Perfect For Black & White

Rating: 10/10 (14 July 2006)

Most of my friends know that I prefer black & white movies to color. Black & white can be very visually expressive, with its brilliant foregrounds and its deep shadows. It can also be perfectly suited to certain subject matter. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD examines the difference between good and evil. For this, we need infinite shades of grey.
The story takes place in a small Alabama town during the Depression. The central characters are Jem Finch, his sister Jean Louise (nicknamed Scout) and their father, Atticus (Gregory Peck). At first, the movie seems innocent. It concentrates on the children's attempts to get a glimpse of Boo Radley, the local recluse. This sense of quiet innocence is about to be shattered.
Atticus, a lawyer, is appointed to defend a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. The man, Tom Robinson, is an honest, hard-working field hand. The accusers, Bob Ewell and his daughter Mayella, are the town pariahs. Bob Ewell is an unemployed drunk, an abusive father and, as we will discover, a liar. His daughter Mayella is a truly pitiable character: she must deal with her drunken father and care for her siblings. In expressing sexual attraction to a black man, she has broken one of the deepest unwritten laws of her society. She lies both to cover her feelings and to avoid her father's wrath. Tom Robinson has also violated an unwritten law: he has felt pity for a white woman. Thus Tom is punished for a virtue while the Ewells are rewarded for bearing false witness.
Atticus Finch seems untouched by the rampant prejudices of Southern society. Compared to the other characters in the film, he seems impossibly noble. Many of the film's adult characters claim to be Christian, but Atticus is the only one who seems to live by Christian principles. He has a choice between the easy thing to do and the right thing to do. As the story develops, we come to see him as a hero battling to the end against impossible odds. Still, every hero has an eventual Ragnarok. Though Atticus proves Tom's innocence beyond all possible doubt, prejudice has stacked the deck completely against him. Tom Robinson is found guilty and eventually killed.
Still, we must honor the hero, even in defeat. So Stand up, Miss Jean Louise. Your father's passin'!