To Kill a Mockingbird

Plot synopsis:
The titles appear as a young child babbles while picking through childhood mementos found in a cigar box.An adult woman is recalling formative events of her childhood in the small Alabama town of Macomb, that was "a tired old town even in 1932" when she "first knew it." They had recently been told they "had nothing to fear but fear itself," which refers to FDR's inaugural address of March 1933. She was six years old that summer.Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham), wearing bib overalls and her hair in bangs, greets Walter Cunningham, a farmer who is dropping off some hickory nuts. She summons her father Atticus (Gregory Peck) to thank him. When Mr. Cunningham leaves, Atticus explains that he is embarrassed to have to pay for "some legal work" in this way.Their cook Calpurnia (Estelle Evans) wants Scout's older brother Jem (Phillip Alford) to come in for breakfast, but he is in a sulk because Atticus says he is "too old to play football for the Methodists." Miss Maudie (Rosemary Murphy) across the street assures them that he is respected as a very skilled lawyer.In the collard patch of their neighbor they discover a boy a little older than Scout. He is Dill (John Mosna), staying with his Aunt Stephanie for the summer. They tell him about the neighbor two houses away they have never seen. Jem describes him as a homicidal maniac of frightening appearance. Dill's Aunt Stephanie (Alice Ghostly) adds to the story.
At 5:00 o'clock they walk to meet Atticus, returning home, and pass by elderly Mrs. Dubose, who rails at them from her porch. Atticus handles her with his customary grace and sensitivity.That evening, Atticus listens to Scout read aloud. When she asks about Boo Radley, Atticus reminds her that he has told them "to leave those poor people alone." They reminisce about her mother, who died when Scout was two and Jem was six. Judge Taylor (Paul Fix) comes to ask Atticus to defend in a problematic case involving a man named Tom Robinson. He is relieved and grateful when Atticus agrees to.The next day, Dill dares Jem to go up to the Radley's porch. Jem can't avoid it when Scout, rolling in a loose tire, ends up at the foot of their steps. Then Dill wants to go to the courthouse to see where Boo Radley had been locked up. They end up looking in to the preliminary hearing concerning Tom Robinson. Tom is a black man who has been accused of raping and beating a young white woman. Bob Ewell (James Anderson), the girl's father, confronts Atticus in the hallway. He tells Atticus he is concerned that "people are saying you believed Tom Robinson's story agin ourn." He becomes quite hostile, but Atticus remains calm, and cold.At night, Dill prompts Jem to look in a window of the Radley house. The shadow of a man in a baggy shirt looms over Jem, and the shadow of his hand reaches out to touch Jem. When Jem cowers in fright, the man quietly withdraws. The children flee. Jem's overalls get caught in the fence, and he has to leave them. Dill is called home, and he says, "See you next summer." When Jem goes back to get his pants, Scout hears a gunshot, but Jem returns safely. They go around to the street to find the neighbors in an uproar because Mr. Radley had fired to frighten "a prowler." Atticus calmly says the excitement is over.On her first day of school, Scout feels very awkward wearing a dress. She has a rough first day, and gets in a fight with young Walter Cunningham, Jr. Jem breaks up the fight and invites Walter to have lunch at their house. Jem learns that Walter has his own gun, and hunts rabbits and squirrels with his dad for food. Atticus tells of getting his first gun, when his father told him it was "sin to shoot a mockingbird," because it does no harm, but only sings. Scout is appalled when Walter drowns his plate in syrup, but Calpurnia gives her a lecture on hospitality. That evening, when she complains about school, Atticus teaches her about empathy and compromise.Jem and Scout learn more about their father's stature and hidden gifts when Sheriff Heck Tate (Frank Overton) relies on Atticus to shoot a rabid dog on their street.Both children ask to go with Atticus when he visits Tom Robinson's wife, Helen. Waiting in the car, Scout falls asleep, but Jem is frightened when drunken Bob Ewell lurches against the window, and calls Atticus "nigger lover." Atticus reassures Jem, "He's all bluff," and says that he wished he could keep the ugly things in this world away from them, but knows that is not possible. When he drives Calpurnia home, Jem waits nervously, listening to the spooky night sounds.Scout continues to have fights at school, because people denigrate Atticus for defending a Negro. He explains that he has to defend Tom Robinson, or he could not hold his head up in town. He tells her she must not fight, no matter what people say.In a hole in a tree in front of the Radley's, the children find two carved figures that look just like them. Mr. Radley appears and cements up the hole. That night, Jem shows Scout a cigar box filled with all sorts of little gifts that he had found in the tree. He tells her how the night he went back to get his "britches" he had found them "folded across the fence."When summer comes, Dill returns. And it