Okay, But Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2001)

To Kill A Mockingbird, both as a book and a movie, has been hailed as a classic, a masterpiece, etc. I personally don't see what the big hoopla is.
It seems that the movie is trying to be deep, trying to be artistic...and while a bit deep with the whole storyline of Tom's trial, in reality, that's all it did-try.
They story is set in Maycomb County, Alabama, in the midst of the Great Depression. It follows the life of Scout Finch, a little girl growing up in that county. Basically, it's about what's going on with the town and what's going on with Scout and her family throughout her growth, leading to different "storylines" of events that happens to Scout and the rest of the Finch's.
Probably the only storyline I really appreciated was the story of Tom Robinson's trial. Atticus (Scout's father) was defending Tom in a rape case, and since Tom was black, this was taboo in Maycomb. This story really showed unfairness and how cruel prejudice and hate can be. Maybe if the movie was only centered around that story instead of throwing in aspects like Boo Radley, Dill, and others, I would consider calling this movie a classic.
I also might've enjoyed it more if they had had a different main character. I personally couldn't stand Scout. I understand that she was supposed to be an innocent, unknowing little girl, but she came off as an annoying, loud, obnoxious brat that I wanted to slap throughout the entire movie. Maybe if it had been from Atticus' point of view, or Jem's, or just ANYONE aside from Scout, I might've enjoyed the movie more.
The cinematic work was pretty good, but not extremely artistic. It's a far cry from the fantastic cinematic elements of films such as "Traffic" and "Psycho". While it had some good angle work and good lighting techniques, it wasn't really a great film in the cinematic field. To be fair, though, I suppose that that's not what the movie was going for.
I give it a 3/10. The story involving the trial was beautiful, there was some good acting (Gregory Peck, to give an example-although I don't think his performance was Oscar worthy)...but it was such a long way off from all it was said to be, it just turned out to be an overrated bore.