To Kill a Mockingbird

Robert Mulligan, USA, 1962, 129 minutes

Gregory Peck stars in this rare beast: an adaptation that does justice to its source text. The film concerns upright lawyer Atticus Finch's attempt to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, in an overtly racist southern town, as seen through the eyes of Atticus' children, Jem and Scout. The children (Mary Badham and Philip Alford) share a rapport with Peck's Atticus, attributable to his having them live with his family for a few weeks. Winner of three Oscars and nominated for five more, the film's real accolade is its simple but assured and dignified way of dealing with race relations in the American deep south. Above all, the film is genuinely thrilling, never descends into mawkishness and is still a powerful piece more than 40 years after it was made.

The centrepiece of the film is the courtroom scene: Tom Robinson's trial. Tom is clearly not guilty, but Atticus has generations of prejudice to overturn. Atticus alone defends the innocent, and is the definition of integrity here. The other innocents in the room, Jem and Scout, look on from the blacks-only balcony...

To call it a courtroom drama would however be to do 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a disservice. It's well plotted and never falls into the cliché of demonising Tom Robinson or the Ewell family, his accusers, but conveys the fear the children have very well, as in another memoravble scene, with Bob Ewell advancing with deliberate but drunken rage on the parked car containing Jem and Scout.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

The racism is also seen through the children's eyes making it seem all the more pathetic and deplorable, but it is clear the townsfolk are just frightened of that which they don't understand. Just ask Jem and Scout about reclusive neighbour Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his screen debut) and his habit of knifing family members just for kicks. The discovery of gift for them left in a knot of wood in an old tree trunk from Boo however teaches the children that you can't really judge, regardless of reputation, appearance or skin colour.

Almost as culturally important as its parent novel, (whose author, Harper Lee, loved the film) and beautiful, stately and moving, if you haven't seen this movie, see it now, if you have, bring some friends so you can say "I told you so."

Review by Ben Critchley
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2006