"To Kill a Mackingbird" -- Memorable Because of What It Doesn't Purport to Being

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2005)

After forty-three years, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (TKAM) remains one of the most effective testimonials to the ravages of ignorance and prejudice ever recorded on film. Asking myself why this gracefully paced narrative has left such an indelible impression on so many, I've concluded it's because the film isn't about what most of its supporters and detractors claim it's about. Not about race or prejudice? . . . No. At its core, TKAM is about "neighbors" and "community", which concept forms the basis for the gravity of its message in the matter of Tom Robinson.
Other films have followed on the familiar theme of racial bigotry and its well-documented devastations. These films have been consistently less effective because we are not asked to think so much, or to connect the history depicted with the histories of our own lives and our own communities.
I've performed in two stage versions of TKAM, neither of which benefited from the brilliant input of screenwriter, Horton Foote. Both plays focus, almost exclusively, on the racial element of the story. They, like so many films of later years, come off as "heavy-handed" or "in-your-face" regarding this element. Well . . . "If you think this way -- you're bad." End of story. In TKAM (the film), we see a community of poor, unique, and apparently respectable people helping one another through a Depression. In stark contrast (and beautifully prepared by the film's creators) the injustices meted out to Tom Robinson and his family represent a dramatic anachronism of unthinkable proportions. And, it's as routine, in this gentle Southern community, as a child's fear of a mysterious neighbor, or a shy but happy exchange of hickory nuts for legal services rendered. Memorable? Most emphatically. Think about it. It's what director Mulligan wants us to do.