To Kill A Mockingbird
Cast
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
Mary Badham as Scout (Jean Louise) Finch
Phillip Alford as Jem Finch
John Megna as Dill Harris
Frank Overton as Sheriff Heck Tate
Rosemary Murphy as Miss Maudie Atkinson, Neighbor
Brock Peters as Tom Robinson
Directed by
Robert Mulligan
Rater #1 has description and review.
Rater #1
3/10. It begins with the narrator, Scout Finch, describing her life. The Finchs are from Maycomb County in Alabama during the 1930's, in the midst of the depression. Their father Atticus, whom they call by his name, is a legislature. Scout tells us, with a great narrative, about growing up there. She, along with Jem and summer-friend Dill, tried to make the malevolent yet neighboring spirit of Boo Radley leave his house. Then, however, Atticus is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. He's accused of raping a poor white woman in a literally trash family.
Now, let me tell you this, I would have probably liked the movie better if i had not read the book first. The book left out many details that made the book funny, or knowing more about the characters. While I was watching, I thought the opening credits were quite odd. It had nothing to do with To Kill A Mockingbird, they were just clocks. I was also surprised that the movie was in black and white. This was about the time when color was starting to become popular, and widely used.
I noticed that the movie seemed to skip back and forth throughout the movie comapred to the book. Because of this, I found the movie very slow, and boring. The technical aspects were weird. Sometimes the camera angles were either too far away or too close up to see anything worthwhile. No special effects were added because the movie didn't need them. Most of the dialouge was changed, maybe so that the movie could get a PG rating rather than an R rating. At the end, when Heck Tate came over to report the incident, the dialouge was changed probably to keep a PG rating.
When the children came to the Radley house, I envisoned it much bigger, like a mansion. In the book, you read that Boo's dad dies, and Nathan (Boo's brother) comes over to take up where his dad left off, but they never showed him croaking or Nathan coming there. They only found 2 items in the tree before Nathan Radley sealed the hole up. At the end, Boo looked more like a 50 yr. old than a 32 yr. old. Plus I envisioned him differently.
During the trial sequence, Dill, Scout, and Jem are supposed to enter when Sherriff Heck Tate is testiffying, but they are clearly seen entering before the trial begins. During the trial, the camera never moved to look up at Jem, Scout, and Dill. Nor did we see them leave in the middle of the trial. I found that the lawyer's questions was short and stupid. Nothing seemed explained, and I only knew what was going on because I had read the book. One mistake I noticed was that Tom's arm was supposed to be 12 inches shorter than the other arm because it was chopped in a cotton gin, but it was only about 3 inches shorter.
Some of the good acting came from Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. He was a great actor in this movie, and I think he got nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actor. Though I found many different things wrong with the characters. We never see Aunt Alexandra or the rest of the family. Some of those moments with the family would have made some laughs. Jem and Scout were ok, but nothing great.
Some other things that I found wrong with the film compared to the book are: Jem and Scout are the only ones who are supposed to go to the jail, not Dill too. When Atticus goes to the Robinson house, we were never supposed to follow him, and Jem was never supposed to go with him, Calpurnia (the maid) is supposed to. The killing at the end is different because Scout wasn't really supposed to witness what was going on. She was supposed to be face down in the ground, if I remember correctly.
All in all, this would have been a much better movie if I had seen this first instead of the movie. Check my review for the To Kill A Mockingbird book.
Rater #2
Has Not seen movie.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #5
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG.
Running time: 129 minutes
Back Home