#25 - To Kill a Mockingbird

Finally, a truly good movie. It seems like I've slipped into a bit of a slump when it comes to AFI's list. By the time I watched this movie, I was rather tired of being disappointed. I had of course seen 1963's "To Kill a Mockingbird" before, but I didn't enjoy it as much on those viewings as I did yesterday afternoon.

The pace is so slow--so Southern--that watching the movie is like visiting with an old friend, full of stories to tell and gossip to spread. That I noticed, there are no hard cuts in this movie between scenes; the transitions are all fade-out, fade-in. This helps the entire message of the movie, conveyed in the first few words: "The day was 24 hours long, but it seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go and nothing to buy ... and no money to buy it with."

The famous story, set in 1932, revolves around two key plots: the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl, and the mystery of Boo Radley, the neighborhood crazy man. When the noble lawyer Atticus Finch takes up the case of Robinson, he puts his reputation and his and his family's life at stake. Told mostly from the perspective of Scout, his six-year-old daughter, the story is about the nature of modern prejudice and the innocence of youth.

There are few things more interesting to me than a Southern courtroom. The men with their starched collars, the lackadaisical judge, the young female witness crying on the stand: all of it culminates to form one of the most intriguing ideas I can fathom.

While Atticus's speech is often cited as the best bit of acting the movie has to offer, I think Mayella Ewell takes that prize. The victim of the alleged rape only appears for a few short minutes, but her performance has resonance through the rest of the film. Her loud invocation of the jurors to find the defendant guilty still gives me chills: the way it was shot, a close-up of Mayella's sweaty brow, was pure genius on director Robert Mulligan's part.

The film is also to be thanked for introducing us to one of the greatest actors of the 20th century: Robert Duvall. As the mysterious Boo Radley, 31-year-old Duvall is calm, warm-hearted, and almost vapid. A great breakout role for a great actor.

All in all, the movie is nothing short of a trip back in time. From its playful and foreshadowing opening sequence to the last lines of the movie, I feel as if I lived in 1932 Maycomb, Alabama, and began to wish I had.