A Great Film on So Many Levels

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2012)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
**** (out of 4)
Robert Mulligan's tender, touching and powerful adaptation of Harper Lee's novel has Gregory Peck playing Atticus Finch in his Oscar-winning role. The film centers on Finch's two youngest children over a years time as they learn some hard truths about life in the South through their lawyer father. I've heard a few naysayers call this film too cute and too sentimental for its own good but I really couldn't disagree more. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, some people tend to forget, is told through the eyes of the children and its basically one woman's look back at her childhood so the sentimental aspect was certainly needed. I really can't add anything that hasn't already been said about this film but it's certainly one of the greatest ever made and contains some downright magical moments that still work after fifty-years. Of course there's the major view at the racial tensions of the trial that Atticus is involved in and I think this entire sequence has some of the most brutal and dramatic moments that you'll see from any movie. The heartbreaking climax to this portion of the film just grows darker with what follows but then we have a rather remarkable and uplifting ending that speaks so much. Peck rightfully deserved the Oscar and it's neat to see that he's basically just a supporting character for the first 100-minutes or so. However, whenever he's on screen the power of the performance is just undeniable and especially when he doesn't even say a word. Of course, when he does speak he really nails every emotion that the film called for. Brock Peters and James Anderson are chilling in their roles as is a quickly seen Robert Duvall. Mary Badham and Philip Alford are also excellent in their parts as the children. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a film that works so strongly on so many levels that it's easy to call it a timeless classic. The film still packs the punches that it did on its original release and I'm sure these will still be lasting a hundred years from now.