is time for Tom Robinson's trial. He has spent the year in the Abbotsville jail, because the Sheriff thought he would be safer there. Now he is back at the town jail, and Heck Tate expects trouble. Atticus takes a reading light, and leaves. Jem wants to check on him, and he and Scout and Dill walk downtown. Atticus is reading in a chair on the jail porch. Suddenly, numerous cars arrive, and men with rifles approach. The children push their way forward. Jem refuses when Atticus tells them to go home. There is an impasse, until Scout recognizes Walter Cunningham, and engages him, which leads him to call off the lynch mob.Next morning, crowds arrive to attend the trial, and the children go down to the courthouse. They are able to find a place with Rev. Sykes (Bill Walker) in the gallery, with all the black folks.In the Sheriff's testimony Atticus establishes that Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox) was badly beaten on the right side of her face and had finger marks all around her neck.Bob Ewell testifies that he returned to hear Mayella screaming, and that he saw who did it. Atticus has to tell him to remain for his questions. He asks why no doctor was called, and gets Ewell to write his name. The judge points out that this shows he is left handed. Ewell feels tricked.Mayella testifies that she asked Tom to "bust up" a chifforobe in the yard, and that when she went in to get him a nickel he followed her and attacked her. Atticus asks her if her father got riled when he drank, and asks if he had ever beaten her. Mayella is extremely uncomfortable, and her testimony is inconsistent. When Tom (Brock Peters) stands to be identified, Atticus asks him to catch a glass he tosses to him. He establishes that Tom cannot use his left hand, as it was "caught in a cotton gin" when he was twelve. When he asks Mayella how Tom could have done what she claims, she breaks down.The prosecutor rests, and Atticus calls Tom Robinson to the stand. Tom is dignified and articulate, but increasingly uncomfortable. He testifies that he busted up a chifforobe for Mayella "way last spring . . . way over a year ago," and refused the nickel she offered. After that he did lots of favors that she asked him to do, until one day she got him in the house and grabbed him and told him to kiss her. Bob Ewell "cussed at her from the window" and said he "was gonna kill her."In cross examination, the prosecutor (William Windom) gets Tom to admit he is "strong enough to choke the breath out of a woman and sling her to the floor." He scoffs at Tom's helpfulness and says: "You felt sorry for her? A white woman?"When Atticus sums up, he points out the lack of evidence and that Mayella was beaten by someone left handed. He says that he has pity for Mayella, "a victim of cruel poverty and ignorance," but cannot let her put a mans life at stake to cover her guilt at breaking the social code.After "almost two hours" the jury brings back a verdict of guilty. The judge dismisses them and leaves, slamming his door. Atticus tells Tom that he had told Helen they would "probably lose this one."All the white folks leave the court. The blacks in the gallery watch Atticus gather his papers. One by one, they all stand. Rev. Sykes says, "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your fathers passin'."Back at home, Miss Maudie tells a disconsolate Jem that his father is one of those "men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us." Sheriff Tate arrives and talks with Atticus, who then reports that Tom has been killed. A deputy had shot at him and had "missed his aim" when Tom "broke loose and ran . . . like a crazy man." He says that on appeal they would have had "more than a good chance."Jem insists on accompanying Atticus to go tell Tom's family. Bob Ewell arrives and spits at Atticus, who calmly wipes his face and leaves.Next October, Scout wears a ham costume in a school pageant. She wears it walking home with Jem after dark. They are attacked. Jem is thrown to the ground, but another man in a baggy shirt arrives and there is a struggle with their attacker. Scout cannot see well from inside her costume, but she sees the man in the baggy shirt carry Jem to their house. Scout gets home and finds Jem is unconscious, with a badly broken arm.Sheriff Tate reports that Bob Ewell has been killed with "a kitchen knife." He asks Scout to tell what happened. Scout sees the man who rescued them behind Jem's door, and realizes it is Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). She takes him by the hand, and invites him to "say goodnight to Jem." When he hesitates to touch Jem, she reassures him that he "can pet him," since he is asleep. Boo strokes Jem's head gently.Atticus, thinking Jem wielded the knife, begins to consider a case of self defense involving Jem, when the sheriff corrects him. He says decisively: "Bob Ewell fell on his knife." He implies that Boo must have killed Bob Ewell. He says he feels Boo did a civic duty "to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed," and that to "drag him into the limelight" would be "a sin." Scout agrees-- that it would be like shooting a mockingbird.Atticus shakes Boo's hand, and says, "Thank you, Arthur, for my children." Scout walks Boo back to his front door.

