This is one of those cases where we’d both read the book back in school a hundred years ago, but neither of us had actually seen the movie. Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for his performance, but really, everyone here is excellent.
We watched the version for free on Tubi, but it’s also available to stream in several other places. Naturally, DVD and BluRay editions are available as well.
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To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Written by Harper Lee, Horton Foote
Stars Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton
Run Time: 2 Hours, 9 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is mostly the quiet story of a good man doing his thing, which doesn’t sound like much. But the combination of a great cast, script, direction, and cinematography come together to make it something special. It’s dated, which is a feature, not a bug here, and we’d recommend giving it a watch.
Awful One Sentence Synopsis
A little girl dresses as a ham for Halloween and nearly dies.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a child drawing as the credits roll.
We cut to a woman talking about Maycomb, Alabama, in 1932 and what life was like back then. Scout was only 6 years old, and this is her story. Her father is Atticus Finch, and a man comes to pay him with food because the farmer is too poor to pay cash. Atticus says he’s poor too, but not as bad off as the farmers; this is just after the start of the Great Depression. His son Jem wants his father to play football, but Atticus says he’s too old.
Atticus goes to work, and Scout and Jem meet Dill, and they stop to watch the meanest man in town walk by. The man’s son is Boo Radley, a weird man who lives in a haunted-looking house down the street. It’s said that Boo eats squirrels and all the cats he can catch. Dill’s own mother tells them about the time Boo tried to kill his own father. The three play all day until Atticus comes home from work.
Mrs. DuBose is a crazy old woman who yells at the children, but Atticus has her charmed. At bedtime that night, we get some details about what happened to Scout and Jem’s mother, and it’s obvious that Atticus is a good single father. Judge Taylor comes over, and they talk about Tom Robinson’s case; he wants Atticus to take it on.
Sure enough, the next morning, the kid’s play takes them far too close to Boo Radley’s house, and they ding-dong-ditch the house. Then the three kids go to the courthouse to see the cell they locked Boo into. Instead, they all go into the courtroom and watch Atticus presenting his case.
The proceedings end, and Mr. Ewell talks to Atticus afterward, he thinks it’s terrible that Atticus has to defend one of “those people.” Ewell is offended that Atticus would take the black man’s side of the argument against the good white folks who are accusing him.
Night falls, and the three children, obsessed with Boo Radley, sneak into the Radley’s backyard to peep into the window. A shadowy figure comes up behind Jem, and the trio runs away so terrified that Jem loses his pants. Jem goes back after his pants, and Scout hears shots being fired, which arouses the neighborhood.
In the morning, both kids go off for their first day of school for the season; Scout is embarrassed to have to wear a girl’s dress, and Jem won’t stop laughing at her. At school, the kids invite little Walter to dinner; his father can’t afford to feed him. The kids all talk about their first guns and that “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” with one. Scout’s got lots of loud opinions, and Atticus talks to her about “compromise.”
Atticus and the sheriff stare at a mad dog; the sheriff can’t shoot straight, so Atticus has to do it. He hits the dog dead on the first shot; he’s not just a talky lawyer, which impresses the kids.
Atticus goes to visit Tom Robinson’s wife, and his kids meet Tom’s kids. They’re a black family, and that’s new for Jem and Scout. Mr. Ewell shows up, looking drunk and scary, and has a few choice words for Atticus. Jem, on the other hand, gets a good look at racism.
Scout gets in a fight at school, and it’s over Atticus defending a black man. Atticus doesn’t want her to fight, no matter the reason. Tom Robinson is a man, and he needs help, that’s what Atticus does, even though people around town think he shouldn’t be defending him.
The kids find a medallion and some carved statues of a boy and a girl in the Radley’s tree just before old man Radley seals up the tree’s hole. Jem’s got a whole box of trinkets and things that he’s found in that old tree.
Months pass, and school’s out for the summer again. Dill has come back to town, and he brags about his imaginary father to Scout. Sheriff Tate comes to see Atticus about Tom Robinson. There might be trouble in town now that Tom is back in town for his trial. Atticus goes to the jail to help keep watch, and the kids sneak over to watch what happens. Just then, several cars pull up, and dozens of men get out. They want to lynch Tom, and Atticus stands up for his client. It looks like it’s about to get violent, but then the kids come between the mob and Atticus. Scout talks to the man who owed them money and paid with food, and she innocently shames him and the others into going home.
