Sitting absolutely transfixed in the dark..........

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 2000)

"To Kill A Mockingbird" brings back a flood of memories to me. I saw this film when I was twelve years old.....my late grandmother took me to a BIG downtown theatre to view this film. This possibly was the first time I had ever seen a film in a BIG theater.....I was awestruck and that was even before the film started. The lights dimmed and the movie began.....I was quickly swept back into a black and white world of how life was back in a sleepy little town in the south. I (personally) was unaware of the racial problems that our country was suffering. At that age I was only interested in playing with my friends.....so the racially charged scenes were a bit too deep to this little kid. BUT, what got me is relating to the children on the screen.....they were JUST like me. The mystery of Boo Radley I found throughly engaging and rather spooky. I "played" Jem the rest of the summer with the girl next door playing Scout and her brother playing Dill. We did the rolling in the tire.....and making believe that the old man down the street was Boo Radley. We had a BALL!!! Scout in her Halloween costume scuffling with Mr. Ewell scared the living daylights out me and finally seeing the VERY scary Boo Radley nearly put me under my seat.....until I realized how gentle he really was with Jem and Scout. Poor Jem with a broken arm after saving his sister..... WOW!!! This was powerful stuff!!! Many years later when I was a junior in high school our book assignment was to read "To Kill A Mockingbird". I read it spellbound and realized what a great film my grandmother had taken me to see. The town of Macomb sizzling on a hot Southern day with the taste of gritty sand blowing through the air. Rabid dogs, gossipy neighbors, mysteries at every turn. By now, I was aware of the racial difficulties that our country had and NOW I could look at the movie in a different light. The movie was MUCH more scarier than I ever realized.....I can find NO fault whatsoever with this GREAT American film.