Blahism: Movie Review

A Time to Kill

The Plot
A Time to Kill is a court-room thriller based on the novel of the same name by John Grisham. Carl Lee Hailey is an African American man in a mostly White town in Mississippi; he has a wife, three boys, and a girl. Jake Brigance is a young, White lawyer who is going broke, but has a lot of heart. The story begins as two young White men are drinking and driving, throwing beer bottles and cans at houses. Tanya Hailey, Carl Lee’s 10-year-old daughter is walking down the road, carrying groceries home from the store. The unthinkable happens as the truck with the two young men approach little Tanya; laughing, they throw a full beer can at her; she drops her groceries and falls to the ground. The two men take her, bind her wrists and ankles, and take turns raping her. They continue to throw full beer cans at her, tearing open her skin, sometimes to the bone. After they have their way with her, they urinate all over her, and they tie a noose around her neck and hang her from a tree. The tree branch was not strong enough to hold Tanya, and it breaks, sending Tanya to the ground. The two men gather her little broken body and throw her into the back of their truck, and then they toss her over a 30-foot bridge to the creek below. She did not die, though, and she was able to identify her attackers.
The Dilemma
Carl Lee’s ethical dilemma stems from the decision to let the law take care of the two men, where, even if convicted, they would be released after a very short sentence; or to take the law into his own hands and take his revenge on the two men for what they did to his little girl. The most common ethical framework taking place in this story is very much a teleological framework; the characters embrace utilitarianism by doing what they feel is necessary to attain the “right” outcome. Carl Lee paid a visit to Jake Brigance, who he knew from before. He told Brigance that he might do something terrible; and asked him if he would defend him if he was ever in a jam. Jake asked him what he was planning on doing, and Carl Lee replied simply: “you got [sic] a daughter, Jake, what would you do?” Jake Brigance himself is the father to a little girl, around the same age as Tanya. Jake Brigance’s first ethical dilemma is whether or not to listen to his wife’s advice, and call the sheriff to tell him of Carl Lee’s plans. If he knew someone was about to break the law, it is his duty as a citizen, and as a lawyer, to report it to the appropriate authorities. Brigance does not, however, listen to his wife; and Carl Lee made his decision.
The Choice
The two White men moved through the crowded courthouse, escorted by an officer, on their way to be arraigned for the rape and attempted murder of Tanya Hailey. There are some Black folk watching; mostly there are white folk crowding the halls, including one of the men’s mother and brother. Carl Lee Hailey is hiding, sweating, watching and waiting. The men begin to ascend the stairs and Carl Lee breaks out of his hiding place, armed with a high-powered automatic rifle, and shoots down the two men, killing them right there in the courthouse. Unfortunately, the officer was also hit by a bullet, and he lost his right leg below the knee. Jake Brigance saw the whole thing, along with half the town; and he was stunned by the event, never thinking that Carl Lee would really do what he said he might do. Now, Jake had already given his word that he would help Carl Lee; and so he set out to prove that a Black man could get a fair trial in a town made up of over 75% White people. Jake said to the press that they will “look past color and see the truth. Justice will be color blind”. Initially, I think, the case meant more to Brigance because it was a high-profile case, and a chance to go up against his nemesis, Rufus Buckley, in a capital murder case. Even after he learned that Carl Lee did not have the money to pay for a good defense, though, I think Brigance stayed on the case because it was the right thing to do. After all, he admitted to his assistant, Roark, that he wanted Carl Lee to do it, to kill the two men. Brigance can relate to Carl Lee because he is not positive that he would not do the same thing if their positions were switched. Even the officer who lost his leg testified in court that he did not blame Carl Lee, that he would have done the same if it were his daughter.
The Cost
Many bad things happened in the aftermath of this case; many people tried to get Jake to drop the case. Jake’s wife pleaded him to drop the case after the KKK put a burning cross in their front yard; Jake’s family was at risk. Jake’s secretary pleaded with him to drop the case after she started receiving threatening phone calls at home; the life of his Jake’s coworker was at risk. A man tried to put a bomb under Jake’s house. Even the judge presiding over the case wanted Jake to drop it; he asked Jake “why toss away a promising career”? The sheriff was beat up in a fight between the KKK and the Black protestors outside the courthouse; when Jake tried to help the sheriff, he was sliced by a knife in the leg. The KKK put a burning cross at the courthouse; and Jake’s house was burned to the ground from a second burning cross in his front yard. Jake’s friend and colleague wanted him to drop the case for his own safety, but Jake said no because that would have made all of the sacrifices for nothing. He had to move forward with the case. A sniper who was aiming for Jake shot a guard in the neck, paralyzing him. Finally, Jake’s researcher, Roark, was kidnapped, beaten, and left for dead by the KKK for being a “Ni**er Lover”.
Rufus Buckley, the District Attorney, is portrayed as a man with not very high ethical standards. He is aware that Carl Lee Hailey will not get a fair trial with a white jury; but proceeds to go for the win anyway. He tells reporters that he is a sensitive man, but that he has a duty to protect the public from people who take the law into their own hands; he has to take a stand against vigilante violence. In his closing argument to the jury, Buckley says that “feeling terrible, knowing something is wrong, does not give any of us the right to kill”.
The Solution
It is clear, about halfway through the movie that Carl Lee does not see his lawyer, Jake, as a friend; but rather as one of the bad guys. That is why, Carl Lee says, that he wanted Jake to defend him, because he is one of “them”; he knows how the White people think because he is one of the White people. Carl Lee hopes that Jake will be able to get the jury to see the case from a different perspective. Carl Lee asks Jake “if you was[sic] on that jury, what would it take to convince you to se me free?” Jake has to search inside himself to find the awful truth. Instead of reading his prepared argument to the jury, Jake asks them to close their eyes and imagine the little girl being brutalized. He painstakingly recalls all of the horrendous details of the attack and closes his statement with the question “now imagine she’s white”. It is sad, but it worked; Carl Lee was set free, not guilty of murder.
The Ethics
The DA’s ethics are questionable, but he was doing his job by prosecuting a defendant who killed two young men. The judge’s ethics are questionable, he wanted Jake to drop the case, but he did his job as trial judge. Carl Lee Hailey’s ethical standards are definitely questionable; he murdered two people. It is understandable the reasons why Carl Lee did what he did, but that does not necessarily make it the right thing to do. At the same time, it is not justice if a Black man cannot get a fair trial based on the color of his skin. So now we come to Jake Brigance, seemingly innocent of any wrong doing, just a man trying to see that justice is served. Was it the right thing, though, to knowingly put his family and friends in danger for the sake of one man?
There were different decisions that could have been made. Jake could have, and probably should have called the sheriff right off the bat. The sheriff could have maybe talked Carl Lee out of shooting those two men. Carl Lee could have decided to let the law handle it, to keep his hands clean. He could have found another job and moved his family out of that town. The judge could have honored the defense’s request for a change of venue, giving Carl Lee a better chance at a fair trial. Rufus Buckley and Jake Brigance could have settled on a plea bargain. Many different things could have been done differently; but people make their decisions based on their personal experiences and feelings. Mothers and fathers understood why Carl Lee killed those two men; many would have done the same thing.
Legal dramas, like A Time to Kill, are interesting to people because it gives us the chance to put ourselves in that position; to think about what we would do if we were in that situation. Movies like this one give us the chance to choose a side, to take a stand on an issue. These movies are especially successful with an all-star cast like this movie. This was a great movie, a great issue.