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Rating: 4 out of 5
In high school, during one of my English classes (Can’t remember which year. I think it was my junior year or senior year), we had to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I would say all high school students had to read it during their education years, but I met some people who never read the story. Besides those points, it has been years since I’ve seen the movie or even read the book. All I could remember from both was that Boo Radley was the person the kids spied on. Atticus Finch is one of the kindest people in town. A court trial where it was a black man being accused of raping a white girl. The story taking place in the deep south and that it seemed like an autobiography but not sure. From what I remembered, the book was pretty good but as a high schooler, who very much hated to read, wasn’t something I really enjoyed. While watching it in class, it was something to maybe fall asleep to, if we didn’t have questions to answer. I was a great high school student.
Recently, I decided to watch the film and see what it was all about. For a while, I heard how great the movie is. AFI, American Film Institute, had it on a variety of their top 100 lists. The character Atticus Finch was one of the best heroes in film (thank you AFI) and that Gregory Peck won the Academy Award for his role.
I had to do a little refresher, but To Kill a Mockingbird is based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning book of 1961. The movie, like the book, is a coming of age story about a young girl named Scout. The story and plot are told through the eyes of Scout (Badham). Scout is a straight-up boss and tomboy. She fights boys, hates wearing dresses, and does everything a boy can and even does it better. The film carries us through the life of Scout in Alabama in 1932. Since it is Alabama and 1932, you already know there will be plenty of prejudice, racism, and injustice. We learn about the neighborhood she lives in, along with the town of Maycomb. We see her go on adventures with her brother Jem (Alford) and their friend, who comes around in the summer, Dill (Megna).
Along with their adventures, we see through their eyes, the mysterious Boo Radley (Duvall), who is their next-door neighbor. We are also introduced to her father, Atticus (Peck). A man who seems larger than life in her eyes but has a kind soul, sees the good in the world, and tries to fight for what is right while being a lawyer. The main storyline of the whole movie and book is the trial her father has to be a part of. Atticus must defend a young black man by the name of Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of raping a white woman. As many people try their best to have Atticus step down, he holds onto his morals and views and defends the man. Will this trial have an everlasting effect on the way Scout sees the world?
Overall, the movie was good and entertaining, and one will see why it is one of those books that English teachers like to make their students read. Out of the story, which I will discuss soon, the whole essences of the movie and film is actually with the portrayal of Atticus Finch. Gregory Peck did an outstanding job as the character and rightfully deserved the Oscar for his role. It wasn’t that Peck commanded the screen when he was on. He wasn’t loud or overwhelming but a gentle and decent soul. I think very rarely he raised his voice. Peck always seemed calm and at peace with the role. Like he was playing himself and showing the world that the views Atticus had were the same as his. He was a teacher but also stood up for what he thought was right. A man that fought for the weak and injustice. A man of deep wisdom. Something like a grandpa. When Scout was crying on his lap, and he was giving advice. He stated, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” That’s a really deep line right there for a kid, yet it was what Atticus was all about. Trying to see the view from other people’s eyes and world. After watching this film, you see why he was named the greatest hero for AFI. Peck deserves all the credit for showing the world who Atticus Finch was.
The story is all about life through the eyes of Scout. At first, I thought it was a bore, but when you really look and think about it, it was actually a great way to do the whole film. The world, through the imagination of a child. How many of us have told a story when we were young. The vivid details of one have. How Boo Radley is the mysterious but monstrous man who lives next door to the kids. No one seems to see him, but he leaves gifts inside a tree. The tales that come out of the kids’ mouth are priceless. Boo Radley is either chained up in the house, or standing at the height of six feet six inches tall, or he eating squirrels and is a ravaged animal. Yet when you finally see him, he is nothing but an average person. Or the whole incident with the dog. That was a pretty intense scene when the raging dog is on the street, and Atticus has to save the day.
Where director Mulligan shines with his direction is the central part of the book and the whole story, the courthouse scene. No scene is more intense than the courthouse scene. For starters, just the overall look of the room is telling to all. In the balcony of the courtroom, the blacks sit, while the whites sit on the lower level. As the all-white jury walks in, you know without a shadow of a doubt that Tom Robinson is going to jail. Yet, you wonder if Atticus can pull off the upset and get Tom free. As you watch, you can clearly see Tom is innocent based on the evidence Atticus presents. That Maybelle came onto Tom and that Maybelle’s father, Bob Ewell, is the one that beats her. Atticus proves time and time again that Tom is innocent, but yet, the outcome is already determined in Alabama. The most moving and greatest scene of the whole movie is when Atticus leaves the courtroom. The whites have already left, but the blacks stay and stand for Atticus, showing the respect and admiration he deserves. As he walks out, the minister says to Scout, “Miss Jean Louise, stand up, your father’s passin’.”
The movie ultimately comes to the climax when Bob Ewell tries to attack Atticus’ kids. I mean, how you going to attack a girl that is dressed up like a ham. A freakin’ ham dinner. I felt Scout’s pain because who wants to go to school dressed up as a ham dinner. Well, as Ewell attacks the kids, he gets his a** handed to him by the one and only…….Boo Radley. At first, we only hear the sounds of tussling and some hands and then a dude carrying Jem back to his house. As we look at the scene and Atticus talks to Scout, we see Boo Radley, who is a young Robert Duvall. The same one before his, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Even I was surprised that this was Duvall’s first film.
After many years of not watching this film, this movie was a pleasant surprise. It brought back memories of my own childhood and the adventuress my brother and I had when we were younger. To Kill a Mockingbird is a film that many would like to watch. If it is still a book that high school students must read, they might as well get the movie in there also. You get to see the great Gregory Peck show his craft that won him an Oscar.
