A masterpiece that resonates as strongly today as ever

Rating: 10/10 (26 November 2007)

Perhaps somewhere in the very far future when African Americans and Caucasian Americans have finally learned to see each other as brothers and sisters and not a human of color, then looking back on this film will seem strange and wistful. Until that time, we can do no better than to sit down and read the book and then watch this perfect movie adaptation.
There are other great books and movies that cover the depression years in America. "Grapes of Wrath" comes to mind. Harper Lee's book and this film focus not on the displaced as much as how one person can rise to the occasion, show a strong moral spine and true courage. It would have been too simple to say that the film was about prejudice. Coming to the screen as it did during the rising cauldron of the Civil Rights movement, this film was a perfect mirror for the haunting specter that refused to shed its shadow over the south. In the aftermath of the ruinous Civil War, southern states, especially the Carolina's which led the revolt, suffered very badly during and after the war. In some places poverty and destitution never left the land. What did people do to get by in the depression era? Did they fall back on old ways and use scapegoats to satisfy the blame game? Certainly and that is where the story here begins.
The audience watching this film in 1962 was familiar with prejudice but rarely had it seen a white man treat an African American with respect and a resolute commitment to seeking justice. There are other sinister themes that rise to the surface. The implication of a daughter being beaten by a drunken father, the taboo of a white woman seducing a black man, the injustice done to a mentally handicapped man by shuttering him like a prisoner in his own home; these are all hot buttons that would have made an audience squirm and disquiet their comfort zones. Even more ugly was the false accusation of an honest man, a person that was expected to be found guilty even by his own peers simply because he was a visible minority; this was the deep south and prejudice was so widespread.
The richness of the story gives depth and detail to the lives of Atticus Finch and his fiercely independent children as they explore their lives. With several subplots swirling around the main trial, the audience is given constant stimulation in vivid colors of human drama. Shot in black and white and blessed with a superb script, one of the greatest male actors in the English speaking world, a sublime musical score by Elmer Bernstein, two child actors who were so natural that they became Atticus's children in a real way.....this film is iconic in American cinema and for so many good reasons. Perhaps Gregory Peck's greatest role, this film is unforgettable and has taken on a tinge of greatness that is entirely worthy of its craft. If you must own one Peck film, this is the one. As the saying goes, they simply don't make them like this anymore; what a pity.