The trial finally begins, and the whole town turns out to watch. Mr. Ewell’s daughter, Mayella, had been raped, and Tom Robinson was accused. The sheriff testifies about what he saw, then Ewell gives his account. Ewell’s arrogant and mean, and Atticus points out that Ewell is left-handed. Mayella testifies next, and Atticus asks if her father ever beats her. Her testimony is sketchy at best. He demonstrates that Tom is right-handed; Tom’s left hand doesn’t work at all due to a childhood accident. She gets really hysterically defensive about sticking to her story.
Tom Robinson takes the stand after the prosecution rests. He explains that he did a small job for Mayella, and one job led to another, and another. According to him, Mayella went to a lot of trouble to get him alone, and she grabbed and kissed him. He did not rape her or harm her in any way. He felt sorry for Mayella.
Atticus does his closing argument. There was no medical evidence, only two sketchy witnesses with contradictory testimony. He says that Mayella made up the whole thing because she got caught kissing a black man, an unspeakable act. It’s quite a speech, and we know he’s completely right in what he says.
The jury comes back two hours later and declares that Tom Robinson is guilty of rape. Everyone goes home. The sheriff drives up and tells Atticus some bad news; Tom has been killed trying to run away. Atticus told Tom that they’d probably win on appeal, so his trying to run is more than a little suspect. It’s now up to him to tell Tom’s wife what happened.
Atticus comforts Tom’s wife, and there are lots of friends around who are shocked to hear the news. Ewell shows up and spits on Atticus, but Atticus doesn’t respond.
More months pass, and it’s Halloween now. Scout’s dressed as a ham, and she and Jem walk home at night. Someone follows them through the woods. Someone grabs Jem and knocks him out. He then goes for Scout, but someone stops him; we don’t see either man clearly. Someone carries the unconscious Jem home, and Scout soon follows. Atticus calls the sheriff.
Jem is pretty beat up, and Atticus isn’t happy. The sheriff finds Bob Ewell’s dead body out there where the attack happened. Someone stabbed him to death. Scout points out Boo Radley. He was the one who saved them and carried Jem home; he’s not a monster after all.
The sheriff and Atticus discuss Boo’s case. They both know Boo killed Ewell, but the sheriff says Ewell must have fallen on that knife. This is justice for what happened to Tom, and he refuses to arrest Boo. Scout says that arresting Boo would be like shooting a mockingbird; they don’t harm anybody.
Brian’s Commentary
This jury was not made up of “12 Angry Men,” but they did take two hours to deliberate the case. Gregory Peck’s closing argument took 6-½ minutes to record, and he got it all on the first take, which was really impressive.
This was Robert Duvall’s first film, but he didn’t get a single line.
It won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. Gregory Peck won for Best Actor after taking the role that James Stewart turned down. Mary Badham, who played Scout, was the youngest person ever to be nominated for an Oscar. The character of Atticus Finch was voted as the #1 screen hero of the last 100 years by the American Film Institute (AFI) in its special, "100 Years, 100 Movies, 100 Heroes & Villains" in 2003.
The whole story was based on a case that Harper Lee’s attorney father actually argued about, but of course, it does dramatize it a bit. It was remarkably close to the book. The character of Dill was based on none other than Truman Capote, whom Harper Lee grew up with.
Kevin’s Commentary
The locations and sets are impressive, realistic, and entirely fake. They had originally thought they’d use Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama - since it was inspired by her experiences as a child there - but the town had changed too much between the 1920s to the 1960s. So they used a studio lot and sets. The courtroom was such a good copy of a real old Monroeville Courthouse that people thought it was filmed on location.
I’d read the book and seen a couple of stage versions of this, but it was my first time seeing the movie. For as slow-moving and low action as this is, it’s amazing how engrossing it is. Even the kids were good in the cast.
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Theme song, "Boogie Party" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
