‘There are some things that you’re not old enough to understand just yet…’
Everything has guilt attached if you’re wired up a certain way. I can’t enjoy reading Stephen King novels because I should be reading Thomas Hardy. I can’t enjoy any TV show because I still haven’t finished The Wire. And so it is with cinema. I’ve seen every Transformers movie, but I’ve never got round to The Godfather II. I’ve sat through numerous incarnations of the Halloween franchise, but the works of Charlie Chaplin are entirely unknown to me. It was with some satisfaction then, that I sat down to spend an hour or two with To Kill a Mockingbird. A film immortalised in the National Film Registry and considered one of the greatest American movies of all time…
When Mayelle Ewell (Collin Wilcox Paxton) – a white woman – falsely accuses Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) – a black man – of rape, the whole town of Maycomb Alabama is up in arms. The case is thrust upon a courageous lawyer named Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) who must traverse a maze of discrimination and hatred if he is to properly defend his client.
I will say I had my doubts during the opening half an hour of To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite being a ’60s movie, the ’30s setting actually makes Robert Mulligan’s film seem much older at first. The child actors appear as if from another world, and even Peck’s Atticus Finch comes off as a little cold and emotionless at first. I needn’t have worried, when the action switches to the courthouse, Peck’s performance really begins to shine, and by the end, it is easy to see why the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch as the greatest movie hero of the 20th century.
Not forgetting of course that Harper Lee’s source material is one of the most beloved and successful novels of all time, and that Atticus Finch is the beating heart of the book. This makes Peck’s performance even more impressive, To take on such a recognisable role and make it so incontrovertibly his that he is now intrinsically linked with the character forever is no mean feat.
To Kill a Mockingbird is perhaps not quite as essential as the book upon which it is based, but there is no doubting that it is a powerful and captivating adaptation, and one that deserves to still be recognised as a giant of American cinema.