![]() Some might categorize To Kill a Mockingbird as slow and too methodical, but ideas and feelings need time to sink in and percolate, and Mulligan provides us that luxury. ![]() Likewise, the courtroom scenes exude a sober weight based on thoughtful argument, not wild histrionics. The sequence in which Scout (Mary Badham), Jem (Phillip Alford), and their nerdy friend Dill (John Megna), a character based on the young Truman Capote (a childhood pal of Lee's), attempt to catch a glimpse of Boo Radley (Robert Duvall) by creeping up to his dilapidated home one dark summer night possesses all the elements of a taut thriller, but lacks any fancy tricks or manipulative touches. Even scenes of suspense in To Kill a Mockingbird are never overwrought or overplayed. Lingering on reaction shots for just that extra second or two deepens their meaning and helps lend his stories a languorous quality that mirrors real life. Understatement defined Mulligan's direction throughout his 35-year career, and he's a master at capturing small moments with a minimum of fuss. To Kill a Mockingbird is all about integrity and restraint. The film weaves such a deft and seductive spell, it's difficult not to become completely invested in the action on screen and feel a part of the family and community that reside there. We may not be able to identify with all the events, but the spirit and values of those who inhabit the scenario strike several personal chords and touch us deeply. ![]() Director Robert Mulligan and writer Horton Foote take great care to express the novel's ideas and themes with a delicate hand, so they gently emanate from the dialogue and characters. The 1962 screen adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird is that rare exception, a movie that humbly honors its source and strives to depict the prose as faithfully as possible. Such a rich array of characters and events coalesce to produce that rare piece of fiction that inspires, educates, and entertains without affectation or conceit.įilming such a book is always, to put it mildly, a tricky endeavor, and the finished product more often than not disappoints the original work's legion of admirers. And then there's Boo Radley, the mysterious recluse who both fascinates and frightens the neighborhood children. The two juvenile characters, six-year-old Scout (the spunky tomboy narrator) and her 10-year-old brother Jem, are among the most recognizable and beloved in American literature, as is their father, the stoic, honorable, courageous, wise, yet tender Atticus Finch, a widowed attorney who passionately defends a black man accused of rape by a white woman in a prejudiced, small-minded Alabama town in the 1930s. ![]() Harper Lee's immortal novel explores with grace and insight such universal topics as racism, coming of age, tolerance, domestic violence, the binding ties of family, and the unique discoveries of youth, and has earned the author a degree of reverence and renown reserved only for the most elite men and women of letters. Catcher in the Rye is one such book, and To Kill a Mockingbird, a work of deceptive simplicity yet far-reaching power, is another. At a young age, the right book can make an indelible impression, speaking to us on a variety of emotional and intellectual levels, and often the impact remains etched in our consciousness throughout our lives. ![]()
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