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To Kill a Mockingbird (Collector's Edition)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Collector's Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect In Every Way!
Review: 1962's "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a definite "Classic" motion picture. Gregory Peck has never been better, in his role here a southern lawyer. Peck's performance is perfectly underplayed and low-key. The others in this great cast are equally as enthralling in this film. One to watch over and over again with your family! Nice special features on both the DVD and VHS versions will add to the enjoyment of this outstanding movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful and Thoughtful Story
Review: I loved this DVD and movie in general. I loved the book when they made us read it about in Middle School. Since it's been ages since I've seen or read either I needed to get this video and I recieved it as a wonderful gift for Christmas. Though, it took me a while to watch it. When I did watch it however, it really does make you think back to those times. And some things I didn't even catch when I was younger that I do as an adult. The story is told by a grown up Scout who was rather a Tom Boy. Her and her brother growing up with their father who's a lawyer. The story intellengently touches on perhapes three stories in one. One story is of the family in general, the second one is the story of the kids wanting to know about their neighbor Boo Bradley. The third and most thought provoking and sometimes hard to watch because of it being so dramatic is where the father defends a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. That scene in general was outstanding. It's easy to see that Gregory Peck won an academy award for best actor. The movie makes you want to read the book, which does give more detail. However, the great thing about this movie is not for the actor's but the fact that it really does follow the book.

As for the DVD it's self it was a pleasure to navigate around. Has a wonderful information on production notes. And the idea of an author (Harper Lee) loving a Screen Play is quite unknown so that just tells you how much this movie is loved. The only thing is that the sound was rather hard to hear, however I haven't been able to find a DVD or Video yet that had good sound with this movie. It's still worth the buy you won't be sorry, the picture is great for a black and white film and it's fun re-watching a child's adventure in the times of a depression. I recommend this movie for anyone who's old enough to understand this film, and I garentee after you watch the movie you'll want to read the book. I wanted to re-read the book after I saw the movie again :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: To Kill A Mockingbird - Collector's Edition
Review: One of the GREATEST MOVIES of all time!!. A "truly rare movie" production.. I would like to see more movies produced like this in the future (Probably impossible with the current actors and astresses, producers, directors and manuscripts.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A hit even after all these years
Review: Excellent movie. I got the movie because my son had to watch it for his English class. He said the movie was just like the book, and he could follow it quite well. The characters were well drawn out. The courtroom scene was wonderful and showed the great skill of Gregory Peck as an actor. It also showed how the South used to be (and can still sometimes be.) I thought Scout was a wonderful character and how much she loved her father and her brother, Jem. She knew the difference between right and wrong but didn't understand the "class" that separated her family from the other families in town. Even though a wrong was done, eventually it was righted in the most extraordinary way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Blacks versus whites in black & white
Review: This film has such an evocative title sequence that we're amazed to discover that Saul Bass didn't do it. For a while it almost threatens to overpower the film, as the Bass titles for "A Walk on the Wild Side" primed us for something that film failed to deliver. "Mockingbird" begins delivering in narrative, performance and craftsmanship a quarter of the way through, and it does so in beautiful black-and-white cinematography stunningly restored in this DVD transfer. It also delivers an unexpected emotional wallop following the black man's rape trial, when his white attorney (Gregory Peck) leaves a courtroom in defeat and empty save for the blacks packed into the upper gallery. As they rise to their feet, one says to the attorney's small daughter next to him, "Stand up, child, your father's leaving the coutroom." Their small tribute to the white man who defended a black one in a losing cause is unexpectedly moving. That, unexpectedly, could be said for the film itself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Delightful Movie
Review: I believe that this is a movie that suits kids of all ages. I am in my 20's and I still absolutely love this movie. I think that parents should show this movie to their kids atleast once in their lifetime so they can see first hand on what it used to be like in the world. "Two thumbs up" I have to say.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie
Review: I have always loved this movie & I would highly recommend it. They just don't make movies like this anymore.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Testament to the Power of Film!
Review: From the moment the film begins, with its stunning slow-motion opening and one of the best film scores I have ever heard, you know that this will be a film to remember for many years. It is a coming of age story about children learning the ways of the adult world (both good and bad), and also learning about the honor and faith their father, lawyer Atticus Finch, has in the justice system, demonstrated by his villigent defense of his current client, a young black man wrongly accused of rape. It's also a moral and humanitarian story about making an effort to dissuade misconceptions about race and "family values." Lastly, and in a smaller form, it is a film about redemption. What you think you know about someone can change dramatically when they do something seemingly out of the ordinary...like saving your life. Atticus Finch tells his daughter that "you never know what a person is really like until you take a moment to step in their shoes for a little while." It's pretty simple, but powerful stuff.

