To Kill a Mockingbird

MOVIE: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

LENGTH: 129 minutes

GENRE:  Drama

WARNING: As you can probably guess from the “Not Suitable for Children” sticker on the movie poster, this film has mature content that people often want to shelter their kids from, to preserve their innocence. If you do show this to children, please take the time to explain the themes and historical background of this story, relating it to current events to give it even more perspective and context.

PLOT SUMMARY 

The film revolves around the Finch family in the 1930s South. The patriarch is widower Atticus Finch (played by the astounding Gregory Peck), he has two children: Jean Louise “Scout” Finch (Mary Badham) and Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch (Phillip Alford). Over a three-year period, the family experiences many changes that cause the children to discover the ugly side of what they once thought to be a boring small town.

Atticus Finch is a straight arrowed man that believes everyone should be treated equally, a trait that leads him to become Tom Robinson’s (Brock Peters) defense attorney. Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox). The case strikes a nerve within the town and puts the Finch family in an unwanted spotlight. Scout and Jem are harassed at school because of the case and Atticus Finch worries about getting his client through the trial without getting lynched.

Everything goes just about as smoothly as you would think it would when dealing with a black man having any interaction with a white woman in the depression-era south, which was crime that had been punishable by death many times over. The case brings many revelations to our small town characters, even turning a black sheep of the town into an unlikely hero.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS MOVIE 

This is not a cute movie by any sense of the word. In fact, it’s downright depressing and sad. So why the heck would I want to have you watch a depressing movie? Well my Internet friends, this movie is so close to reality you can hardly tell the difference between fiction and history. This film was based off a book of the same title written by Harper Lee (on the right). If you have not read it, then I highly suggest you do – it is just as riveting as the movie. Also it’s only 281 pages, so you could easily read it between binge watching Netflix shows, playing video games, studying, or on your lunch break, if you’re fortunate enough to be employed. Lee based the book loosely on real-life events that happened near her town when she was 10 years old and based Atticus Finch her own father. The book was published in 1960 and it was so good that Hollywood quickly gobbled it up, making a film only two years after the book was published!

Okay, I will stop trying to get you to read the book and explain more about why you should watch this wonderful movie. First of all this film really captures the innocence of children. Mary Badham who plays Scout and Phillip Alford who plays Jem (on the left) do a fantastic job of playing the carefree children that make their small town into theirpersonal playground with their friend Dill (John Megna). Scout and Jem see their father as a caring, compassionate, and authoritative man – one who accepts hickory nuts as payment from a client too poor to give him money and makes an effort to teach them about the world around them. As the film continues, you see how their father’s very controversial case causes the people they once called their neighbors to seemingly turn against them. The kids sit in on the trial and learn the true nature of the events that lead to that court case, which strips away the innocence that the kids never realized they had until then. They no longer see their black housekeeper, Calpurnia (played by Estelle Evans), as just the woman that feeds them and takes care of them. They begin to see her in the perspective of the times and notice how people do not treat her as the caring woman that she is, just because she’s black.

I could write a book on how much I love Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in this movie, but that would take 10 years because of my short attention span, so I’ll stick to this. Gregory Peck (shown in the picture on the right, sitting next to Brock Peters during a trial scene of the film) himself said that he wasn’t even acting in this film but being himself, which makes me love him even more for this role. Atticus Finch’s internal battle is visible when he realizes how determined the prosecution is to not punish Tom Robinson for this alleged crime, bent on simply condemning him for being a negro who mixed company with a white woman. You can see that Atticus wants to protect his children from the horrors of the world, but cannot and does not shield them from the evil of the small town he has raised his family in. When you see this film you will have to fight back the urge to want to hug and high-five Atticus throughout the entire film. He is a character and a man ahead of his time – a time even more volatile and hateful than now.

You’ll also love Arthur “Boo” Radley (Robert Duvall, known for the Godfather movies, Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation) for reasons I can’t disclose for you because it would ruin the movie for you. I will say that it was rare that older movies like this existed in old Hollywood, one that acknowledged the racism and bigotry of the time. Even when they did acknowledge the racism, it was white washed and wouldn’t give depth to minority characters. This is not the case in To Kill A Mockingbird. This film shows these minority characters as human beings, and not just static entities.

LAST THOUGHTS 

You have some great reading material and a great movie on your hands, so basically you’re welcome. This film proves that not all old movies were whimsical and fun or blatantly ignored the inequalities of the times. This movie is timeless to me and even though it’s in black and white (a purposeful choice – color had started to become the norm by the time this film was made) doesn’t mean it is any less timeless.

FUN MOVIE FACTS

1.) Harper Lee thought Gregory Peck did such a great job in the film that she turned down offers of television and stage versions of the book to be made. She stated, “that film was a work of art and there isn’t anyone else who could play the part.”

2.) In 1995 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

3.) The film won three Academy Awards out of the eight it was nominated for:

Academy Award for Best Actor – Gregory Peck (which was given to him by Sophia Loren who you will hear about again)

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay – Horton Foote

Academy Award for Best Art Direction – Set Direction Black-and-White – Henry Bumstead, Alexander Golitzen, and Oliver Emert

The other Academy Award nominations:

Best Picture

Best Director

Best Cinematography

Best Actress in a Supporting Role (which would have gone to Mary Badham)

Best Music, Score – Substantially Original

Sources

1.) To Kill a Mockingbird poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_(film)

2.) To Kill a Mockingbird book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

3.) http://www.writeawriting.com/write/harper-lee-write-kill-mockingbird/

4.) Picture of Phillip Alford and Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/512988213779181792/

5.) Picture of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Brock Peters as Tom Robinson: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/kill-a-mockingbird-1962-film-867767

6.) http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/35384%7C0/To-Kill-a-Mockingbird.html