Movies I haven't seen in a while: To Kill a Mockingbird

 

                                         This ladies and gentlemen is a movie I defiantly haven't seen in a long, long, time. And that film is To Kill a Mockingbird, it was a usual Saturday night the IMAX at town in which I grew up played To Kill a Mockingbird and if you’re thinking how could the get a film reel of that? Well, here's the coolest thing, they've installed a Blu-Ray player inside the IMAX projector, and as a movie goer that's one of the most awesome things ever especially for a film like this. Anyway, back to topic this was obviously a movie I haven't seen in a long time, so I figured why not give this movie a chance to watch since I have nothing better to do. And to be honest I have vague memory on seeing this movie though I do remember seeing bits and pieces of the movie I haven't really seen it all the way through just like reading the book. And to be honest watching this film now was even greater than I can imagine.

                                         Scout Finch (Mary Badham), 6, and her older Jem (Phillip Alford), live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama. Spending much of their time with friend Dill (John Megna) and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor. When Atticus (Gregory Peck), their widowed father and respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson (Brook Peters) against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping. 

                                         Now the last time I've ever seen this movie was when I was a kid and all I remember was the brother and sisters with their crazy shenanigans like the rolling inside a tire and the final scene of the movie where scout is wearing weird box of some kind, also thinking if the brother really died, moreover I do remember reading the book in high school but that's pretty much it. So now having watched the movie I will say that it's more great to watch it at an older age, mainly because say if I'd watch this when I was a kid I wouldn't take it much seriously with the subject matter, also with my kid like mind I would be bored and want to watch any action movie or a John Wayne movie, but being thirty-five years old now, I can be more serious in what the story portrays and appreciate the great performance of Gregory Peck. There's really nothing much to say about Gregory Peck's performance, I mean his acting moreover his voice speaks for itself, and his presence on screen is just so great to see as he stands tall as a bold man that you truly want to have on your side when it comes defending your rights as well as someone you can trust as a human being. Now again if you haven't seen To Kill a Mockingbird I really don't need to give you much details as to how great Gregory Peck was, all because the man won in Oscar for his performance, so right this instant I'm going to push onto the kids both Mary Badham and Phillip Alford, both of them together does such a fantastic job playing the brother and sister relationship so well that you can instant relate to them throughout the story even in times when their annoyed with one another and at times when both of them rely on each other even in the scary times, especially in the best scene when both Scout and Jem try and protect their Dad from in angry mob and it's Scout who recognized one of the members of the mob, Walter Cunningham and tries to strike a conversation with him, but quickly becomes too distraught at what he was trying to do and decides to forfeit the mobs plans, which shows a simplicities with killing someone with kindness, so both the kids does a great job as well as the actor who plays Cunningham Crahan Denton does a great job in that scene alone to, so he as an actor does deserve some credit. James Anderson deserves some credit too playing the antagonist of the movie who really portrays the creepy southern hillbilly who looks at Peck as a threat, I'm also giving a special credit to Robert Duvall though I'm not going to tell you who he plays because I was a bit surprise myself when I first saw him on screen. A surprising fact I've learned was that James Stewart turned down the role of Atticus Finch, concerned that the story was too controversial, in which to be fair I'm not quite sure if Stewart would have been a good fit for the role of Atticus Finch. Some of the sets were made in a backlot in Universal Studio's a lot of Harper Lee's hometown changed via 1920 to early 60's so a lot of the scenes and sets that you see in the movie where all shot in a backlot in Hollywood Studio's. I'm glad to of re-seen this classic and fully appreciate it as one of the best films I've ever seen. Fully rank this as one of the most important films to watch in American history and say to take your time in having your kids watch this film mainly because deep down, they might view this the same way I was when I was a kid, or I can be wrong, and I don't claim to be right all the time.