The Chamber | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | James Foley |
Screenplay by |
|
Based on | The Chamber by John Grisham |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Ian Baker |
Edited by | Mark Warner |
Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 112 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $40 million [1] |
Box office | $22.5 million [2] |
The Chamber is a 1996 American legal thriller film directed by James Foley. It is based on John Grisham's 1994 novel of the same name. The film stars Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman (who had previously appeared in another Grisham adaptation, The Firm ), Faye Dunaway, Lela Rochon, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry, and David Marshall Grant.
In April 1967, the office of Marvin Kramer, a Jewish civil rights lawyer in Indianola, Mississippi, is bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, killing Kramer's five-year-old twin sons and leading to the amputation of Kramer's legs and his later suicide. Klansman Sam Cayhall is tried for murder in the bombing, and is eventually convicted and sentenced to die in the gas chamber at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
Twenty-nine years later, Adam Hall, a young attorney at the Chicago law firm of Kravitz and Bane, seeks assignment to the firm's pro bono representation of Cayhall in the last weeks before his scheduled execution. Adam is Cayhall's grandson, his family having since moved away from the South and changed their name, haunted and shamed by Cayhall's actions. Adam is motivated to take the case in a search for some understanding of the dark secrets of his family, which prompted the suicide of Adam's father the year Sam was sentenced to death and whose body Adam found as a child.
Adam is sent by the firm to Jackson, Mississippi to take over the case and there reconnects with his aunt Lee Bowen, an alcoholic socialite who has managed to avoid public association with her infamous father, and who warns Adam about the dangers of dredging up the past. On death row, Sam remains a brusque, bitter, unrepentant racist who brags about his participation in the Klan bombing campaign of which the Kramer bombing was a part, though he denies that any of the bombings were intended to kill. He taunts Adam for his youth, legal inexperience, opposition to racism, and the suicide of his father, but he agrees to allow Adam to represent him, though he forbids Adam from seeking clemency from Mississippi Governor McAllister, who had prosecuted Sam in his last retrial and had campaigned on that prosecution in his election to Governor. Nevertheless, as he begins to argue the case, Adam is approached by the Governor through an aide, Nora Stark, who suggests that he might consider clemency if Sam provides information about unidentified co-conspirators to the bombing.
As Adam investigates, inconsistencies in the facts of the original case come to light, casting doubt on Sam's intent to kill and suggesting that he lacked the ability to make the bomb himself, and both Stark and the original FBI agent who investigated the case indicate that the bombing may have been the result of a broader conspiracy involving the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and White Citizens' Councils, which were active at the time of the bombing in opposition to civil rights.
Sam refuses to authorize Adam to seek access to the Sovereignty Commission's files, sealed by order of the state legislature, fearing it would expose Sam's former associates in the Klan, as well allowing the Governor to obtain useful information on political enemies, which he indicates is the Governor's real reason for seeking Sam's cooperation in unsealing the files.
Adam continues to work through the courts, filing and arguing motions for a stay of execution, including on the grounds that Sam was legally insane and unable to tell right from wrong, due to his indoctrination into the Ku Klux Klan. At the same time, Lee, faced with the unearthed ghosts of the family history and having lapsed back into full-blown alcoholism, reveals to Adam that in the early 1950s, as children, she and Adam's father had witnessed their father murder the family's African-American neighbor Joe Lincoln during a fight that had started because Adam's father, Eddie, had wrongly accused Lincoln's son of stealing a toy soldier. Eddie had blamed himself for the murder, as well as Lee, for failing to stop Sam, the guilt of which was a factor in Eddie's later suicide and Lee's alcoholism. Lee also reveals how their father had been indoctrinated into the Klan as a child, showing Adam a historic photograph of Sam as a young boy attending a Klan lynching which Adam uses in his arguments before the courts.
Adam and Nora secretly gain access to the Sovereignty Commission's sealed files, which prove a wider conspiracy to the bombing, and also indicate the participation of an accomplice. The former FBI agent resurfaces, and reveals to Adam that the FBI had identified the accomplice, Rollie Wedge, whom the FBI had never been able to prove responsible, but who has reunited with other Klan members to commemorate the bombing on the eve of the pending execution.
