Boo Radley--American hero

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2005)

I have lived with this movie, and the novel on which it is based, most of my life. My parents took us kids to see this movie first run, figuring the I was too young to understand the disturbing, crucial courtroom scenes about rape and racism. The parents were right. I fell asleep.
Scary movie for a little kid! Very Southern Gothic, beautifully shot. I was riveted during the early scenes with the kids. The scary Boo house and the soap figurines made a big impression on me. I slept though the middle of the movie, so at the very end, I thought the skulking but kindly Boo was still scary. I now realize that he's the most wonderful person in the story. He is the Mockingbird.
I read the book as soon as I could read, and again, skipped over just about everything but the kid portions of the novel. What great episodes, and what beautiful writing. Since then, I read the book at least once a decade and see the movie whenever I can.
Had I been a teen when the movie first came out I would have wanted to protest the "Stand up Jean Louise, your father's passin' by " scene--a little too adorable and grateful, is that Negro pastor. This movie's set in the lynch era, but it was released during the the brave civil rights era. Black citizens were laying their lives on the line at that time. Some White people were out there, but not nearly as many. So the movie's emphasis on the middle aged white dicty hottie lawyer, who will save us all, is a bit skewed.
All the posters who claim to love the book, yet say that the movie is enough, frustrate me. Please read the book once every decade of your life. You will have grown, and, strangely the book will have grown. And bless you posters for mentioning powerful characters in the book, like the horrible Mrs. DuBose, who never made it to the screen.
Since my last re-read, I am struck as never before, by Dill literally becoming sick about racism during the trial.
But such a rich book has to be condensed for movie length, and Mulligan and Foote have presented the best. Happy ending: Fishbellywhite alienated southerner loner kills racist with big knife because the racist attempts to kill a small girl dressed as a ham.