To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 movie, based on the 1960 Pulitzer-prize winning book with the same title, written by Harper Lee.  Gregory Peck plays Atticus Finch, a small town southern lawyer who is raising his two children alone after the death of their mother.

The film is set in 1932 in a town called Maycomb, Alabama, where most of the people are very poor, struggling with the aftermath of the stock market crash and subsequent depression in the U.S.  The other struggle they face is the issue of racism in their community, something many communities could relate to.

The story is told through Atticus' six-year old tomboy daughter Jean Louise (who goes by Scout).  The older Scout narrates the film as she looks back at the adventures she shared with her older brother, Jem, and a boy named Dill who came to visit each summer.

The film shows some of the adventures the kids have, especially concentrating on the mysterious neighbor boy, Boo Radley, who has been hidden from public view by his parents.  This is the source of many tales throughout the community and Scout, Jem, and Dill are very curious about what Boo is really like.

Atticus is well respected in the community and tries to instill values in his children by conducting himself in a very caring way.  He's not the kind of dad, however, that goes outside to play with the kids.  He's much more serious and thoughtful than that.  Jem is constantly asking for a gun.  He feels that Atticus isn't being fair or understands why he would want a gun.  You can tell that the kids are impressed when they are confronted by a rabid dog and the sheriff and Atticus come racing over to take care of it.  Instead of shooting the dog himself, the sheriff tells Atticus to do it because he is the "best shot in the county."

Atticus has been asked to represent a negro man (Tom Robinson) accused of raping a young white woman.  Kids at school tease Scout about her dad defending a ni**er, which prompts her to fight the offending kids.  The harassment certainly isn't limited to young people, however, as many of the white men in the community confront Atticus and urge him to step aside so they can take care of justice for Tom Robinson, themselves.

Atticus does his best job in defending Tom, but Tom is still found guilty (by an all-white jury), despite overwhelming evidence that the crime did not happen and that the girl was instead beaten by her ignorant, town-drunk father, Bob Ewell.  Scout, Jem, and Dill watch the trial from the courthouse balcony area, oblivious to the fact that the balcony is where all the negro people sit.  After the verdict is read and Tom is taken away, the white people in the courthouse all leave.  The negro people in the balcony, however stand and wait for Atticus to pass by, out of respect for what he has done for Tom - and for them.  The Reverend who is letting the kids sit by him, tells Scout, "Miss Jean Louise, stand up.  Your father's passing."

The children are very sad that the Tom was found guilty, but their neighbor, Maudie Atkinson tries to make Jem feel better about their dad by saying, "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."  This is, to me, one of the most inspiring lines from the movie.

Tom dies that night in an escape attempt and Mr. Ewell swears revenge for embarrassing him at the trial.

A few months later, Scout and Jem are attacked by Mr. Ewell as they are on their way home from a Halloween pageant.  They are saved by a mysterious man, who carries away the unconscious and injured Jem back to his house.  Scout realizes it is Boo.  The Sheriff is called to check things out and he discovers that Mr. Ewell has been killed with a kitchen knife.  After thinking it through, the Sheriff tells Atticus there will be no charges filed - that it was obvious to everyone that Ewell fell on his knife while attacking the children.

This is a great movie!  There is symbolism used throughout (such as the symbolism that "killing a mocking bird is a sin.  The don't do anything but sing their hearts out for us."), and the theme of standing up against evil and doing the right thing is prevalent throughout.  The microcosm of Maycomb and the fight against racism and segregation of the 1930's was very important in the early 1960's when the Civil Rights movement was going strong.  It's a message that still resonates today.

I loved the innocent inquisitiveness of Scout and how she could be so direct with people.

Shadows and and a feeling of eeriness and mystery were used very well - especially when the kids would be looking at Boo's house.  The black and white movie even seemed to by symbolic of the black and white symbolism throughout.  Whites on main floor of courthouse, blacks upstairs.  The black and white issue of fairness and justice (which wasn't served here), and the grayness of how they dealt with the death of Mr. Ewell at the end.  Justice was done, in the end, by even then, Atticus was trying to figure out how to solve the issue through the legal system.  It was the Sheriff who told him that there wouldn't be any charges pressed - that it Bob Ewell killed himself. 

Scout agreed that there shouldn't be any charges pressed against Boo...that "it would be sort of like killing a mockingbird."