I saw it when I was a child

Rating: 10/10 (24 March 2012)

I saw this when I was a child at a drive-in movie theatre in Phoenix, AZ (where is was a $1 a car) and I remember it so vividly because even as a young child I understood that what happened to Tom Robinson was wrong. Not because I was precocious but because even as young child I could understand what were the underlying tenants of this movie. The storytelling is straight-forward and yet it plumbs the depths. I didn't know anything at that age about civil rights or the struggle of African Americans. This movie is profound because even if you never had encountered this environment (the South) you would come away with a profound understanding of it in all of its levels and permutations. It has a deceptively simple script that belies it's deep roots and in that way Horton Foote's script truly honors Harper Lee's book. PS--Truman didn't write that book --he would have been the first to claim it --IF he had! It is a genuine, true American movie that never fails to move one by it's deeply human characters and story.