Still As Close To Perfect As The Movies Have Ever Gotten to Mimicking Reality

Rating: 9/10 (6 September 2005)

From its unconventional main title sequence, celebrating the lost recesses of a child's imagination, to the quiet rectitude with which Gregory Peck transformed a seemingly soft spoken gentleman into the very pillar of masculine integrity, there was much to admire in Robert Mulligan's graceful production of To Kill A Mockingbird (1962). Based on the novel my Harper Lee, the film tells the story of a small town lawyer, Atticus Finch (Peck) and his unassuming determination to exonerate a black man, Tom Robinson (Brook Peters) from the false accusation of raping a white farm girl, Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox). A seasoned critique of racial prejudice and family abuse, the story diverges from this public scandal into an intimate snapshot of family life from the period. Atticus's children Jem (Philip Alfort) and Scout (Mary Badham) share an unjustified fear and mistrust of mentally challenged neighborhood boy, Boo Hadley (Robert Duvall) in a secondary narrative that only serves to reinforce the story's central theme of tolerance. On every level, the film is a vintage class act. Small wonder then that in a recent AFI poll of the most popular screen heroes, Atticus Finch topped out at number one. Throughout the filming, Gregory Peck referred to a pocket watch to keep his character on time. The watch was a studio prop. But after Harper Lee saw the film she gave Peck a time piece belonging to her late father, on which Atticus was based, because his performance so reminded her of him. As an actor, Peck could have been paid no finer compliment.
Universal was one of the very first companies to launch full force into the DVD market back in 1997, releasing a health sampling of contemporary and classic titles from their catalogue in only a few short months. But I am sure many will concur with the statement that most of these early releases were not of a quality or caliber suited to the full capabilities of the digital format. In fact, almost all were substandard. In this initial fray, Universal delivered To Kill A Mockingbird as a 'Collector's Edition' disc that featured a non-anamorphic transfer riddled with dirt and scratches, as well as the documentary "Fearful Symmetry." But now we get the film as one would expect it to be, cleaned up, remastered and presented 16X9 enhanced, and with all the bells and whistles one could hope for. To Kill A Mockingbird: The Legacy Series, presents the film's beautifully rendered B&W image with a consistently clean transfer. Blacks are deep and rich. Whites are very bright, but never blooming. Fine details are realized throughout. The audio has been remixed to 5.1 surround, but is limited in its spread  partly because this is mostly a dialogue driven movie (hence, no car chases or special effects to give your rear and side channels a work out), but more to the point, due to the limitations of sound recording circa 1962. Nevertheless, one will NOT be disappointed by this transfer  a definite step up from Universal's initial effort.
Extras on disc one include the film's original theatrical trailer and four tributary snippets. The first is Gregory Peck's rather lackluster Oscar acceptance speech. The last three are vintage tear jerkers; At the AFI's Life Time Achievement Award, Peck delivers a masterful four minute oration that unequivocally proves he's a true rarity in Hollywood; a gentleman of the first order. Next up is Cecilia Peck's loving (if slightly rambling) tribute to her late father, given during an academy dinner. Third up is Mary Badham's glowing and respectful reminiscence of working with Peck on the film. (Aside: one shouldn't expect much in the way of either audio or video quality on these extras. Of the above mentioned, the AFI Tribute exhibits the most pristine image and sound quality. Both the Badham and Peck tributes have a very poorly contrasted image (the latter also grainy) and with an extremely strident audio track. Peck's Oscar speech is the poorest of the batch.
On disc 2 we get the previously issued "Fearful Symmetry" making of feature length documentary (which is really more of a retrospective on Harper Lee's home town than a true 'how the film was made'), and the all new "A Conversation with Gregory Peck"  a thorough and comprehensive tribute to Peck chocked full of interviews. The image quality on both documentaries ranges from good to fair. Ditto for the audio.