Profile — John Grisham, From Book To Film

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.

Film Pairing — Keep The Kid In The Picture, And Keep Him Alive

This double feature represents that old saying “keep the kid in the movie…because the kid is the movie.  That’s not altogether true for Witness and The Client, both big box office successes that deal with protecting a child who becomes a target for elimination because he knows too much.

The Client (1994) is based on John Grisham’s bestseller. 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 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 win the battle.  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.

Witness (1985) cleaned up in the awards department. I remember loving the movie. My worry, when I sat down to watch it again these many years later, was that it wouldn’t hold up.  I needn’t have worried.  Director Peter Weir created a nearly timeless film that delivers a sit-on-the-edge-of-your seat plot and sets it against both a rarely used social environment and a strikingly visual landscape.  A young Amish kid witnesses the brutal killing of a cop in the restroom of a train station.  Because of corruption in the police department, neither the young witness (Lucas Haas) nor his police protector Harrison Ford, are safe — anywhere.  They retreat, Ford reluctantly, to an Amish community in Pennsylvania, where we meet an attractive Amish woman played by Kelly McGillis and other members of the boy’s family.  We also see Alexander Godunov, Patti LuPone and the first Hollywood appearance of Viggo Mortensen.  Danny Glover plays a significant role and if you pay attention you’ll get a glimpse of James Earl Jones.

As far as what to have with your double feature, maybe this is an alcohol free night.  The Client takes you back and forth from New Orleans to Memphis, but despite this two-hour plus film, time goes quickly.  Witness moves a little more slowly and lusciously. But when you are in Amish country, you have to be content with sipping lemonade on the porch swing.

Film Pairing — Famous, Contemporary Fictional Lawyers, From Books To Screen

I never saw what the deal was with Matthew McConaughey. Perhaps it was because he played unintentionally unsympathetic characters in the kind of movies I wasn’t inclined to see anyway. However, twice that I know of, McConaughey gave performances so clearly on the mark, I can’t imagine another actor pulling them off as well. Both times — in roles years apart — he played an attorney. Both films were based on characters and stories created by deservedly best-selling novelists, who — surprise — liked the movies made from their books. And both times the actor, most famous for taking his shirt off in films, didn’t need to carry the films on his bare shoulders, but could rely on a highly talented supporting cast.

The first is A Time to Kill, based on John Grisham’s novel by the same name. We go back to 1996. A black man kills the two white men who raped and killed his daughter. The movie controversially sets up the conflict of letter of the law against righteous revenge. Are we a nation of laws? We’d like to think so. But what if the law won’t exact justice? Is vigilantism ever justified? The film was panned by some critics because the film appeared to take a side in the argument.

On the other hand there is no argument about the cast. It is stellar. Samuel L. Jackson played the pivotal role of father. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for “Best Supporting Actor.” One could make a case that it should have been for “Best Actor.” Among the others who contributed to this solid drama were: Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd and Chris Cooper. The background, as you might have guessed, is the Deep South. The KKK is featured. The problem is that while the white sheets rarely make appearance these days, the attitudes haven’t disappeared. The film remains timely.

The second feature is The Lincoln Lawyer (2011). An older, somewhat weathered as well as appropriately wizened McConaughey plays Mickey Haller who plays all sides to get what he needs. One has the sense that the only people he won’t game are his daughter and his private investigator, played by William Macy. On the other hand, Haller lives and works in a world where trust is dangerous and playing it straight is unprofitable. Again McConaughey is backed up with a talented cast. In addition to the always incredible Macey, we see Marisa Tomei, John Leguizamo. Bryan Cranston does a great job of playing a tough, veteran, cynical cop. And Ryan Phillippe creates perfect pretty boy sociopath.

Haller is the lawyer whose office is in the back of Lincoln Town Car. He is the creation of best-selling crime writer Michael Connelly (see last week’s post) and this is the first of what promises to be a major series of books and if the news last updated in August holds true, will follow Grisham’s The Firm onto the small screen in a series proposed for ABC-TV.

Finding an appropriate drink to accompany the movies is made difficult by the small-town Mississippi setting for A Time To Kill and the L.A. fast lane for The Lincoln Lawyer. I’m thinking that we look at something good in hot weather. Never mind that many are still enduring March, that cruel month. How about a gin and tonic? If you’re feeling particularly Southern, put in a mint leaf.