TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD A
USA (129 mi) 1962 d: Robert Mulligan
I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted—if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.
—Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck)
One of the most beloved of all American films and certainly one of the best movies ever made that continues to have such a powerful impact on children, shot during a time when the races were still bitterly divided in this country, this is a brilliant adaptation by Horton Foote of the legendary Harper Lee novel taking place during the Depression in a small town in Alabama, particularly notable because it’s seen through the eyes of several young children who guide us through their very young and still innocent worlds. It’s given a touch of magic by the superb performances by Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, in the role of his lifetime as a single father and attorney whose patience and virtues won him both an Academy Award and the distinction by the American Film Institute that voted him the greatest hero in any American film 100 Greatest Heroes and Villains - AFI, and also Mary Badham as his 6-year old daughter Scout who simply couldn’t be more good naturedly precocious and actually steals one of the best scenes in the film when her overt friendliness shames a group of adults hellbent on lynch mob justice. Meticulously recreating the close-knit intimacy where an entire world is seen through one city block, we follow the very impressionable Scout and her older brother Jem (Phillip Alford) as they collect precious gifts found in a tree and lull away their endless summers with a visiting friend Dill (John Megna). We see them rush out the door for their first day of school, then have to explain to her father why she gets into fights, invite friends over to visit, read bedtime stories, have serious talks on the porch, or peek into the mysterious universe of the haunted house next door inhabited by the unseen, ghostly evil countenance of Boo Radley (Robert Duvall’s first role), a delightfully overshy creation by the author, who based the part of Dill (John Megna), the curiously inquisitive friend visiting for the summer, on her real life neighbor Truman Capote. Harper Lee and Truman Capote have been forever linked together by the biographical film adaptations of CAPOTE (2005) and INFAMOUS (2006).
The film beautifully interweaves Southern style and manners with the history and customs of the time, including reflections looking back from an older Scout, read by an unseen narrator Kim Stanley. When Atticus is chosen by the judge to represent a black man charged with raping a white girl, we are slowly introduced to a darker world that exists in the world beyond their block, where according to Jem, this trial is the biggest thing the town’s ever seen. The only spots left in the courtroom are in the balcony where all the seats are filled by blacks, where the two kids sit next to a black preacher, Reverend Sykes (Bill Walker). Presented relatively close to real time, Brock Peters plays Tom Robinson, the accused, with a quiet sense of nobility, where it soon becomes clear to viewers that he’s being framed, but in that era there were few whites who could even conceive taking a black man’s word over a white. Perhaps the most powerful scene in the film, even more dramatic than Peck’s final summation, is his quiet walk out of the empty courtroom where none of the blacks in the balcony have left, where all remain standing. Reverend Sykes has to politely remind Scout by her birth name, “Miss Jean Louise. Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing.” While the film deals with broad subjects of good and evil, both in the courtroom and in that mysterious house next door, it does so in such a lyrical manner that one can’t help but be moved by the very simplicity of the presentation onscreen.
The film beautifully interweaves Southern style and manners with the history and customs of the time, including reflections looking back from an older Scout, read by an unseen narrator Kim Stanley. When Atticus is chosen by the judge to represent a black man charged with raping a white girl, we are slowly introduced to a darker world that exists in the world beyond their block, where according to Jem, this trial is the biggest thing the town’s ever seen. The only spots left in the courtroom are in the balcony where all the seats are filled by blacks, where the two kids sit next to a black preacher, Reverend Sykes (Bill Walker). Presented relatively close to real time, Brock Peters plays Tom Robinson, the accused, with a quiet sense of nobility, where it soon becomes clear to viewers that he’s being framed, but in that era there were few whites who could even conceive taking a black man’s word over a white. Perhaps the most powerful scene in the film, even more dramatic than Peck’s final summation, is his quiet walk out of the empty courtroom where none of the blacks in the balcony have left, where all remain standing. Reverend Sykes has to politely remind Scout by her birth name, “Miss Jean Louise. Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing.” While the film deals with broad subjects of good and evil, both in the courtroom and in that mysterious house next door, it does so in such a lyrical manner that one can’t help but be moved by the very simplicity of the presentation onscreen.
The music by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Russell Harlan matches the gorgeous look of the film, which retains its power even after the passage of time. The shift into the adult world of the courtroom never loses its impact on the lives of the children, who are the eyes and ears of the still undeveloped moral conscience of the next generation overseeing what constituted small town justice when they grew up. The focus remains real people leading ordinary lives where they have to come to terms with the changing world around them, as it still reverberates decades later in their adult life. Told with a poetic conviction, this has the exact same impact on the viewer, as each subsequent generation that views this film recalls its quiet, understated tone, as personified by Peck’s dignified restraint, and will continue to grapple with similar moral questions in their own lives. Because of just how brilliant it is, it’s quite likely the film will have a greater impact than the Pulitzer prize winning book. In reality, as of this date, Harper Lee (Harper Lee - Biography), who was herself an unruly tomboy who fought on the schoolground and talked back to her teachers (see The Big Read), continues to live in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, with her older sister Alice (15 years her elder), currently the oldest practicing attorney in the state. An interesting comparison between her own life and the book is explored here: Reading: Bridge to a Wider World - Harper Lee.
