Superb Performance By Gregory Peck; Superb Directing By Robert Mulligan

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2018)

In my experience, this may be the best adaptation of a novel that Hollywood has ever produced, the story having been taken from the novel of the same name by Harper Lee. It's a story about racism in the Depression-era South. It's a coming of age story for young Scout and Jem, who watch their father Atticus doggedly defend a black man accused of beating and raping a young white woman. It features magnificent performances from pretty much the entire cast. Young Mary Badham was actually nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Scout - but then, perhaps surprisingly, she went on to do very little acting. And what can one say about Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. This may well have been his best performance; when I think of Gregory Peck it's certainly Atticus Finch who comes into my mind. There's an incredible mix of well known names in the supporting cast: Brock Peters, William Windom, Paul Fix and even a very young Robert Duvall. And there really isn't a weak performance among them. Most of the attention around "To Kill A Mockingbird" is usually focused on the performances, and especially Peck, but I want to pay special tribute to the directing.
Director Robert Mulligan did a superb job as well, and while he went on to direct a number of other movies, this surely was his finest job. There's a very good pace to this movie. It starts out slowly, painting an almost idyllic picture of life in this small town in the South, focusing on Scout and Jem and their friend Dill. It's summer, school is out and they're just kids having fun. It's a casual and carefree existence, they spend most of their time outside, sometimes getting into mischief, sometimes investigating some of the town's mysteries - one of which revolves around the story of Boo, a local boy supposedly kept chained in his basement by his father. You get the feeling that if there was anyplace you wanted to grow up as a child, it was right here in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930's - Depression or not. Until Mayella is attacked, and Tom Robinson (a black man) is accused, and Atticus is assigned to defend him. Then the story becomes dark, the racism starts to be seen; the gulf between black and white must be a shock to Scout and Jem, whose exposure to black people to this point has been to friendly Calpurnia, who kept house for their widowed father and looked after them and was more or less part of the family. Mulligan picks up the pace of the movie once the trial starts. The trial proceeds at a frenetic pace - seemingly it all takes place in a single day, which perhaps makes the point that even with Atticus doing his best and making clear the truth of what had actually happened, there was going to be no long consideration of the facts - just a rush to a pre-ordained judgement, followed by a tragedy. Then there's the suspense of what happened to Scout and Jem on their "longest journey" - as the adult Scout (who serves as kind of the narrator) calls it in a voice over. But once that finishes, Mulligan changes the pace again, and the story slows down as the mystery of Boo from the beginning of the movie is revealed, and the film concludes on a very gentle and moving note. Just superb pacing from Mulligan. He was nominated for the Oscar as Best Director in 1963, but lost to David Lean's turn directing "Lawrence of Arabia." Both were fine movies, but I'd have given the nod to Mulligan.
You could criticize the movie for downplaying to an extent the reality of racism. It really doesn't give us any glimpse into what it was like to be black in Maycomb - it gives far more of a white perspective on the issue of racism. But that's exactly what the novel was of course - a depiction of life in small town Alabama using Harper Lee's own upbringing as a model. I also thought that the combination of the depiction of small town life (and especially the focus at the beginning and the end on Boo) was perhaps a bit awkwardly combined with the rape trial and the reflection on racism, although Boo himself becomes an example of yet another misunderstood figure in the town. Atticus comes across as almost too good to be true. But, really, there's very little to criticize about this movie, which deserves to be thought of as a classic. (9/10)