(1962; b/w) After watching this film, as I have done more than once, having read Harper Lee's novel (published in 1960), upon which Horton Foote wrote the screen adaptation (largely faithful to the book though pinched, honored with an Oscar), and seeing Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch (for which he received an Oscar), there's no doubt in my mind that the man and the character were made for each other; Gregory Peck will forever be remembered as the embodiment of Atticus Finch, a lawyer devoted to honor, justice, and his children.

He says in his summation of the case of Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of having raped a 19-year-old white woman, Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox), before the jury (facing the camera inside the jury box such that we the audience are being addressed) in 1935 (two years after Franklin Delano Roosevelt assured the country in the midst of the Depression, "The only thing to fear is fear itself") in the Maycomb, Alabama, courtroom, as his two children (both novice and very natural actors), 12-year-old Jem (Phillip Alford) and seven-year-old Scout (Mary Badham), with their seven-and-a-half-year-old friend Charles Baker "Dill" Harris (John Megna; a character based on Lee's childhood friendship with Truman Capote), watch from the balcony among the black audience inside the packed courthouse:

"In this country our courts are the great levelers. In our courts all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality. And I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this man to his family. In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson."

The evidence is obviously more than sufficient to acquit the defendant. Sheriff Heck Tate (Frank Overton) testifies that no doctor was consulted for the battered and bruised victim, whose injuries were mostly on the right side of her face; as well finger marks were evident all around her neck.

Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell (James Anderson) next takes the stand, stating without hesitancy that he saw the defendant from the window on top of his daughter. When Atticus asks if he's in agreement with what the sheriff stated, Mr Ewell replies: "I agree with everything Mr Tate said." Asked if he can write, Mr Ewell says he can and demonstrates by signing his name with his left hand. (Since Harper Lee's family is related to General Robert E. Lee, she appears to be implicating her heritage with Bob Ewell.)

Following her father to the stand, Mayella explains how Tom Robinson came into the yard on August 21st when she asked him to chop up a chifforobe (an old bureau dresser); he then attacked her, she says, when she turned to fetch him a nickel for his labor: "Before I know it he's on me." Calling on Tom to stand up, Atticus has Tom reveal that not only is he's right-handed but his left arm is uselessly crippled. But when Atticus asks the girl, "Do you want to tell us what really happened?" she bursts into a screaming fit, refusing to answer any further questions.

Finally Tom speaks on his own behalf of how he first broke up a chifforobe the previous spring, over a year before the incident, and had been requested on frequent occasions to perform tasks for Miss Ewell without asking for any payment. On the date in question, he testifies that Mayella invited him inside the house to fix a door, but once within he noticed that all of the children were absent (Mayella had sent all seven to town with nickels for ice cream) and that the door seemed fine. Mayella then grabbed him and kissed him just as her father arrived at the window. In fear of his life, Tom says he ran off as fast as he could run, not knowing what happened afterward. When Mr Gilmer, the state's prosecutor, asks him why he provided Mayella with free labor, he answers that he pitied her.

Summarizing for the jury the testimony of all the witnesses, Atticus points out the absence of any medical evidence of a rape actually having taken place, the contradictions of the stories from both Mr Ewell and his daughter, who were relying on a "cynical confidence" that they wouldn't be doubted since "all Negro men lie," and the physical evidence of Tom's being crippled and right-handed coupled with sworn testimony from the sheriff and Bob Ewell that Mayella's face had been battered on the right side, suggesting her attacker had been left-handed. Atticus further refers to Mayella as a "victim of cruel poverty and ignorance," guilty of breaking a social code in her tempting a Negro. For this, Tom Robinson should not suffer.

Unfortunately for Tom Robinson and Atticus - reviled by many of his fellow townspeople for taking on the case while his neighbor, Maudie Atkinson (Rosemary Murphy), defends him by saying, "some men are born to do the unpleasant jobs for us" - though "Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson," in Harper Lee's narrative, "in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case."

Bracketing the trial is the story of Arthur "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall), of whom tales have been told (especially from Dill's Aunt Stephanie) of his being a maniac chained to his bed after having stabbed his father with a pair of scissors long ago; the children snoop about the "haunted" Radley house, trying to get a glimpse of Boo.

Atticus's children - raised in part with the help of Calpurnia (Estelle Evans), a colored housekeeper, after their mother died four years before the beginning of the story - who always call him Atticus, never otherwise, discover secrets of his past (best shot with a rifle in the county) and gentle wisdom. Consider the point of view from within another person's skin and be willing to compromise. "'Tis a sin to kill a mockingbird," he tells Jem and Scout, because all they do is "just sing their hearts out for us."

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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