To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Directed by Robert Mulligan. Starring Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Frank Overton, James Anderson, John Megna, Brock Peters, Collin Wilcox, Rosemary Murphy, Estelle Evans, Paul Fix, (voice) Kim Stanley.

Robert Mulligan’s earnest film adaptation of Harper Lee’s much-loved (and widely-taught) Pulitzer-winning novel of nobility, lost innocence, and racial injustice in 1930s Alabama. Youngsters Scout (Badham) and Jem (Alford) spend the summer as children often do—playing games and making mischief and living in fear of the unknown (like a reclusive neighbor that’s viewed as something of a bogeyman)—but maturity starts to seep in when their widowed father, the fair and decent lawyer Atticus Finch (Peck), agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson (Peters), accused of raping a white woman. As in the book, it uses the viewpoint of children for simplistic observations on complex topics and situations, which allows naïvety to inspire allegory and the springboard for discussion about its values and morals. Whenever focus shifts, however, to Atticus as the primary, like in his courtroom procedure or his second visit to the Robinson house, the character’s rigid virtue is exposed as a juvenile idea of adulthood and a symbol of Lincoln-esque authority rather than a real person (not to mention a mascot for the white savior narrative device). So much is pitched as cozy homily that there’s no breathing room for ragged emotion beyond the hate that beads off the bigoted villain’s rancid skin, and too many character actions (or inactions) are calculated to make sure that the point is never overlooked. Yet the story is so well-told and clearly-expressed that it still retains its instructional impact and capacity to entertain, even when its handicapped frames of reference feel frustratingly blinkered. Peck and screenwriter Horton Foote each won Academy Awards. Produced by Alan J. Pakula. Robert Duvall has a small (but important) role in his film debut.

77/100