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The Chamber

The book The Chamber was made into the movie The Chamber.

Which one did you like better, the book or the movie?  There are 4 votes for the book, and 5 votes for the movie.

Book details for The Chamber

The Chamber was written by John Grisham. The book was published in 1994 by Delta. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

John Grisham also wrote A Time to Kill (1989), The Firm (1991), Pelican Brief (1992), The Client (1993), The Rainmaker (1995), Runaway Jury (1996) and Skipping Christmas (2001).

 

Read More About This Book

"The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease." So begins Grisham's legal leviathan The Chamber, a 676-page tome that scrutinizes the death penalty and all of its nuances--from racially motivated murder to the c... Read More
"The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease." So begins Grisham's legal leviathan The Chamber, a 676-page tome that scrutinizes the death penalty and all of its nuances--from racially motivated murder to the cruel and unusual effects of a malfunctioning gas chamber.

Adam Hall is a 26-year-old attorney, fresh out of law school and working at the best firm in Chicago. He might have been humming Timbuk 3's big hit, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades," if it wasn't for his psychotic Southern grandfather, Sam Cayhall. Cayhall, a card-carrying member of the KKK, is on death row for killing two men. Knowing his uncle will surely die without his legal expertise, Hall comes to the rescue and puts his dazzling career at stake, while digging up a barnyard of skeletons from his family's past. Grisham fans expecting the typical action-packed plot should ready themselves for a slower pace, well-fleshed-out characters, and heavy doses of sentimentalism.

Movie details for The Chamber

The movie was released in 1996 and directed by James Foley, who also directed After Dark, My Sweet (1990). The Chamber was produced by Universal Studios. More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry, Bo Jackson, Lela Rochon, David Marshall Grant, Nicholas Pryor, Harve Presnell, Richard Bradford, Greg Goossen, Seth Isler, Millie Perkins, Sid Johnson, Blake Johnson, Josef Sommer, Leonard Vincent, Bonita Allen and Dick Stilwell.

 

Read More About This Movie

A top cast consisting of veteran aces Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway can't rescue this way-too-long, dreadfully earnest version of John Grisham's equally gimpy novel. There are several problems in this story of an intertwined Southern family who must dise... Read More
A top cast consisting of veteran aces Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway can't rescue this way-too-long, dreadfully earnest version of John Grisham's equally gimpy novel. There are several problems in this story of an intertwined Southern family who must disentangle themselves from the past and the dark shadow of a 1967 bombing. That terrorist attack led to the deaths of two Jewish children and was pinned on the black-sheep patriarch of the family, a racist, card-carrying Klansman named Sam Cayhall (Hackman), who is now serving time on death row for the hate crime. Years later, the savior grandson cometh. Young-buck lawyer Adam Hall--played with righteous determination and limited range by Chris O'Donnell--pulls out all the stops to save his client from the Mississippi gas chamber. As is usual in Grisham country, the poor lawyer becomes embroiled in a plan more diabolical, corrupt, and layered than he could guess and the truth spirals out of control, endangering lives, and opening old wounds. The Chamber attempts to twist and turn through its plodding story, but there is no gray area in which to force the viewer to weigh his or her conscience against the skewed facts. Everything that occurs in The Chamber is black or white, good or bad, and there is no crisis of conflict to make us question the morality and stance of the two sides in play. The bad guys are awful, the politicians are bought off, the cops are either corrupt or apathetic, and only one puny guy is left to bring down a house of cards that's been standing solidly for decades. O'Donnell is quickly put to shame by Hackman, who even manages to suffer through a sadistically long, melodramatic stroll down death row with his dignity intact. --Paula Nechak