TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

(December 1962, U.S.)

Like so many, I read Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in high school, and I'm sorry to say I remember almost none of it. Like too many of my generation (and others, I'm sure) I've come to rely on the movies for even my knowledge of popular literature, because we're often apt to watch movies multiple time instead of reading books more than one time. Truth be told, there are times when I embrace this classic tale as nothing more than a series of vignettes and episodes in what is otherwise nothing more or less than a coming of age story of two children in Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression of the early 1930s. To cling to that opinion would be ignorant, though, if not a crime in the world of literature (both in print and on film). While I may not fully appreciate the reasons for Lee's novel earning the Pulitzer Prize, I cannot deny the story content as it fits in the world of racism, civil rights, and basic human decency.

The story is narrated by the adult Jean Louise Finch, or "Scout", as she prefers to be called. Scout and her older brother Jem live modestly (despite the town's poverty that surrounds them), and enjoy a happy, carefree childhood with their father, Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck) and the family housekeeper, Calpurnia. Their summer is filled with games that include searching for "Boo" Radley, the reclusive and mysterious neighbor who's gained the reputation of being the town oddball. On several occasions, Jem has discovered small objects (including a broken stop watch, a pocket knife and two carved soap dolls resembling him and Scout) left inside the knothole of a tree on the Radley property.

As the town lawyer (and seemingly the only decent and moral man in town), he believes in fair treatment for all and turning the other cheek to defend your beliefs (oh, that sounds so good on paper). When he's appointed to defend Tom Robinson (played by Brock Peters, later of STAR TREK IV and VI fame) who's accused of raping a white girl, he exposes himself and his children to the town's harsh racism. Tensions are raised when Atticus declares his belief that Tom is innocent of the crime he's accused of, and is even forced to sit in front of the local jail to safeguard Tom from an angry lynch mob. The trial itself is intriguing, as Atticus mounts evidence that appear to exonerate Tom, including the fact that Tom has only one working hand, as well as the fact that the victim's father is prone to fits of violent rage whenever he's been drinking. Before the verdict is handed down, it appears as though the white girl kissed and seduced Tom, and was subsequently beaten by her father as a result for her seducing a black man. In his closing argument, Atticus asks the all-white male jury to cast aside their prejudices and focus on Tom's obvious innocence. Such a plea is futile, because a black man like Tom in a racist town like Maycomb doesn't stand a chance. Tom is found guilty and is later killed during his transfer to prison while attempting to escape.

We might expect the story of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD to conclude with this sort of climactic tragedy, but the story chooses to not only resume the journey of Scout and Jem, specifically on Halloween night when the two are violently attacked in the woods, but to also point out the lessons of prejudging another human being, when it's revealed that it was, indeed, Arthur "Boo" Radley who not only saved the children by killing their attacker, but also that he appears to be a very shy and gentle soul. Scout concludes the film by drawing an analogy which compares the unwelcome public attention that would have been heaped on "Boo" with the killing of a mockingbird that does nothing but sing to make people happy.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is surely a message film that seeks to tear at our social conscience, to not only remind us of a time when racism ruled our souls, but perhaps to also remind us that we haven't come very far in the years since. This is surely Gregory Peck's finest role in a career that must stand up against other classic titles like Hitchcok's SPELLBOUND, GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT, CAPE FEAR, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and even THE OMEN. As Atticus Finch, his goodness must not only do battle with a town population surviving on their ignorance, but also to help his children grow up in a world they're slowly discovering is filled with evil during the course of their carefree innocence in a time that is supposed to 1930's small town Alabama, in which an honest white man must stand up and fight for the life a helpless black man. There is truly intense drama during the scene in which Atticus faces the armed lynch mob, ready to break into the jailhouse and hang Tom Robinson, and yet we cannot ignore that it's also the innocence of children who save the day, when Scout and Jem arrive unexpectedly on the scene and manage to innocently shame the men of the mob into retreating in peace. Could children possibly do such a thing at that time in real life, or in this life now? It's a nice idea to dream about, I suppose.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Atticus Finch: "I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house, and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit 'em, but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us."