Harper Lee weaves a theme of unfounded prejudice into several concurrent events as seen through the eyes of a young girl, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham). How does a girl, too young to understand classroom politics (gets in a fight the first day of school!), see the world of real politics, bigotry and hatred?
The main story is that of a black man, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), falsely accused of rape. A largely uneducated, bigoted, white population finds him guilty, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
There is a sub plot surrounding a mentally handicapped man, "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall), and the fear people have of him. That fear, like the guilt of the black man, is unfounded and caused by ignorance.
Even Scout herself briefly succumbs to prejudice when she insults a dinner guest who happens to be from a very poor family. She is corrected by the black housekeeper and, through other events in the story, learns to look for the good or bad in the individual instead of assuming good or bad based on color, financial status or handicap.
Unlike many other anti-prejudice stories, this one doesn't make blacks look like heroes and whites look like fools. The most respectable person in the story is Scout's father, the white lawyer, Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck). The least respectable, also white, is Bob Ewell (James Anderson) who is the alleged rape victim's abusive father and an extreme bigot.
The Black characters are all shown as kind, respectful and fair, but that's how you'd expect them to be in this town at this time for fear of ending up like Tom Robinson. And they naturally all respect Atticus for being willing to fight for them.
And "Boo" Radley is a hero? Well sort of. He did what he had to do in a bad situation. But given the demonstrated prejudice of the town, he'd surely get hung for it. Unless Atticus, who would never break the law, agrees to lie about what happened and put justice above the letter of the law.
The Title refers to a line by Atticus where he states "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" and explains that it's because they never do anything to hurt us, they just sing pretty songs. In the end, Tom Robinson and "Boo" Radley are both mockingbirds; one was saved.
Although much progress has been made since the time in which this story is set, there is still plenty of prejudice in the world against all types of peoples. If the whole world could learn the simple lessons learned by young Scout in this movie, we'd all be better off.
A widowed lawyer with two children defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama. Directed by Robert Mulligan. Best actor Oscar...More at HotMovieSale.com
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