TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, AGAIN

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2019)

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, AGAIN
The movie, To Kill A Mockingbird, is being re-released in movie theaters on March 24, 27, 2019. Originally, it was released on Christmas Day, 1962, based on the best-seller of 1960 written by Harper Lee.
Directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Horton Foote, the movie closely follows the book's plot - Scout, a six year old girl, and her ten year old old brother, Jem, live in a small southern town in the 1930s with their father, Atticus Finch, an attorney. Their mother died when Scout was only two and neither child has clear memories of her. During the summer, a young boy, Dill, joins Scout and Jem to explore the neighborhood, and, especially, the home of a mysterious character, Boo Radley, a young man kept in isolation by his father.
The opening title sequence, created by Stephen Frankfurt with music by Elmer Bernstein, is one of the best ever done in film, setting up the adult story told by children.
The book is narrated by Scout and the movie makes a virtue of this by having an adult woman, voiced by Kim Stanley, narrate throughout as the adult Scout. Stanley's voice and the beautiful music of Elmer Bernstein create an atmosphere that is difficult to resist. Much like the beginning of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the movie sets a tone that is intoxicating - it is a memory movie. It tells us of a time past, when things were different. Or so we imagine.