...endearing, heartwarming, tragic, uplifting, and, ultimately, inspiring. Movies don't get any better than this.
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Orson Welles is said to have remarked that no great film was ever made in color. Hyperbole or no, "To Kill a Mockingbird" surely makes Welles's case.
Although the movie does not quite measure up to the rich tapestry created by Harper Lee in her best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel, director Robert Mulligan's "Mockingbird" (1962) is still one of Hollywood's most successful screen adaptations of a literary work. By turns powerful, humorous, touching, and provocative, the film in its superb DVD incarnation comes as a welcome addition to any film lover's library.
The plot traces the events of a year or so in the life of a widower, lawyer Atticus Finch, raising two children in a small Alabama town in the early 1930s. The events are seen through the eyes of his young daughter, Scout, who through the course of the film's action learns much about tolerance, open-mindedness, courtesy, and respect, thanks largely to the example of her father.
The central episode in the narrative is about race relations--Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white girl--yet the story is never preachy; and the lessons one learns about human dignity are more far-reaching than the movie's trappings of racial prejudice and bigotry might suggest. Judging by the conduct people show toward one another on today's afternoon talk shows, hate radio, and Internet forums, the movie's themes are those from which we might all benefit.
Gregory Peck won an Oscar in 1962 for his portrayal of a noble attorney bucking the intolerance of an entire community. Peck, often criticized for being a somewhat wooden leading man, was never better than in this film, lending a quiet honor and a steadfast resolution to the proceedings. The two children, played by newcomers Mary Badham and Phillip Alford, not only look like we picture the kids in the book, but they are most natural and moving in their roles.
Equally impressive are Brock Peters as the gentle, innocent black man on trial; James Anderson as the vile redneck, Bob Ewell; and Robert Duvall in his first screen appearance as the misunderstood recluse, Arthur "Boo" Radley. Everyone connected with the picture-- director Mulligan, producer Alan Pakula, screenwriter Horton Foote (who also won an Oscar for his screenplay), music composer Elmer Bernstein, and others--deserve recognition for their impeccably harmonious efforts.
Video:
Universal's designation of this DVD as a "Collector's Edition" is well deserved. It is, indeed, something special. The widescreen presentation, measuring approximately 1.69:1 across a normal television, is first-rate in its black-and-white contrasts, a revelation to be sure. I've taught the book to high school students for over thirty years and shown the film a multitude of times, first on reel-to-reel and then on tape. Yet in all those many showings, I had never seen it either in widescreen (having never seen it in a theater) or in such depth and clarity of image until the DVD. To say that one can revel in details one never knew existed--the relationships of neighboring houses on the Finch block, the thinning of Bob Ewell's hair, the individual leaves on trees--would be an understatement. The film's new transfer unveils new surprises in every scene.
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