When Vigilantism Becomes a Vehicle for Justice

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the issues of race and prejudice which are portrayed in this sad and violent movie. When a black man's daughter is raped and almost killed by a group of white men, he decides to take revenge by killing them. The father's claim was that they would not get a fair trial because they were white and the victim was black.

From the Paper:

"Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body, soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she's white. (Warner Bros, 1996) That basically sums up the constant display of contradiction in the movie A Time To Kill. As Jake Brigance persuasively asks the jury to hypothesize the horrible deeds enacted on Tanya in his closing argument, I was left to ponder how truly poignant it was, in more ways than one. It's interesting when Jake asks the jury to look beyond race, color and beliefs, he then asks them to disregard the color of Tonya momentarily and to picture her white. "

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