Decent adaptation; Overly dated and preachy

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2001)

I remember really enjoying Harper Lee's novel when I read it more than 25 years ago. The film is pretty good, I guess. The child actors all did wonderfully. Gregory Peck did well enough as Atticus Finch, although I'm not sure it was an Oscar-worthy performance. The whole rape trial sequence seems overly preachy to me now. I suppose that in the early '60's there may have been people unaware of the realities of Jim Crow, but nowadays it has been forced down everyone's throat for decades. The heroic liberal fighting injustice is a theme whose time has long passed, and viewing TKAM now hasn't the sort of impact that I imagine it did then. Grade: C