The Chamber (1996) on Netflix
In Mississippi, Sam Cayhall waits on death row for a 1967 Klan bombing that killed two boys. His grandson Adam Hall, a young Chicago lawyer, takes on the case.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.0/1015,983 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes13%
Trailer
Plot summary
Adam Hall is a young lawyer in Chicago. He travels to Jackson, Mississippi, and takes over the case of Sam Cayhall, the grandfather he has never met. Sam, a former Klansman, sits on death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, convicted of a 1967 bombing in Indianola. Adam's aunt, Lee Bowen, has kept her distance from her notorious father and warns her nephew against stirring up the past. Sam brags about his part in the Klan's bombing campaign and agrees to let Adam represent him, though he forbids a clemency plea to Governor David McAllister.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Chamber (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Brian Grazer talked Universal into paying $3.75 million for the film rights to a John Grisham novel that had not been written yet, buying it off a one-page outline. Grazer admitted the outline did not really match the book that followed.
- Because the studio had bought the book before it existed, John Grisham found studio people telling him what should be in it while he was still writing. He called the unsolicited advice infuriating.
- Brad Pitt was committed to playing the young lawyer Adam Hall, the part Chris O'Donnell took, but left when Ron Howard walked away in May 1995 on what Howard called a hunch, to direct Ransom.
- William Goldman's script was rewritten first by Phil Alden Robinson and then by director James Foley, to Grisham's displeasure. Goldman called the project a total wipeout disaster and a terrible experience, and said he never saw the finished film.
