To Kill A Mockingbird (2 Disc Special Edition)

This film, and the novel behind it, take big social issues and make them extremely real and personal. Honesty, prejudice, tolerance, bigotry, racism, hatred, and mob violence all get examined under strong floodlights and through the eyes of a stubbornly and bravely moral lawyer and especially through the eyes of his two children, Jem and Scout. These issues are now resurfacing as crucial issues to address on a social level as well as within families. Watch this one with your kids, and leave time for a nice, long talk afterward.


a great film from a great book   November 21, 2002
 22 out of 25 found this review helpful

This would be a wonderful film for parents to watch with children old enough to understand the depth of its message. Good and evil are clearly drawn, and the values of justice and humanity portrayed with rare and memorable strength.
Reading Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel had a huge impact on me as a teenager...I never forgot, as Atticus says to Scout, that you "never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them".

Horton Foote won an Oscar for his screenplay, which is so faithful to the book. Set in depression era Alabama, the story is seen through the eyes of 8 year old Scout, beautifully played by Mary Badham, and the sensitivity of director Mulligan's vision is remarkable.

Prejudice is the theme that runs through the story, from the harrowing court case of Tom (an amazing performance by Brock Peters), to the demonization of Boo (played by Robert Duval, in his screen debut...he is intensely moving as this innocent and silent man).

Russell Harlan's b&w cinematography is superb, and Elmer Bernstein's Americana style score adds so much to the film.

Gregory Peck's Oscar winning performance is magnificent. His Atticus is a hero of immense proportions, with compassion, integrity, and humility...and one of the reasons I think this powerful classic deserves to be in every film library.


Definitive 20th Century American Classic   December 19, 2002
 12 out of 14 found this review helpful

Harper Lee's award winning novel comes to life, starring the brilliant Gregory Peck as attorney/father/citizen Atticus Finch, in his Academy Award-winning role. "Mockingbird" seems to be about life in the '30's as ordinary people come to terms with their changing culture. On the surface, this is true. And more. It is also a coming of age tale for the children of the story; It is about racism everywhere, although set in the American South of 70 years past. "Mockingbird" also addresses quiet integrity, trust, prejudice, hatred, devotion--universals, wherever we find them. The film is true to Lee's novel in every respect, down to the shuffle in Boo Radley's gait.


Peck's Finest Work   November 11, 2005
 14 out of 17 found this review helpful

To Kill a Mockingbird is without doubt Gregory Peck's finest work. When the author of To Kill a Mockingbird first saw Gregory Peck she was not convinced that he was the man to play the central role of Atticus Finch, indeed she thought him too young. But when she first saw Gregory Peck playing Atticus she remarked that it was like seeing her beloved "Daddy". When you watch Gregory Peck playing Atticus Finch, he is so natural in the role, that you sense that he was born to play this role.

This film's screenplay adaptation of Harper Lee's book concentrates mainly on the courtroom scenes. But this film also considers other elements from the book too, including the relationship between the three children Scout, Jem and Dill with Boo Radley. Look out for the scene where the children decide to investigate the Radley home under the cover of darkness, the courtroom scene where Atticus appeals to the jury and the scene where Scout stops a murder intent mob in it's tracks. Though shot in black and white this does not rob the film of it's impact, indeed I felt the lack of colour gives the film a raw power all of its own. Furthermore, I guarantee that after watching this film you will want to read or indeed reread the book.

Both Gregory Peck's father and Harper Lee's father had sadly died soon after the end of production. Before Gregory Peck went to the Oscar ceremony Harper Lee gave him her father's gold watch for luck. It worked! At the Oscar ceremony Gregory Peck at long last received his highly deserved Oscar. A fitting tribute to a man that many people have come to view as Atticus Finch himself.