Communication

Time to Kill

The main conflict in A Time to Kill is not the conflict in the courtroom; it is the conflict between black and white, good and evil. Character Jake Brigance's impassioned defense of murderer Carl Lee Hailey shows this when he says to the jury, "Now imagine she's white" (A Time to Kill), after describing her rape in vivid detail. Clearly, there is more here than the black white conflict. At the core of the movie is right and wrong, and when is a person justified in using force to solve a problem. Both main characters employ many elements of style and communication throughout the film to arrive at a successful final outcome - Carl Lee's innocence. Carl Lee is an intelligent man who adopts an accepted social style for black men - less intelligent than he really is. Jake is a young lawyer with a big case, and he employs an emotional and impassioned style in the courtroom to convince the jury of Carl Lee's right to take the law into his own hands. Their communication styles are not the same as they are in "real" life; they adopt these styles to affect the outcome of the trial and to remain convincing in their public personas.

The outcome strategy of the film is clearly to see Carl Lee go free. Both men adopt alternate communication skills to make sure this outcome occurs, but Carl Lee also takes matters into his own hands and meets secretly with the crippled deputy he injured in the murder of the two white rapists. He does this without Jake's knowledge or acceptance, and this is clearly a strategy employed to positively affect the outcome of the trial and the film. Jake also uses many strategies to ensure the right outcome, including his emotional speeches in court, and his reliance on mentors and law students as assistants in digging up anything they can on this crucial trial. The outcome is as expected on film - Carl Lee is found "innocent," but the viewer never knows why, which is an unexpected outcome after an expected result of altered communication styles.

References

Time to Kill. Dir. Joel Schumacher. Perf. Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock, and Kevin Spacey. Warner Brothers, 1996.