Tags: depressing, murder, dramatic, cute, atmospheric, historical

Review:
To Kill a Mockingbird is the movie based on the Harper Lee novel of the same name about Scout, Jem and their father, Atticus Finch who is an attorney in a small southern town.
It is both a coming of age story about the children as well as a hard-hitting drama, as Atticus defends a black man who is on trial for the rape of a white woman.
It is also far from the first film to explore the experiences of children and their own personal growth, but To Kill a Mockingbird stands out because of its sheer honesty and natural performances by the child actors portraying these rich characters.
(No easy feat to break through the armor of this cynical film geek who, if given the chance would remake at least a few dozen films with tragic endings.) I was sitting in my car listening to National Public Radio recently the day Gregory Peck died, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I sat and cried hearing the retrospective they offered  mainly because the man who portrayed my own personal cinematic hero was gone, but also because Peck lived his life with the same conviction as his best known role; a fact that makes Atticus Finch all the more tangible.
Every once in a while I stumble upon such a masterpiece which moves me to tears, because it reminds me that, all bad things aside, there is good in all of us - we just have to help each other search for it and bring it to light.This is definitely one of the best films I've ever seen.
Mary Badham is absolutely wonderful as 'Scout', and I think she deserves just as much credit as Gregory Peck for this picture.The rest of the cast are great as well, and a special mention goes to Elmer Bernstein for his delicate and so appropriate score.I love this movie and recommend it to anyone.
The Harper Lee-based screenplay captures wonderfully a time and a place that are absolutely real--where big brothers could solve the universe's problems in an instant and all the treasures of the world could be contained in a cigar box."To Kill a Mockingbird" also contains three of the most impressive child performances I have ever witnessed--there's not a false or affected moment in any one of them.
One of the most moving parts of the movie is when Atticus Finch is leaving the court room and Reverend Sykes tells Scout to "stand up your father is passing".Gregory Peck has always been one of my favorite actors.
The performances throughout are stunning, especially that of Gregory Peck (Harper Lee was so impressed she gave him her late father's pocket watch, a prop he uses in the film, to keep).
His summation to the jury is a film classic and Peck's innate decency is nicely counterbalanced by William Windom's prosecutor who smirks through out the trial knowing he just has to play the race card to win.Other outstanding performances are Brock Peters as the man Peck is defending, James Anderson as the father of the girl he's accused of violating, and Frank Overton as the county sheriff.This film was the debut of Robert Duvall in the part of Boo Radley who plays the autistic neighbor of the Finches.
A girl's recollection of her childhood days which are still at their full bloom in her mind, depicting the innocence of juvenile as well as as adult minds, a period where mostly immature minds become curious to the racial bigotry and sometimes mature minds become its prey and a time when harsh realities of life like intolerance, hatreds, prejudice and adversities of society gradually dawn upon them.Atticus Finch ( Gregory Peck ) is an absolutely Gentleman Lawyer whose wife has passed away and he has a son and a daughter.
Having grown up in the deep south myself, even having myself attended segregated school and seen INTENSE prejudice amongst the privileged white upper-class, I applaud the book's writer and the film's producer all the more for producing such works during a time of indescribable social struggle and upheaval.To Kill a Mockingbird is a strong, quiet film of great dignity...
The movie stays true to the wonderful, innocent prose.Every time I watch, I see my father in Atticus Finch.
He also has always respected his children and treated us the way Atticus treats Scout and Jem. I also see other family and friends in various characters in the film, because we have such strong southern roots.
Having read the book in high school, the film seems fairly accurate to the story except for a few very minor things that are mostly the result of a book being condensed into a much shorter journey.Gregory Peck is perfect in his role as Atticus Finch and apparently I'm not alone in that opinion as he won an Oscar for the role.
The screenplay by Horton Foote is good, but only as long as it follows Lee's clearly stated boundaries.To Kill a Mockingbird is a film with a brilliant lead performance, sensible, savvy directing which, when mixed with Lee's touching, fulfilling story of American values, is not going to be forgotten for a long time after the initial viewing..
First, the main actors had a very good representation on their characters, for instance, Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem. The theme of this story was based in prejudice and was showing the differences between blacks and whites.
But knowing all these things, this movie is still great.To Kill a Mockingbird is a great movie where you can find one of the most recognized actors of all time, Gregory Peck.
