl who has been raped, beaten and almost murdered by two red necks in rural Mississippi.

        Carl Lee Hailey doesn't care about his media image, or his political image or the message he sends to white America, or the message he sends to black America. All he cares about is his ten year old child. His charismatic acting is totally creditable, and when he cries that he hopes his daughter's rapists burn in hell, you believe him.

        Unfortunately the rest of the cast are not so powerful. Like many movie portrayals of the south this one is awkward. There is something special about the mannerisms and speech of Southerners that Hollywood just doesn't capture. Jack Brigance, played by new comer Matthew McConaughey moved through his part with acceptable mobility. Donald Sutherland's Lucien Willbanks, king of the alcoholics was a little too limp for me, and Brigance's friend, Harry Rex Vonner, looked like an Elvis impersonator. Maybe that's what people are like in rural Mississippi, but I felt ill at ease with the two dimensionality of all the characters, except Samuel Jackson.

        What made me even more uncomfortable is the message the movie screams to its audience. Like the sardonic commentary of Euripides in 5th c. Athens, Grisham paints a frightening picture of the new south in the 1990s. If we believe Grisham, laws are made to be broken, the court system is inept and the legal profession is more interested in image and profit than justice.

        This movie is about race, class and gender. Its a movie that very powerfully paints a frightening image to its audience. Grisham's interpretation of race relations, of class distinctions and of gender equality in this country suggest that we should be very afraid for our future.

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