Movie Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

   This is one of my all time favorite movies. For starters, Gregory Peck is incredible and did a great job as Atticus Finch. The two kids who played Scout and Jim (Mary Badham and Phillip Alford) also did really well. I love Scout dearly and she might be one of my favorite characters from any book/movie.

   The movie tells Scout's memories of growing up during the 30's in Alabama while her father was giving the job of defending a black man accused of raping a white girl. The trial scene is moving, one of my favorite scenes from any movie, and still makes me mad when I think about Bob Ewell, the father of the supposed victim, on the stand. It makes me mad that, despite Atticus's work and brilliant arguments, there really wasn't much of a chance for the defendant, Tom Robinson.

   The movie is one of the best film adaptions of a book I've ever seen. It does justice to Harper Lee's original, often quoting the book exactly. While, naturally, some things are lost from the book, it never seems to me like anything is left out that absolutely should have been in the movie. People who haven't read the book don't really miss anything when they see the film.

   All in all, great performances, a great story and a wonderful film. It may be over 50 years old by now but I think it's stood the test of time quite well.

   Callie