This drama was released on December 25, 1962. The drama is based on Harper Lee’s novel ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. The movie was directed by Robert Mulligan and the screenplay was written by Horton Foote. This movie was nominated for eight Oscars namely: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, best-supporting Actress, best director, best art direction, best picture, best cinematography, and best original score the movie received Oscars for:
Best Actor (Gregory Peck)
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Horton Foote)
Best art direction(Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, and Oliver Emert)
The cast includes:
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
Mary Badham as Scout
Philip Alford as Jem Finch
Brock Peters as Tom Robinson
John Meghna as Dill Harris
James Anderson as Robert Ewell
Frank Overton as Sheriff Heck Tate
Estelle Evans as Calpurnia
Crahan Denton as Walter Cunningham S
Collin Wilcox Paxton as Mayella Violet Ewell
Paul Fix as Judge John Taylor
Ruth White as Mrs. Dubose
The opening scene of the movie starts with the narration by an adult lady named Scout. The scene shifts to the flashback where Scout as a little kid is living with her father Atticus Finch and her elder brother in. She has lost her mother and hence her father is a single parent. They live a happy and simple life together. They have a housekeeper too. During summer Scout and her friend Dill play near the same place that is her neighbor’s house. His name is Arthur Radley. They call him ‘Boo’. Boo is Nathan Radley’s son. People don’t have a good perception of Boo and hence these kids too feel scared around his home. But they have never seen boo since boo never comes out of his house.
They find some items near Boo’s house. The items are a broken watch, a medal, a small knife, and two toys made up of soap which are as same as Scout and her brother Jeremy(Jem). This makes them think suspiciously of Boo. Scout’s dad is a lawyer and he always tries his best to give the right justice to people. Most of his clients are poor farmers who can’t afford to pay for his service and hence they give him grains. Atticus being a lawyer, his children have also understood the racism undergoing in the town.
Atticus has got a case where he has to defend Tom Robinson who is charged with raping a white girl. Atticus taking that case leaves the town in shock and even his children are getting affected by wrong behavior in school. One evening when Atticus comes near to the local jail to meet Tom to talk about the case, some people from the town come to him. They are angry with him and want to start a fight. His children come there too. In the angry crowd (which the children are unknown why they have come), Scout sees a known face. His name is Mr. Cunningham. She asks him how his son Walter(who is her classmate) is and tells him to say ‘Hello’ to him. The whole mob now sees Scout. Mr. Cunningham is silent and the crowd, feeling embarrassed, leaves the place.
On the other hand in the court trial, it is said that Tom who works in Ewell’s home came there because Mayella called him and he had started making a wooden wardrobe. Atticus says that Tom is handicapped with his left hand and someone who raped Mayella molested her with his left hand and beat her too. He also adds that Mayella’s dad is a left-handed guy and maybe when he knew his daughter was getting close to Tom, he might have done something out of anger. Mayella was not even examined by the doctor. Tom says that Mayella had kissed him without his consent. He even adds that he used to help her with her chores. He feels bad looking at her situation. Listening to this, the white prosecutors get angry at him.
Giving the closing statement, Atticus tells all the jury members that for one time should forget racism and prove Tom not guilty. But they not being able to take off partiality out of their mind decide Tom is ‘guilty’. Atticus, while leaving the court receives respect from all the black people who give a standing ovation to him. Now he goes to his home and Sheriff Tate tells him that they killed Tom when he tried to flee away while getting shifted from one jail to the other. Atticus, with his son, goes to Tom’s home because he wanted to let them know about this heart-wrenching news from him. Mayella’s father comes there too and spits at the face of Atticus.
One day, the children have a fancy dress competition at school. Scout has become a ham and has put on a heavy ham costume. Scout and Ham are returning back to their home through the forest. And suddenly Jem gets attacked by someone. Due to the ham dress Scout is safe but the attacker attacks Jem and the attacker gets killed by someone else. And this savior taking Jem in his arms runs towards Jem’s house. Scout can’t see the savior’s face properly because she is in that costume.
Scout runs towards her home and tells everything to her father. Jem is hurt in his hand and feeling weak too. Sheriff informs that it was bob ewell(Mayella’s dad) who attacked him and he has been killed. In the same scene, it is seen that a guy is hiding behind the door. He is Arthur Radley(Boo). It was he who saved the kids. Although the town had suspicious perspectives about this guy, in reality, he was a good human with a shy nature.
Atticus says that he will tell the court that Jem killed Bob in self-defense. But the sheriff tells him that he will be telling in a police file that bob ewell lost his life after falling over a knife because he feels that he cannot send someone like Arthur to jail because he saved two young kid’s life.
Atticus comes to Arthur and thanks him for saving his children’s life. Scout goes to drop him to his home and the movie ends there.
0 comments: