Masterful transformation of book to screen, evokes the better angels of our nature

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 2004)

Exiled to Pennsylvania for four years, I read this book to then later watched the film with my children because I saw it as the best gift I could possibly give them from my heritage. TKAM showed a whole generation of southerners how we might live up to our ideals and grow out of our bigotry.
This is film making at its unpretentious best- unlike Kane or the Godfather, or Kurosawa, this film isn't about the director or even the actors; it is about a story whose poetry and truth have the power to change people. In that sense it renders powerful testimony to what film making can be. Cleverness and "genius" in making films will, at best, only rate an "8" from me. This film represents what I think a "10" rating should be about.
Gregory Peck's performance fits the intent of the film perfectly- quietly dignified and accessible because of his ability to get himself out of the way. Not every book deserves or even affords film makers the luxury of making a movie that so closely reflects the feel of the book, but TKAM is one of those films that understood the book it was based on and the dream of the author who wrote it.