Adam goes to a Klan reunion but is beaten by several members and threatened at gunpoint by Wedge. Adam's persistence, the revelation of how much Sam's hatred had destroyed his family, and his impending execution begin to affect Sam, and he softens, reconciling with Lee and expressing remorse for his actions and the effect they have had on his family. Sam forcefully rejects the Klan when Wedge visits him in prison to encourage him to remain silent, and it is revealed that Wedge was the one who had built the bomb and set it deliberately to detonate.
Ultimately, Adam's motions for a stay are denied by the courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Despite Sam's finally authorizing the release of relevant Sovereignty Commission files, the Governor refuses to grant clemency, betraying him and Adam, while nonetheless using the files as political leverage as Sam had predicted. Wedge, identified in the files, is finally arrested.
Ultimately, Sam is executed in the gas chamber, though Adam remains a confidant and advocate for his grandfather up until his execution, and he and Lee embrace at the end, in the hope that maybe the ghosts of the past are gone.
The first four films based on Grisham novels had all been big hits and producer Brian Grazer persuaded Universal to buy the film rights to The Chamber for $3.75 million before the book had even been written, based on a one page outline. [3] Ron Howard was originally set to direct the film for Universal. Grazer said "I bought it before I saw any words. I just knew it was Grisham, and I wanted to snatch it. I bought it based on what [Grisham’s late agent, Jay Garon] said. Which didn’t totally correspond with the synopsis paragraph I read. And that didn’t exactly correspond with the book." [1]
Grisham's novel was different from his earlier works. He said before he finished he "got some unsolicited vibes on how to write. Some of the studio people had some ideas about what should be in the book, and it was infuriating." [1]
In May 1994 it was reported William Goldman was paid $1 million to write the script. [4]
Howard left the project in May 1995 because of what he described as "a hunch". He stayed on as a producer though. "It's a strong story, and William Goldman is doing great work on the screenplay." [5]
Brad Pitt was committed to playing Adam Hall, but left the project when Howard left to direct Ransom . [6]
James Foley came on board to direct while Chris O'Donnell and Gene Hackman agreed to star. Some work on the script was done by Phil Alden Robinson then Foley began rewriting the script. Grisham was unhappy with the changes. [7]
William Goldman described the project as a "total wipeout disaster... a terrible experience" and claims he never saw the finished movie. [8]
Foley said "after eight movies for some reason I'm getting to do exactly what I want. I mean, The Chamber is as great an opportunity for me as it can possibly be thematically and I've got Gene Hackman so it's like there is no limit. If it isn't great it's only because of me." [9]
Scenes were filmed in a photo realistic recreation of the gas chamber on studio sets in Los Angeles.[ citation needed ] Other locations were filmed in Chicago, Jackson, Mississippi, Indianola, Mississippi, Greenwood, Mississippi, Parchman, Mississippi, and Cleveland, Mississippi.
Critical reaction to The Chamber has been negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 12% based on reviews from 25 critics. [10] On Metacritic the film has a score of 45 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics. [11] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F. [12]
Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, remarking: "In the early days of X-rated movies, they were always careful to include something of 'redeeming social significance' to justify their erotic content. Watching The Chamber, I was reminded of that time. The attitudes about African Americans and Jews here represent the pornography of hate, and although the movie ends by punishing evil, I got the sinking feeling that, just as with the old sex films, by the time the ending came around, some members of the audience had already gotten what they bought their tickets for." [13] James Berardinelli also gave the film two stars out of four, saying: "Plot-wise, The Chamber is full of seeming irrelevancies. The movie should have been streamlined better; there's no need to try to include virtually every character from the book. [...] The Chamber [...] is mechanical and artificial, and tells you what to think." [14]
Grisham called the film a "disaster" and a "train wreck from the beginning". He added, "It could not have been handled worse by those involved, including me. I made a fundamental error when I sold the film rights before I finished writing the book. It was a dreadful movie. Gene Hackman was the only good thing in it." [15] Faye Dunaway's performance in the movie earned her a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress, but she did not win the award.
Eugene Allen Hackman is an American retired actor. In a career that spanned more than six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Silver Bear. Hackman's two Academy Award wins included one for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's acclaimed thriller The French Connection (1971) and the other for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Little" Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). His other Oscar-nominated roles were in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and Mississippi Burning (1988).
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. His accolades include two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Hoffman has received numerous honors, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro has described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human".
John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, lawyer, and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his best-selling legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three anglophone authors to have sold two million copies on the first printing.
Henry Warren Beatty is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1999, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008.
