MisEnScene In A Time To Kill Essay

Mis-En-Scene In A Time To Kill Essay, Research Paper

The use of mis-en-scene in A Time to Kill was most objectively utilized in the scenery, costumes and especially the lighting. The narrative compiles a majority of dark scenes with a careful use of low-key illumination and a variety of shadows. These low-light settings draw the viewer to express feelings toward the characters and their actions. The extensive close-up camera shots of the character’s faces reveal the emotions they are portraying, whether they are talking or making a statement through silence. The setting of the first few minutes of the film helps set the plot in motion and throws a gripping shot of mid-twentieth century human nature into the mind of the audience.

The setting lies in the deep south, in the state of Mississippi, where many people still believed in a superior, white race. Two drunken rednecks, who obviously followed the superiority belief, come upon a ten-year-old black girl, Tanya Haley, on her way home from the grocery store. After knocking the girl to the ground with a full beer can, each of these men continually raped the child, urinated on her, slammed more full beer cans on her, and then hanged her from a tree. After the tree branch snapped, the men through Tanya in the back of their pickup truck, and then 30 feet to the ground over the side of a bridge.

Director Joel Schumacher Involved the audience in the rape scene. The camera angle was portrayed from the viewpoint and through the eyes of Tanya. You could almost feel the fear, watching the two men jump on top of her, first one then the other. The camera turned to the ropes tied around her arms and legs, to the deep flesh wounds left by the thrown beer cans, to this little girl being heaved into the back of the truck motionless.

The plot thickens as the men are being taken to trial after Haley s shoe is found in the back of their truck. Carl Lee Haley (Samuel L. Jackson), Tanya s father, loses his grip with reality and is overtaken by the anger and hatred he feels towards the men that ruined his daughter s innocence, and any possibility of her ever giving birth. With the camera focused on the eyes of Carl Lee, he runs out from behind a wall in the courthouse with a gun and shoots and kills the two men that were on their way to trial for the rape of his daughter.

From this point on, much of the movie turns dark. There are many scenes with Carl Lee and his lawyer Jake Brigants (Matthew McConaughey) talking in jail, sometimes with both men in the cell and sometimes with Brigants on the outside looking in as the cast shadows of the bars lay on the face of Carl Lee. The low lighting and the shadows convey the emotion that Carl Lee is going through. He has a family with little money and he is facing life in prison or possibly the death penalty under a conviction.

To give an idea of the emotion of sadness and somewhat hopelessness that both of these men feel when they are in the cell, the background is mostly shadowed by the cast shadows from the two men. The use of the low-key lighting during these scenes helps the viewer focus on the faces of Brigants and Haley, and the attached shadows of their faces. Rarely was there a cut with both men involved. Instead, during conversation there was a headshot or bust shot of the character speaking.

The jail is not the only part of the movie that took a dark turn. The coming scenes after the murders took place also set the mood of despair, frustration, and not knowing what was going to happen next. Most scenes were shot at night, when only streetlights were on or when the characters were inside their homes or offices. Once again cast shadows from nearby objects such as lamps and houses played a big part depicting feeling and mood. Also once again, the focus of the characters was represented by attached shadows from their faces and hands. As these parts of mis-en-scene develop, so does the correlation between Carl Lee and Jake.

Carl Lee selected Brigants to be his lawyer for a specific reason and Brigants agreed to take the case for a specific reason. The director is setting up a relationship between these two that will develop as the film goes on. The relationship begins for a different purpose for each man, but eventually ends up in the same place. Brigants, a young, white, and inexperienced lawyer, has a young daughter of his own and feels he would have taken the same actions as Carl Lee did if he was in the same situation. He takes the case to stand up for what he believes is right. Carl Lee asks Brigants to be his lawyer because he thinks that the only way he may have a chance at getting a fair trial in the south is if he has a white lawyer. He doesn t see Jake as his friend, at first, but as one of the bad guys, because he believes Jake thinks the same way as the all-white jury and can somehow find a way to get him off the hook under an insanity plea.

Many times throughout the films darkest moments, some of the characters, including the judge, try to persuade Jake to drop the case because of its uselessness and impossibilities. The KKK played a large part in the characters persuasions. Once they found light of all of the people involved in the case and everyone that had a close relationship with Brigants, they began to act against them. Brigants house was burned to the ground, his secretary s husband was beaten, and a woman on his