I can see why Atticus Finch was recently named the #1 movie "Hero" of all time by the American Film Institute.
Based on the classic novel by Harper Lee, this wholesome adaptation stars Gregory Peck in an Oscar-winning part as Atticus Finch, a righteous defense lawyer during the depression era down South.
At a time when black people were not well respected in small southern towns, Finch stands alone in his plight to help the innocent young man who has been wrongly accused of raping and beating a white woman.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is an excellent movie that was pretty much like the book, written by Harper Lee. It is a realistic film that includes idioms and symbols to give to the audience a better idea of the book and also a better understanding.
People close to him showed love and respect to this great actor who taught us that we have to have a great heart to succeed in life like he did.Although I really liked the movie TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, in my opinion there are many things that I would definitely change to make it even better.
The movie is definitely better for a person that prefers it instead of a book, however it is very important to read the book first and then watch the movie to compare and understand better.TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a great movie that teaches us a lot about life; it shows reality and cruelty that makes us change our way of thinking.
Well-made film from Harper Lee's controversial but justly-celebrated book with Gregory Peck standing pensively tall and mighty as Atticus Finch, one of the most warmly regarded literary figures of the past century.
Told in hindsight by Scout this is the story of how she and her brother remember one summer in the Deep South when their father, Atticus Finch defends a black man (Robinson) who has been accused of forcing himself on a white girl and then beating her.
In the book it is all part of the same thing, here it does feel like it is a different chapter.Peck is good in his usual moral indignation role and he is well supported by the two child actors who both seem natural  Badham (sister of the director) and Alford.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful movie, which is based on Harper's Lee novel and it is mainly about ''racial differences" through the innocence eyes of Atticus's children ''Scout and Jem''.The film is depicted in a simple way which makes it even more interesting in a sense where the problem is showed in a so implicit way.The story occurs in the 1930 in old Maycomb town, ''Scout'' curious and inspirational daughter of the loyal and humble father ''Atticus'', the latter in charge of the defense of the black man Tom Robinson wrongly accused of raping Ewell's white woman.Atticus Finch famous lawyer of the county had to face the curiosity of his children most importantly ''Scout'', she was disturbed by what was happening and it was depicted in a naive way to show us how stupid the problem was, a problem which come from a grey nothingness that is unacceptable and understandable by the children minds and as it is better explained in the novel ''there is something in our world that makes men lose their heads''.Atticus '' Gregory Peck'' amazingly played the role of the lawyer, a white lawyer who's defending a black man against prejudice during an epoch when the black people suffered an incomprehensible discrimination, The court room scene where Atticus is seen so keen to defend and show that ''Tom Robinson'' is not guilty through a meaningful speech in which he pointed out the evidences.Robert Mulligan did a good job to convert the so famous novel into a wonderful movie even though the novel still has some more interesting discussions and actions but still the movie reflected that climate and image the county was in at that time.All in all, the movie panned out to convey to the audience the racial problems that occurred at that time and making it one of the best ''BLACK AND WHITE'' movies of all time.Highly Recommended!!.
The dialogue has a tendency to go on for too long in almost every scene, as points are hammered home continuously, didactically, but aside from the scenes that belong only to the children the film is dramatically leaden and top heavy in what were at the time 'dangerous' and 'radical' ideas about racism and injustice (though they were fashionable in Hollywood), and frequently the movie feels like a sermon, and a self-congratulatory one at that.As the story of children growing up in the Deep South during the Depression the film works fairly well.
The film shifts into high gear in the last act, with the attack on the children, which I still find frightening, but the damage had been done, and even with Boo (blessedly) back in the story the poetic mood of the earlier parts of the movie was recaptured only fitfully, and I had a feeling of having been set-up.
The film takes place from the summer of 1932 to October 31, 1933 , Atticus Finch, (Gregory Peck's favorite work , who earned a deserved Academy Award) , a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man (Brock Peters) against an undeserved rape charge .
Instead of achieving what the book did in terms of portraying racism in the Depression South and the intriguing stories of the children, the film manages to seem poorly done, even cheap, and the child actors's obvious talents go to waste on dead end plot lines.
I know my family is one of millions who have tried to emulate Gregory Peck's clipped pronunciation of "Scout"; that one word is another one of our famous and long-running movie quotations.Unfortunately, there's nothing more American than racism, and in this adaptation of one of the most iconic American novels, lawyer Atticus Finch defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.
Harper Lee herself loved the movie and thought Gregory Peck's performance was so wonderful, she gave him her father's (the real Atticus Finch) pocket watch.
