Profoundly Moving

Rating: 10/10 (25 November 2003)

Before the movie came out, I had already read To Kill a Mockingbird at least 3 times. I was in junior high then and one of my friends gave me a copy and told me that I HAD to read it. I think I was only through about two chapters when I bought my own copy and returned hers. I finally wore that copy out I read it so many times.
I really didn't want to see the movie. I was afraid that it would somehow profane a book that touched my soul more deeply than anything I had read up to that time. But the same friend who gave me the book told me I HAD to see the movie. I went to see To Kill a Mockingbird by myself. I wanted to be able to leave the theater if it wasn't as good as I had been told.
It was better than I had been told. It was as good as the book. Gregory Peck, Mary Badham and the others in the movie gave faces and voices and an outside to people I already knew from the inside. It was a profound and profoundly moving book that became a profound and profoundly moving motion picture. And in one small way, it was even better than the book - the music. It has one of the most beautiful musical scores ever written for a movie. The music does not dominate or overwhelm, but it enfolds the story with grace and beauty.
If I were required to pick the greatest movie ever made, I would not be able to choose between To Kill a Mockingbird and The Shawshank Redemption. Other movies are, perhaps, technically more perfect. Some movies, such as Citizen Kane, have influenced the art of making motion pictures in many ways. But To Kill a Mockingbird touches the soul and leaves you feeling cleaner for having seen it.