Just Released |
The Broadway production of A Time To Kill closed Sunday. Not a smash hit, but far from a flop,
John Grisham’s first book, initially
turned down by publishers, has now seen success as book, play and film. Will we
see an opera? Not too many contemporary
crime books have done so well. And not
too many crime writers have done a well as Grisham. It is pointed out in Wikipedia that “Grisham
is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing, the
others being Tom Clancy and J. K Rowling.” As if to close the loop completely on this
major work, the long-awaited sequel, Sycamore
Row, was just released.
For the most part, I love courtroom dramas. Turn it into a thriller as well, and I’m
going to enjoy the book or movie. I’ve
read and enjoyed many of Grisham’s legal thrillers and have seen all of the
films, including A Time To Kill. Not only are court cases innately theatrical,
they provide the author a not too blatant opportunity to step up on the soapbox
and speak out for what he or she believes is social justice. And certainly
Grisham, a practicing lawyer, who has held local (Mississippi) political
office, has opinions on such matters. He
is also active in The Innocence Project, a highly respected nonprofit
organization that investigates what it believes to be wrongful convictions,
primarily through DNA. Its mission has
expanded to include “reforming the justice system to prevent future injustice.”
Major Blockbuster |
Many of his novels focus on the corruption of justice,
especially as it relates to the unharnessed power big corporations —
insurance, oil, guns, etc. — taking advantage of average citizens who can’t
possibly rustle the resources to make it a fair fight. Grisham has written non-legal books, but is
known primarily for his best-selling legal thrillers, many of which have been
made into popular movies:
The Firm (1993) One of the most popular of the Grisham
adaptations, this one rode on the success of his bestselling novels and, no
doubt, on the immense popularity of leading man, Tom Cruise. Though not my favorite, The Firm is a solid, suspenseful thriller. Cruise, as Matt Damon would do later in Rainbow
Man, enters the treacherous world of law as an innocent. Grisham’s films have been blessed with the best
directors (Sydney Pollack here) and
the attraction of fine and/or popular actors.
In The Firm, Cruise gets help
from his elders, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook
and David Strathairn. Recommended.
Major Stars, Major Hit |
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Another big moneymaker, largely on the popularity of stars Julia Roberts and Denzel
Washington and Grisham, himself this too is a solid feature, more
action-packed than the others. Alan J. Pakula directed this film with
another all-star cast, including John Lithgow,
Sam Shepard, Hume Cronyn, Stanley Tucci,
John Heard and Robert Culp. Roberts, a
young law stent is in possession of documents that point to the killers of two
U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Big-time
crimes and big-time villains can only mean danger for those want to expose the
evil doing. The Firm and Pelican Brief
would make a great Grisham double feature. Not intellectually taxing, but solid
suspense excellently executed. Recommended.
Academy Award For Sarandon, Great Movie |
The Client (1994) In this, my favorite of all the films made from Grisham’s novels, Brad Renfro plays a mature (beyond his years) teen caught between an overly
ambitious U.S. attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) and some gangsters who killed
a high-ranking Louisiana politician. Susan Sarandon plays Reggie
Love, an ex-alcoholic attorney on the comeback trail. She is the
character who must keep young Renfro, a prosecution witness, from being run
over by the competing forces, both, it seems, intent on destroying him as well
as his moonbeam of a mom in order to protect the killer. All three main
characters are strong, as is the plot, but Renfro is the draw here. He
plays a tough, uncannily wise country bumpkin. Sarandon was nominated for an
Academy Award for “Best Actress.” Anthony LaPaglia, Ossie Davis
and William H. Macy also appear in the film. Joel Schumacher directed.
From His most Touted Book |
A Time To Kill (1996) I had a really rough time getting through
the first pages of the book. The same
goes for the first few minutes of the movie.
It’s a gruesome crime. And we, as
an audience (some of us anti-death penalty) will have our views challenged by
the drama that sets up even the most pacifist of us to want revenge. If you set
aside the fact that this is a well-done, suspenseful thriller, the acceptance
of vigilantism is a question we are facing today in real life and is an
increasingly popular and a seemingly validated device for satisfying the reader
in crime fiction. Is this what we want? Joel
Schumacher directed this compelling adaptation with a cast most directors
could only dream of: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin
Spacey, Ashley Judd, Donald Sutherland, Chris Cooper, Patrick
McGoohan, and Kiefer Sutherland.
The Chamber (1996) While
I usually enjoy films that engage the brain in debates about social justice,
while telling a compelling story, other than providing further proof that Gene Hackman is one of this country’s
finest actors, there is little point in spending a couple of hours here.
Solid Filmmaking, Story Telling |
The Rainmaker (1997) Set in Tennessee, Francis Ford Coppola directs a stunning veteran cast in a film that
shines an unflattering light on health insurance companies. Matt
Damon is the perfect innocent to go up against a highly paid team of
corporate attorneys, headed by Jon
Voight after the denial of a young man’s claim caused his death. He also helps fend off the greedy relatives
of an elderly woman and falls in love with a battered housewife. All of this holds together very well thanks to
Coppola who also wrote the screenplay, and actors: Danny DeVito, Clare Danes,
Danny Glover, Virginia Madsen, Teresa
Wright, Even smaller roles were given maximum impact with brilliant brief
appearances Roy Scheider and Mickey Rourke.
The Gingerbread Man
(1998) This wasn’t a book, but one of Grisham’s “discarded manuscripts”
picked up by actor Kenneth Branagh,
who brought director Robert Altman
into the project. It was Altman’s
decision to rewrite it to keep the drama out
of the courtroom. A mistake, I’m guessing. The result was a non-starter
that was more about the weather than anything of substance. Missing was any underlying social inequity
that the usual Grisham main character wants to correct. No shortage of fine actors, however, who run
around in stormy Savannah. In addition
to Branagh, you’ll find Robert Downey
Jr., Robert Duvall, Tom Berenger
and Daryl Hannah.
Gene Hackman In Three Grisham Films |
Runaway Jury (2003) Grisham’s movies were beginning to trail
off at the box office. And this quite
fine film is the last of the film adaptations for the time being. Director Gary
Fleder had fewer per capita big names in the large cast — Gene Hackman, John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman
and Rachel Weisz — in a thriller about some serious and
dangerous jury tampering. The film is set
in New Orleans. The verdict in this could seriously diminish profits for the
gun manufacturing industry. A worthwhile
movie Runaway Jury nonetheless has a
slightly more independent feel to it than the first four.
No comments:
Post a Comment