Bude is a town in Franklin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,063 at the 2010 census. Bude is located on the north bank of the Homochitto River, which bisects the county on a diagonal running from northeast to southwest, where it flows on its way to the Mississippi River. U.S. Routes 98 and 84 run by Bude.
Mississippi Burning is a 1988 American crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker and written by Chris Gerolmo that is loosely based on the 1964 murder investigation of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Mississippi. It stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents investigating the disappearance of three civil rights workers in fictional Jessup County, Mississippi, who are met with hostility by the town's residents, local police, and the Ku Klux Klan.
I Never Sang for My Father is a 1970 American drama film, based on the 1968 play of the same name. It tells the story of a widowed college professor who feels dominated by his aging father, yet still has regrets about his plan to leave him behind when he remarries and moves to California. It stars Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons, and Elizabeth Hubbard.
A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal thriller and debut novel by American author John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a 5,000-copy printing. When Doubleday published The Firm, Wynwood released a trade paperback of A Time to Kill, which became a bestseller. Dell published the mass market paperback months after the success of The Firm, bringing Grisham to widespread popularity among readers. Doubleday eventually took over the contract for A Time to Kill and released a special hardcover edition.
Enemy of the State is a 1998 American political action thriller film directed by Tony Scott, written by David Marconi, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman with an ensemble supporting cast consisting of Jon Voight, Regina King, Loren Dean, Jake Busey, Barry Pepper and Gabriel Byrne. The film tells the story of a group of corrupt National Security Agency (NSA) agents conspiring to kill a congressman and the cover-up that ensues after a tape of the murder ends up in the possession of an unsuspecting lawyer.
The Chamber (1994) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham. It is Grisham's fifth novel.
The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller by American writer John Grisham. It was his second book and the first that gained wide popularity. In 1993, after selling 1.5 million copies, it was adapted into a film of the same name starring Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, came into prominence afterwards due to this novel's success.
The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, were the abduction and murder of three activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in June 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement. The victims were James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City. All three were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Since 1890 and through the turn of the century, Southern states had systematically disenfranchised most black voters by discrimination in voter registration and voting.
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan is a 1975 American two-part made-for-television drama film which dramatizes the events following the 1964 abduction and murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Mississippi. In this, it is similar in theme to the later 1988 movie Mississippi Burning, though some names and details were changed, and the approximate storyline of both productions is preceded by the events portrayed in the 1990 TV movie Murder in Mississippi.
A Time to Kill is a 1996 American legal drama film based on John Grisham's 1989 novel of the same name. Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey, and Kevin Spacey star with Donald and Kiefer Sutherland appearing in supporting roles and Octavia Spencer in her film debut. The film received mixed reviews but was a commercial success, making $152 million worldwide. It is the second of two films based on Grisham's novels directed by Joel Schumacher, with the other being The Client released two years prior.
Mississippi Cold Case is a 2007 feature documentary produced by David Ridgen of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about the Ku Klux Klan murders of two 19-year-old black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, in Southwest Mississippi in May 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Summer. It also explores the 21st-century quest for justice by the brother of Moore. The documentary won numerous awards as a documentary and for its investigative journalism.
The Domino Principle is a 1977 neo-noir thriller film starring Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, Mickey Rooney and Richard Widmark. The film is based on the novel of the same name and was adapted for the screen by its author Adam Kennedy. It was directed and produced by Stanley Kramer.
Louis Allen was an African-American logger in Liberty, Mississippi, who was shot and killed on his land during the civil rights era. He had previously tried to register to vote and had allegedly talked to federal officials after witnessing the 1961 murder of Herbert Lee, an NAACP member, by E. H. Hurst, a white state legislator. Civil rights activists had come to Liberty that summer to organize for voter registration, as no African-American had been allowed to vote since the state's disenfranchising constitution was passed in 1890.
John Hamiter Proctor Jr. was an American FBI agent (1951–1978) and U.S. Navy signalman second class from 1944 to 1946 and served during World War II. He was most famous for his role in investigating the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964.
The Firm is a 1993 American legal thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey. The film is based on the 1991 novel of the same name by author John Grisham. The Firm was one of two films released in 1993 that were adapted from a Grisham novel, the other being The Pelican Brief.
Frank Morris (1914–1964) was an American businessman who died as a result of arson to his shoe shop in Ferriday, Louisiana, a city with a history of racial violence. There have been allegations of witness intimidation, evidence tampering, and involvement by local law enforcement. No charges have been brought despite three FBI investigations.