Not an old movie about a black man on trial in the south.

Rating: Null/10 (4 December 2000)

This is an old movie about a young girl growing up in the south. Her father is a lawyer involved in what turns out to be a very interesting side plot. Yes, a side plot. I know this movie is touted as being about an important civil rights trial during the depression, but the film is all hers.
This is a coming of age film that will make you wish you lived with her and her brother while you were growing up. The book, "To Kill a Mockingbird"(1961) by (Nelle) Harper Lee, paints a perfect little picture of home life. The movie lets you slip into that black and white house without feeling the transition. There is enough tension and adventure to keep things interesting though, this homestead is only a backdrop for the happenings all around their old fashioned suburb.
Comparing movies to the books that came before them is getting old. But a comparison in inevitable. While watching this movie I was given the luxury of revisiting these characters again, without many of the familiar complaints that usually accompany a made form a book movie. The movie is indeed, as interesting as the novel. And furthermore, the movie is well worth seeing on it's own merits. Which, by the way, include Best Screenplay and Best Actor at the Academy Awards, a 1961 Pulitzer Prize winning book to inspire a screenplay from, and a warm involved story with very enduring characters. The movie is well worth seeing period.
You will find this one in the "Classics" section, so go there and get it. Those old movies only rent for a dollar or so, and this one is worth a New Release price. But all in all, if you are going to a deserted island any time soon, bring the book if you have to choose one or the other. It just has more time to give you the feeling that made both the book and the flick so worth your time. And it's in colour too.