A Time To Kill

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1996	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	143 minutes	Other Extras	Cast & Crew Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	Flipper (72:50)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	4	Director	Joel Schumacher
Studio Distributor	Warner Brothers	Starring	Sandra Bullock Samuel L. Jackson Matthew McConaughey Kevin Spacey Brenda Fricker Oliver Platt Charles S. Dutton Ashley Judd Patrick McGoohan Donald Sutherland
RRP	$29.95	Music	Elliot Goldenthal

    A Time To Kill tells the story of a black man, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel J. Jackson) whose 10 year old daughter is raped and left for dead by two white men in Mississippi. Carl has serious doubts about the ability of the legal system to adequately deal with these men, so he takes matters into his own hands and kills these men. As a result, he is put on trial for murder. His lawyer is Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), assisted by Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock). The prosecution is led by Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey).

    The movie depicts the events of the trial and the surrounding racial hatred that it ignites. The film moves along at a cracking pace, and is marvellously shot. The attack on the little girl at the start of the film is particularly notable in that virtually nothing is seen of the attack and yet it is brutally horrifying. This is a testament to great cinematography, great editing and great sound. The acting is top rate, as is the excellent script.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced. Subtitles default to ON with this disc.

    The transfer was mostly crystal clear, with a few scenes a little blurry. Shadow detail was satisfactory. No low level noise was apparent.

    The colours were vivid and fully saturated throughout, almost to the stage of being oversaturated at times.

    No MPEG artefacts were noted. Aliasing was present in a few scenes, but not in a major way. Film artefacts were present early on in the movie, but rapidly settled down to a very acceptable level.

    This disc is a flipper, with the side change occurring at 72:50. This is well placed, but as always an RSDL disc would have been preferred, particularly since subtitles default to ON on both sides of the disc and require turning off twice. I note that the Region 1 version of this disc is also a flipper.

Audio

    Dialogue was generally very clear and easily audible, with a very few lines of dialogue a little hard to hear.

    There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

    The music is by Elliot Goldenthal and is superb at complementing the movie.

     The surround channels were used extensively for frequent ambience, music and some special effects. There was very little in the way of dramatic use of the surrounds, but they were subtly active thoughout most of the movie. This provided an excellent surround experience, drawing you into the on-screen action very effectively.

    The .1 channel was used effectively for the special effects and for some of the music, but didn't do a lot. Nonetheless, it was used well by this soundtrack.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew Biographies

    The video quality is very good with only minor defects.

    The audio quality is nicely enveloping.

    The extras are very limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
15th February 1999