(Only kidding)THE GOOD - Well, I can start with the fine acting and interesting characters, led by Gregory Peck as "Atticus Finch," one of the more noble characters ever put on screen.
There also is a tiny sub-plot in this story which involves another kind of bias, one against the mentally-ill or simply against pre-conceived notions we might have of people who are different from us.Not only is Peck outstanding, but kudos to the kids in here, too, beginning with Mary Badham as young "Scout." She only made one other movie and never acted as an adult.
And let's not forget Gregory Peck giving one of his best performances as the loving protecting father on one side, and the protector of justice on the other, as he is defending an innocent black man in the racist American south.In conclusion a great family drama, told with tenderness and care, depicted through the eyes of the children..
It paints a vivid picture of the incredible injustice of racism in the 1930's South, a character study of a very principled lawyer, and a bittersweet view of childhood's innocence.The film relates the story of a widowed Southern lawyer named Atticus Finch, as seen through the eyes of his tomboyish young daughter, Scout.
If only every child had a father with the integrity of Atticus Finch to emulate, this world would surely be a wonderful place.The three children are engagingly portrayed by marvelous, perfectly cast young stars, the entire story depicted through their eyes.
It also helps to be a white liberal who wishes he could be the kind of upright, loving, articulate father Gregory Peck plays in "To Kill a Mockingbird." I remember watching the movie when it was originally released in 1962 after having read the book.
I cannot imagine a 22 year-old (one of my children is 22) sitting still for the slow-moving pace of the drama or for the tedious subplot concerning the emotionally-disturbed young man who lives in the neighborhood.This is a movie about racial injustice and how wonderful Gregory Peck is to defend a poor, frightened black man who is accused of rape in the South during the Depression.
The story involving the trial was beautiful, there was some good acting (Gregory Peck, to give an example-although I don't think his performance was Oscar worthy)...but it was such a long way off from all it was said to be, it just turned out to be an overrated bore..
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.
This may well have been his best performance; when I think of Gregory Peck it's certainly Atticus Finch who comes into my mind.
That gets old and embarrassing quickly.It is a testament to the movie's power that it's treatment of the racially motivated false accusation of rape at the movie's centre is not as bad as it might be, but it is still pretty cringe inducing in the way it resolves to make Finch into a noble white hero at the expense of black extras playing characters who should have gotten speaking roles.The resolution attempts to tie together the coming-of-age story and the legal drama, and is a brilliant resolution for the first, but barely seems to touch the second.It might have worked in '62, and I think the real reason why people still worship this movie is because it reminds us of a time when these queasy issues could be dismissed without too much thought.
When Atticus (Gregory Peck), their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.This might be a movie that I am just not understanding in the slightest.
solid movie, Gregory Peck did a very good job acting as Atticus Finch,
So, we're sort of like the nominal central character of the movie, "Scout" (Mary Badham), the young daughter of Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck), a hick town lawyer in America's Deep South (in the 1930s).
Therefore, the early part of the movie has Scout be the centre of attention along with her childish concerns and relations with her younger brother and a new friend who is visiting.Later, this child centred point of view comes to encompass more adult concerns and, particularly, a legal case Atticus Finch has decided to take on...the defence of a black man charged with raping, I think, a white woman.
In addition to that, it's an insufferably boring film to sit through!Based on the novel of the same name, the story of To Kill A Mockingbird is set in a fictional American town during the 1930s and concerns a respected lawyer & his family who faces a backlash from his society when he agrees to defend a young black man who is accused of raping a white woman.
However, its theme of how prejudice can blind an entire society is effectively handled.Coming to the performances, the cast of To Kill A Mockingbird comprises of Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Brock Peters & Robert Duvall in what is his acting debut.
Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch becomes the main character in place of Scout, which was probably the worst decision of the entire movie.
But the racial themes underlying this film is still relevant today, and perhaps people should pay more attention to Gregory Peck's speech at the end of the movie regarding racism.
I loved every aspect of the film from the very tense drama to the excellent black-and-white cinematography to the satisfying ending to the excellent score by Elmer Bernstein.Robert Mulligan's film takes us to a Depression-era town where a poor lawyer named Atticus Finch lives with his two children, Jem and Scout.
First, Gregory Peck, then in his early 80s, stated that it was the luckiest day of his life, when he was picked to play Atticus Finch in this film!
The film is about Atticus ( Gregory Peck ) who is the lawyer of a black man, and that is why he loses his authority in the town.