In John Grishams film (1996) “A Time to Kill” takes place issues related to racism in the Deep South and based on a true life experience of John Grisham . The novel, like the film, opens with a very brutal rape scene. It is the socio-political politics that give this film an energetic and confrontational feel of Southern racial politics. Racism was still very strong even about 20 years after the Civil War (Ponick 2011). Hollywood and John Grisham wanted to make a bold statement about racism, and they succeeded in the closing argument of the courtroom scene. The setting of this film and the particular scene are crucial in bringing the story into focus. The story is about a black man fighting for his life and not going to prison for the murder of two white men who had raped his 10-year-old daughter. Director Joel Schumacher and author John Grisham revisit the small Canton Mississippi town to shoot this film. This element gives the audience a reality and image of where the real events took place. This builds drama into the story. The courtroom scenes are filmed in the real Canton courthouse (Arrington 1996). Originally the location chosen for filming was supposed to be Oxford. Luckily the filming would take place during the football season and all the hotels were full. Another inconvenience was that the lawn at Oxford Courthouse was too small, so traffic would also have to be diverted for up to 15 days and this was also a problem. The Canton location was a better choice for the originality of the story (Arrington 1996). In the courtroom scene with Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) the closing argument was well directed and made a bold statement. This not only made the scene memorable, but it also created a... center of the card... a focal point. Even more powerful is the question of what you would do as a parent for your child in these circumstances. Works Cited Arrington Rebecca (1996) PANELISTS DISCUSS PICKING FILM LOCATION, Retrieved 01/06/12 from http://www.virginia.edu/ insideuva/textonlyarchive/96-11-08/4.txtHufferh (2007) A Time To Kill Closing Argument, YouTube Retrieved 1/7/12 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7f-BgDgpmEJames Berardinelli (1996) A Time to Kill, retrieved 12/30/11 from http ://www.reelviews.net/movies/t/time_kill.htmlTerry Ponick (2011), DC Theater Scene, A Time To Kill, retrieved 12/30/11 from http://dctheatrescene.com/2011/05/ 26/a-time-to-kill/Shulgasser Barbra (1996) San Francisco Chronicle, Court and Spark; A Critical Look at "A Time to Kill" Retrieved 1/7/12 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1996/07/24/STYLE5057 . dtl