To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

"The most beloved and widely read Pulitzer Prize Winner now comes vividly alive on the screen!"

Directed by Robert Mulligan
Produced by Alan J. Pakula
Screenplay by Horton Foote
Based on "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, John Megna, Ruth White, Paul Fix, Brock Peters, Frank Overton
Narrated by Kim Stanley
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography: Russell Harlan, A.S.C.
Edited by Aaron Stell, A.C.E.
Production companies: Pakula-Mulligan, Brentwood Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date: 11 February 1963 (Brazil)
Running time: 129 minutes
Country: United States
Budget: $2 million
Box office: $13,129,846 (USA)

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and based on the novel of the same name by Harper Lee. It tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, who defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.

Cast

• Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
• John Megna as Charles Baker "Dill" Harris
• Frank Overton as Sheriff Heck Tate
• Rosemary Murphy as Miss Maudie
• Ruth White as Mrs. Dubose
• Brock Peters as Tom Robinson
• Estelle Evans as Calpurnia
• Paul Fix as Judge Taylor
• Collin Wilcox as Mayella Violet Ewell
• James Anderson as Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell
• Alice Ghostley as Aunt Stephanie
• Robert Duvall as Arthur "Boo" Radley
• William Windom as Mr. Gilmer, District Attorney
• Crahan Denton as Walter Cunningham
• Richard Hale as Mr. Radley
• Mary Badham as Scout
• Phillip Alford as Jem

As I'd read the book I decided to watch its screen version - and it didn't leave me cold. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) turned out pretty close to the first part of the novel that made me relive every treasured moment. Old black-and-white pictures have never embarrassed me because I find them quite atmospherical and captivating.

Unfortunately, I haven't become aware of actors of the twentieth century so far however I'd like to mention that Gregory Peck's performance left a lasting impression. His Atticus Finch seemed so intelligent, wise and equitable - as in the book.

Advantages

• Based on "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
• Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch

Disadvantages

• The film isn't as detailed as the book is but that's still a good screen version

"Strangenesses"

• A prejudice against dark-skinned people

Clue Moments

• A rabid dog
• "Boo"
• Death of the accused

Staying kind and looking for justice are traits that always will be held in high esteem. But it tries to mention that having them will always be difficult as weak people who are devoid of these characteristics. Therefore kindness and justice can become a problem that even may threaten a life - how paradoxically!

Protecting children in continuous darkness, Radley accidentally kills the attacker with his own weapon. But Atticus is ready to certify to the court that the offender was killed defensively by boy - the only way to avoid unfair punishment to Radley. So Finch decides to say that the attacker felt on his knife on his own. And Scout says that she understood everything. On her father's question: "What do you mean?" - she replies: "Well, it would be like to kill a Mockingbird, right?" To be a human means to be able to distinguish between a cry of a wild bird and mimicking of a mockingbird. To be human is to understand that almost all people are good when you will understand them.

Quotations

* * *

Atticus Finch: If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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.

* * *

Atticus Finch: I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Jem: Why?
Atticus Finch: Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.

* * *

Older Scout: [narrating] Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives.

* * *

Scout: How old was I when Mama died?
Jem: Two.
Scout: How old were you?
Jem: Six.
Scout: Old as I am now?
Jem: Uh-huh.
Scout: Was Mama pretty?
Jem: Uh-huh.
Scout: Was Mama nice?
Jem: Uh-huh.
Scout: Did you love her?
Jem: Yes.
Scout: Did I love her?
Jem: Yes.
Scout: Do you miss her?
Jem: Uh-huh.

* * *

Jem: Atticus says cheating a black man is ten times worse than cheating a white.

* * *

Atticus Finch: Do you know what a compromise is?
Scout: Bendin' the law?
Atticus Finch: [slightly bemused] Uh, no. It's an agreement reached by mutual consent. Now, here's the way it works. You concede the necessity of goin' to school, we'll keep right on readin' the same every night, just as we always have. Is that a bargain?

* * *

Scout: May I see your watch? "To Atticus, My Beloved Husband." Atticus, Jem says this watch is gonna belong to him some day.
Atticus Finch: That's right.
Scout: Why?
Atticus Finch: Well, it's customary for the boy to have his father's watch.
Scout: What are you gonna give me?
Atticus Finch: Well, I don't know that I have much else of value that belongs to me... But there's a pearl necklace; there's a ring that belonged to your mother. And I've put them away, and they're to be yours.

* * *

Scout: Jem is up in a tree, he said he won't come down until you agree to play football with the Methodists.

* * *

Atticus Finch: There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.

* * *

Jem: There goes the meanest man that ever took a breath of life.
Dill Harris: Why is he the meanest man?
Jem: Well, for one thing, he has a boy named Boo that he keeps chained to a bed in the house over yonder. Boo only comes out at night when you're asleep and it's pitch-dark. When you wake up at night, you can hear him. Once I heard him scratchin' on our screen door, but he was gone by the time Atticus got there.
Dill Harris: I wonder what he does in there? I wonder what he looks like?
Jem: Well, judgin' from his tracks, he's about six and a half feet tall. He eats raw squirrels and all the cats he can catch. There's a long, jagged scar that runs all the way across his face. His teeth are yella and rotten. His eyes are popped. And he drools most of the time.

* * *

Tom Robinson: Looks like she didn't have nobody to help her. I felt right sorry for her. She seemed...
Prosecutor: You felt sorry for her? A white woman? You felt sorry for her?

* * *

Older Scout: [narrating] There just didn't seem to be anyone or anything Atticus couldn't explain. Though it wasn't a talent that would arouse the admiration of any of our friends, Jem and I had to admit he was very good at that - but that was *all* he was good at... we thought.

* * *

Atticus Finch: There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man.
Scout: If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it?
Atticus Finch: For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again.
[he puts his arm around her]
Atticus Finch: You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing: That you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.

* * *

Older Scout: [narrating] One time Atticus said you never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walked around in them; just standin' on the Radley porch was enough. The summer that had begun so long ago had ended, and another summer had taken its place, and a fall, and Boo Radley had come out.

* * *

Miss Maudie Atkinson: Jem.
Jem: Yes, ma'am?
Miss Maudie Atkinson: I don't know if it will help saying this to you... some men in this world are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us... your father is one of them.
Jem: Oh, well.

* * *

Older Scout: [narrating] By October, things had settled down again. I still looked for Boo every time I went by the Radley place. This night my mind was filled with Halloween - there was to be a pageant representing our county's agricultural products; I was to be a ham. Jem said he would escort me to the school auditorium. Thus began our longest journey together.

* * *

Dill Harris: Hey.
Jem: Hey yourself.
Dill Harris: I'm Charles Baker Harris. I can read. I can read anything you've got.
[swinging on the gate]
Dill Harris: Folks call me Dill.
Jem: How old are you? Four and a half?
Dill Harris: Going on seven.
Jem: Well, no wonder then. Scout's been readin' since she was born, and she's not even six yet. You're mighty puny for nearly seven.
Dill Harris: I'm little but I'm old.

* * *

Plot: 8/10

Entertainment: 9/10

Acting: 9/10

Originality: 8/10

Music and Sound: 7/10

8/10