What I think is really distinct about this film is that the children's characterizations are treated with such sensitivity. It could become easy to treat the daily nuances of a child's imagination and naivite as something silly or unimportant. Their characters are aided by fantastic performances by the young actors, Mary Badham and Philip Adford. Gregory Peck gives one of the most memorable performances I can imagine. His portrayal is understated and touching, eventually leading up to his character's fierce determination in the final courtroom scene, where he lays out the injustices that have plagued his client. It's one of the finest courtroom scenes in American film history, encapsulating both the strength of what the justice system of America represents and also portraying the fervent racial tensions that were dividing the nation at the time of the film's release (1962).

And it all works tremendously well. Some of the most poignant moments in the film were so subtle. The part where I lost it was when, after Finch was handed a defeat by the jurors, he slowly starts gathering up his paperwork as the courtroom floor empties. But the second floor (of black townspeople-in awe of his defense) stand and watch as he gets ready to leave. Reverend Sykes quietly tells Atticus' son Jem to stand up, in a way to hommage the man who stood up for his own beliefs and the defense of not just a single man accused, but a whole community. It was a really sensitive visual statement that conveyed a powerful sentiment about the perpetual state of race in America. And I was crying big-time! And the final scene, in which we find out the true personality of Boo Radley, was really suprising and touching. It really makes you think about the how extraordinary the human spirit can be, and how making snap judgements about other people really doesn't pay off in the end.

I just saw the film for the first time tonight, and it is now one of my all time favorites. And now for the book....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The standard, by which all other movies are judged.
Review: They can't top it.
The story of Scout and Jem, and the summer they grew up. Based on Harper Lee's novel. The only novel she ever wrote. Well, when you write the best...
Plus, Gregory Peck as the patriarch Atticus Fench

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of America's truly great films
Review: The art of story telling is rare in film today. Without a car case or a gun battle, what is the point of making a movie? But on a rare occasion a timeless film is made that sets the mark of excellence. To Kill A Mockingbird is one of those films.

Filmed in Black and White, although color was available then, the film captures the sleepy town of Macomb where tree lined dirt roads prevail, neighbors know one another and check in on each other, and the only thing a kid has to entertain himself is the endless miles of fields and a vivid imagination.

The task of transforming the Harper Lee novel into film is not easy. How does a writer take a Pulitzer Prize novel and boil it down to a slick 120 minute story. With just a few exceptions the whole of this novel is kept and is well presented in the film.

Gregory Peck in the lead role of Atticus Finch was key. But Peck presence is only the glue that holds the film together. The true triumph of this film is in the casting of Mary Badham and Phillip Alford as the lead characters of Scout and Jem. The selection of two unknowns from Birmingham, Alabama made this film. The naivt'e of the children is apparent and beliveable and gives the film the sense of innocense lost as Jem and Scout learn that the world is not a fair place.

This film also marks some early performance of Alice Ghostly and Aunt Stephanie the aunt of Del Harris who is based on the real life childhood of Truman Capote and the screen debut of Robert Duvall as Boo Radley.

This film is a treat. Take time to read the book and then watch the movie.


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