An enjoyable film but some interesting scenes omitted from the book

Rating: 7/10 (4 November 2010)

To Kill a Mockingbird is a very enjoyable movie with great acting though if you have read the book before seeing it you will probably, like me, be disappointed that some of the scenes in the book are changed or omitted.
For that reason I would recommend seeing the movie before reading the book, if possible. It is filmed in black and white, which is perfect for giving a sense of the time the film is set in.
The story is about two young children in small town 1930's Alabama, learning about life mainly from their widowed father. Their widowed father, Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), is the hero of the film. He is a quietly spoken lawyer but is determined to set a good example by how he deals with people. The plot comes to a head when he is appointed to defend an innocent black man from an accusation of rape from a local white girl. The racial prejudices that were always just beneath the surface in the town come to the fore. The trial scene takes up a good portion of the film. This makes sense, as it is a perfect cinematic set piece and has some great acting from Peck and the supporting cast.
A great bonus on the DVD I purchased is an excellent 90 minute documentary titled "Fearful Symmetry". Made in 1999 it has interviews with Gregory Peck, the director Robert Mulligan, writer Horton Foote and producer Alan J. Pakula. There also interviews with other cast members such as Robert Duvall, who played the crucial character of Boo Radley, Brock Peters, Collin Wilcox Paxton and the now grown up child actors. There are some great insights and anecdotes about the filming. This film is also a documentary about Monroeville, the hometown of the author Harper Lee. In the book she used Monroeville as a basis for the town of Maycomb and there are interviews with residents who lived in the town in the period the film was set in. These have plenty of examples of the famous laid back Southern way of life we hear so much about. There also interviews that discuss the significance of the book and the film in highlighting the racial discrimination of the time. At times the narration becomes quite wordy but overall the documentary is well worth watching.