A Time to Kill (1996)

 

Release Date: July 24, 1996

Runtime: 149 mins

Director: Joel Schumacher

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock

Writer: Akiva Goldsman (screenplay), John Grisham (novel)

Estimated Budget: $40 million

U.S. Domestic: $108.7

Foreign: $43.5 million

Worldwide: $152.2 million

 

Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) is a heartbroken black father who avenges his daughter's brutal rape by shooting the bigoted men responsible for the crime as they are on their way to trial. He turns to Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), an untested lawyer, to defend him. Brigance struggles to believe that he can get Hailey acquitted in this small, segregated Southern town, given Hailey's race and the deliberate nature of his crimes, but Carl has unshakable faith in him.