Movie Review: To Kill A Mockingbird

I feel I can't write a review for this movie. I know I've seen it multiple times, and, as the cliche goes, it means something different each time. I feel not unlike a journalist trying to explain colors to a blind person. I have the skills, but not the point of reference.

The format of this story has been copied so many times. A young girl (a borderline proto-homo, I noticed this time) lives in the rural south during the depression. Her brother and her are given much of an education by the mere fact of exploration by their single father. They learn about racism and it's horrid impact and about the meaning of caring.

As for the movie, well, it is very, very good. What I have noticed when I watch classics like Gone with the Wind, Streetcar Named Desire and the like, is that time flies when you are watching them. Today's movies, made to keep the MTV generation filling their pockets, are edited to different camera angles every three seconds or so. Here, the camera picks a target and holds it until the words are spoken, the image is taken in. It knows we're smart and doesn't toy with song-and-dance.

The movie rolls along, probably moved faster by previous experience watching it during school and I also see Gregory Peck in the role that defined the rest of his career. I looked back at my review of Streetcar a few weeks ago and realized what these actors had that many today do not.

Confidence. Without the infrindgement of the press, these actors could do what they set out to do. Peck is relaxed on the screen, comfortable in this own skin. He isn't appearing to ACT. Tom in Collateral? He's practically screaming, "look at me, I'm doing something different then my last movie! Thank you, Academy!"

But Peck doesn't have that. And he becomes the moral compass, like a father should, both with his own kids and us in the audience. A very good movie from an excellent book. One of those books you really should read.