Background
“A Time to Kill,” is a legal drama film based on the novel by John Grisham. The film tells the story of justice for a Black man who lynched his ten-year-old daughter’s rapists. Carl Lee Hailey connects to White lawyer Jake Brigance in the hope of being acquitted in a trial where the jury will be all-white. Additionally, after killing the rapists, Carl gains an enemy in Freddie Lee Cobb, the brother of one of the rapists, who enlists the support of the Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan. This paper aims to discuss the film “A Time to Kill” and how it reflects the wider social perceptions.
What is the cultural impact of “A Time to Kill”
“A Time to Kill” is a drama film aimed at making the viewer feel the absurdity of racial prejudice. The narrative of the lynching is controversial, but the plot should not be interpreted too literally, as this is a feature film. The film depicts a situation where members of the Ku Klux Klan gather outside the courthouse to ensure that Karl is convicted, but they are met with resistance from Karl’s supporters. Such a scene can evoke more recent events associated with the BLM movement, ensuring the film is relevant to contemporary social issues.
What was your reaction when Brigance described the sadistic acts against Hailey’s daughter and then asked the jury, “Now imagine she’s white.”
After Brigance detailed everything that had happened to Hailey’s daughter and then asked me to imagine that this was a white child, I felt ashamed as I visually and emotionally encountered my deep prejudices. When imagining a child of another race, a White viewer will probably, against their own will, come up with justifications for the actions of criminals. At the same time, asking to imagine that the victim is a white girl can trigger a wave of natural disgust and anger toward the perpetrators. The viewer instantly takes the father’s side, unequivocally emotionally empathizing with him. The lawyer’s speech is extremely compelling, as it makes it possible to feel the difference in personal perceptions and reinforces Carl’s conviction that when the jury looks at the dock, they see not a “man,” but a “Black man.”
How would that role reversal question work if applied to the movies you have watched in your lifetime?
A similar technique can be applied to other films with Black or White protagonists. The film Black Panther is an interesting example of a comedy genre that criticizes the practice of including Black actors in Hollywood movies. In this film, all the actors are Black, and the only White actor plays the villain, who is despised and disrespected by everyone despite his superpowers. Watching the film is an instinctive resentment that allows one to better appreciate how ridiculous similar films look with the reversed scripts and cast.
In 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – the more things change, the more they stay the same… How does this saying relate to “A Time to Kill”?
Even though 16 years have passed since the release of the film “A Time to Kill,” issues of racial prejudice remain relevant. The recklessness of the police and the unfounded fear of the citizens of the Black race cannot be explained and understood. Historically, racial prejudice has been exacerbated by government policies to segregate the Black population, including Jim Crow laws to create ghettos within big cities and disparities in the provision of services, and financial opportunities, including loans to buy real estate. The fight for Civil Rights was supposed to stop the oppression of Black people, but unfortunately, this struggle continues. Black Lives Matter had to cause a fantastic surge of public and media attention and become a meme so that a certain part of American society could accept the fact of equality between White and Black men and women.
How does the divided society in the movie compare with our society today?
The divided society depicted in the film remains virtually unchanged today. Fashion and some social trends are changing, but the separation is still present tangibly. The rejection of biases against race is still perceived as an achievement and not a natural consequence of the absence of absurd prejudices. Perhaps the issue of racial equality today is not only about equality in health care or employment but about seeing the “man,” not the “Black man.”