To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2010)

A lot of good things can be said about this movie. I have never watched any other racial injustice or prejudiced based movie that compares to "To Kill a Mockingbird". This movie not only influences you sympathize with those who were being discriminated against, but also the ones who stood up for those people. When Atticus Finch is leaving the court room and Reverend Sykes tells Scout to "stand up your father is passing" was one of the most remembered parts of the movie.
Gregory Peck was a great actor who played Atticus a lawyer who is widowed, Mary Badham and Philip Alford are excellent as Jem and Scout. Mary Badham became the youngest girl to receive an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for her role as Scout. "Boo" Radley was one of Robert Duvall's first roles on screen and "To Kill a Mockingbird was a great movie to start his acting career.
The movie starts out by scout age 6 who now a grown woman thinking back and telling a story from her childhood. Jem short for Jeremy is her brother. Calpurnia is their housekeeper that helps with the children. The children meet Dill Harris who is visiting his aunt for the summer. Scout, Jem, and Dill have some great adventures. It seems children used their imagination more than they do today.
Gregory Peck who plays the part of Atticus Finch is portrayed a Gentleman Lawyer whose wife has passed away and he is left to raise his son and a daughter. Tom Robinson, a black man is wrongly accused of raping a poor white woman. He becomes a victim of a white women's attempt to hide her guilt. She had been asking favors of Tom Robinson and even tried to seduce him. When he rejected her she targeted him knowing his innocence but also living in an unsocial society towards Negros. Realizing that the narrow minded society they live in will turn against him, Finch decides to defend him. The townspeople did try to cause harm to him but Scout recognized the man who was paying her father with pecans for some service he couldn't afford. Without thinking with the angry mob standing around she asked him to tell his son hello because they went to school together. The innocents of the child changed the attitude of the men and they decided to leave. The movie is based around the innocence and purity of his children and their relationship with their father.
Due to society Tom Roberts never had a chance of being found innocent. The community had already made their minds up only because Tom was a negro. If it had been a white man with the lack of evidence he would have had a better chance of being found innocent.
Boo Radley was the climax of the whole story. After a couple of years the children wanting to see him and even accepting the gifts from the tree, Boo comes to their rescue. When Scout realized who saved her brother she knew he was a good man and instantly became friends. The sheriff knew what society would do if Boo had to go to trial so he chose to say Bob Yule fell on his own knife.
It is unusual that a movie is very simple in expression but teaches significant life lessons. This movie reflects the innocence of a child. A young woman thinks back to her childhood days which were a time where mostly immature, curious minds dealt with the racial bigotry, hatreds, prejudice and adversities of society. In today's society a lot of prejudice still exists but it seems as if people of a different race get a fair trial just as any white person would. Look at OJ Simpson he was found innocent of murder when a lot of Americans had already made their minds up that he was guilty.
I think Atticus done a very well job of explaining the situation to Scout. Expressing his dislike for the word "Niger" he explained to her negro was a better word, and that he did not want her fighting over what anyone said to her about him or the case.
Even though I had to read this book in the 5th grade there was a lot I had forgotten about. This movie really brought the book alive. It was very much like the book. I found it hard to watch a black and white film without getting sleepy through the movie, but It was such a well made film it kept me interested.