still a classic

Rating: 10/10 (6 August 2005)

I saw this movie while I was reading the novel, and the movie did a great job; it was literally as great as the novel. Gregory Peck won a well deserved Oscar for playing Atticus Finch, the lawyer in 1930s Alabama who is defending a black man wrongly accused of rape. The important point is that in the Deep South in the '30s, it was unheard of (not to mention dangerous) for a white man to defend a black man. But the story is told from the point of view of his daughter Scout (Mary Badham), who gets taunted at school; everyone tells her that her daddy defends (N-words). One of the most touching scenes in "To Kill a Mockingbird" is when Atticus has to explain to Scout the whole situation and what the greater ramifications could be.
I can't say with words how wonderful this movie is. I think that it was the first movie to deal with the race issue in America (at least the first major one). Some people have said that Gregory Peck's face belongs on a dollar bill, and I have to agree, judging from "To Kill a Mockingbird".