A Time to Kill / YMMV

Americans Hate Tingle: As noted below under Values Dissonance, the film was far more controversial in France than in the US. While Americans embraced it as a film about a well-meaning man going outside the law to right a racist wrong done to his daughter, French critics condemned it as a glorification of vigilante violence. Its French distributor even gave it a Questioning Title? (Le Droit de tuer?) to make its morality seem more ambiguous than it was.
Cry for the Devil: The pro-Klan characters attempt to invoke this (albeit only amongst each other), claiming that the Klan is the only hope they have against black vigilantes. Whether that sentiment is at least sympathized with by members of the audience is certainly a controversial matter.
Designated Hero: The "heroes" of this movie are, at the most basic, a murderer and his lawyer, that heavily appeals to emotion to get his client free. That's one of the big reasons because of the Values Dissonance below. Though it's noted in the movie itself that justice could be considered served no matter what the outcome of the trial is.
He Really Can Act: Matthew McConaughey shows remarkable depth and assurance as Jake Brigance and effortlessly holds his own against a cast of veterans. He had a slump since only doing comedies going into the 2000s but his mature Career Resurrection 17 years later, capped with an Best Actor Oscar, showed that his win was no fluke.
Harsher in Hindsight: In the movie, the DA played by Kevin Spacey castigates a defense witness for having been a statutory rapist. After October 2017, when Spacey himself was accused by at least sixteen other people of sexual misconduct, this scene feels absurd in the worst way. Likewise, Doug Hutchison portraying a rapist in this movie became this with his controversial marriage to and grooming of model Courtney Stodden.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Ellen Roark is a law student at Ole Miss, which is also the alma mater of Leigh Anne Tuohy, and both women are played by Sandra Bullock. Even more remarkable because Bullock is from Virginia, not Mississippi.
- Roark is referred to as "Lois Lane" at one point in the movie. A decade after this film's release, Kevin Spacey would portray Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.
Just Here for Godzilla: While the film remains quite controversial, for some it's still more than worth it for main leads performances, ESPECIALLY Samuel L. Jackson's for the reason already explained below.
Memetic Mutation: "YES, X DESERVED TO DIE, AND I HOPE X BURN(S) IN HELL!" It's even odds that a parody of any Samuel L. Jackson character will shout the line at some point.
Nightmare Fuel: The rape of 10-year-old Tonya Hailey. Even though we don't see all that much, what we are shown and told is horrifying enough. Even worse, it's all toned down from its counterpart in the book.
One-Scene Wonder: Chris Cooper as the deputy who lost his leg in the attack, but holds no ill will and even calls Carl Lee a hero.
Retroactive Recognition: That's Octavia Spencer as Ellen's nurse.
Strawman Has a Point:
- You need not be a racist or a member of the Klan to think that what Carl Lee did was wrong. He openly killed two suspects in a courthouse, before they even had a chance to go to trial, and shot a guard in the leg (albeit unintentionally), resulting in him needing it amputated. If you wanted to, you could argue that this film winds up (whether intentionally or not) advocating vigilantism and mob rule.
- Carla was in her right to be reasonably mad at Jake for taking Carl Lee's case as his killings of the two people who raped his daughter Tonya were what drove the Ku Klux Khan to take revenge and threatening Jake's family unless he stepped down and allowed the black man to be executed, which he did not want to (though to be fair, Carl Lee's decision to kill them was a conscious one). She even pointed out that their daughter Hannah came every day "bawling because kids call her a nigga-lover" and castigates Jake for not calling Sheriff Walls, the only black cop, as a possible intervention which would've equally saved Carl Lee, Jake and his family a lot of trouble. However, after coming back to town from a trip, as a way to keep herself and Hannah safe from the gang's wrath, she's remorseful for yelling at Jake and assuring him he's not to blame for the whole ordeal, as he only did his best to make things right and acknowledges that he took Carl Lee's case because of Hannah, knowing that her husband would've killed those men himself had they raped their daughter just like they did to Tonya. Remorseful or not, and even if Jake took the case for Hannah, people still agree that Carla was understandably freaked out when Jake kept playing with fire (well, he literally did when the people hell-bent on avenging Tonya's rapists succeeded in burning his house down) by refusing to resign from the case and choosing to prevent Carl Lee from being executed via the gas chamber.
Unintentional Period Piece: The book actually became one while it was being written, as it was made illegal to use peremptory objections to jurors to remove every member of a particular race without explanation. The film had to be made a period piece to accommodate this.
Values Dissonance: This film sparked controversy in many European countries regarding the death penalty and the right of self-defense. The nation where the most cries of outrage came from were from France. French critics accused it of being "nauseating", "stinking", and in the most extreme cases claimed it promoted fascism, the last of which is ironic considering that the film won an award from the NAACP.^note

YMMV / A Time to Kill

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