A Time to Kill (1996)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jake Brigance	Matthew McConaughey	½
Ellen Roark	Sandra Bullock	½
Carl Lee Hailey	Samuel L. Jackson	½
Rufus Buckley	Kevin Spacey	½
Ethel Twitty	Brenda Fricker	½
Henry Rex Vonner	Oliver Platt	½
Ozzie Walls	Charles S. Dutton	½
Carla Brigance	Ashley Judd
Judge Omar Noose	Patrick McGoohan	½
Freddie Lee Cobb	Kiefer Sutherland
Lucien Wilbanks	Donald Sutherland	½
Tim Nunley	John Diehl
James Louis "Pete" Willard	Doug Hutchison
Billy Ray Cobb	Nicky Katt	½
Dwayne Looney	Chris Cooper
Dr. Wilbert Rodeheaver	Anthony Heald
Stump Sisson	Kurtwood Smith
Tonya Hailey	Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly
Dr. Willard Tyrell Bass	M. Emmet Walsh
Cora Mae Cobb	Beth Grant
Reverend Isaiah Street	Joe Seneca
Reverend Ollie Agee	Thomas Merdis

Review

Despite its all-star cast and fine craftsmanship, A Time to Kill comes off as a somewhat ill-focused and disconcerting film about vigilante justice and overcooked racial issues in modern day Mississippi. And the vapid taste is probably more prominent today than it was back at the time of release, with the film's anachronisms being more apparent seen from a few years' distance. This was Matthew McConaughey's breakout role, and although he demonstrates his leading-man potential, he's also an unfinished product here, not quite able to project the films' many subtleties satisfactory (and falling semi-flat in his summation scene). But then neither is director Joel Schumacher, who most probably wanted to make a multi-layered film, but who got a little too worked up in the process; his sense of justice here is little more than bloodthirst disguised as race struggle. Somebody should have told somebody that two wrongs don't make a right. The fine acting by a number of supporting players is the film's best asset, most notably Chris Cooper, M. Emmet Walsh and the criminally underrated Doug Hutchison.