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50% Critic Match
A Lesson Before Dying
“A young man's destiny becomes a teacher's journey.”
5.0 / 10• 1999• 1h 41m•PG-13• English
Drama
Storyline
In the 1940s South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince school teacher go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity.
Cast & Crew
Don Cheadle
Grant Wiggins
Lead
Cicely Tyson
Tante Lou
Mekhi Phifer
Jefferson
Irma P. Hall
Miss Emma
Brent Jennings
Reverend Ambrose
Lisa Arrindell
Vivian Baptiste
Dana Ivey
Edna Guidry
Frank Hoyt Taylor
Sheriff Guidry
What People Are Saying
3.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Joseph Sargent's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. A Lesson Before Dying is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
