To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
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AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: To Kill a Mockingbird is a textbook example of a message movie done right -- sober-minded and earnest, but never letting its social conscience get in the way of gripping drama.
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Cast
as Atticus Finch
as Scout Finch
as Jem Finch
as Dill Harris
as Sheriff Heck Tate
as Miss Maudie Atkinson
as Tom Robinson
as Mrs. Dubose
as Calpurnia
as Boo Radley
as Judge Taylor
as Mayella Ewell
as Bob Ewell
as Stephanie Crawford
as Gilmer
as Walter Cunningham
as Mr. Radley
as Walter Cunningham
as Walter Cunningham
as Rev. Sykes
as Dr. Reynolds
as Jessie
as Spence Robinson
as Hiram Townsend
as Schoolteacher
as Helen Robinson
as Burly Man
as Cecil Jacobs
as Tom Robinson
as Jury Foreman
as Court Clerk
as Court Reporter
as Schoolboy
as Man
as Man
as Unseen
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Critic Reviews for To Kill A Mockingbird
All Critics (67) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (62) | Rotten (5) | DVD (13)
Peck's performance, in tortoiseshell glasses and a cream linen suit, is mesmerizing and serious.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" relates the Cult of Childhood to the Negro Problem with disastrous results.
Gregory Peck stays beautifully within the character of the bespectacled, widowed man, but with its episodes unevenly joined, the script is too repetitive and long.
As Mulligan so deftly demonstrates, the story is in the characters, their failings and fragility, their heroism and nobility of spirit.
Justly celebrated.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a time capsule, preserving hopes and sentiments from a kinder, gentler, more naive America.
Audience Reviews for To Kill A Mockingbird
A wonderful yet inevitably condensed adaptation of Harper Lee's sublime novel that, despite harmed a bit by some of the changes, is heartfelt, moving and always true to the soul of her story, with Gregory Peck in a fantastic performance even if a bit stiff in the trial scene.
Super Reviewer
Phillip Alford and Mary Badham are riveting child actors as Jem and Scout, the naïfs at the center of this somewhat convoluted morality tale. The movie suffers from some old-fashioned weirdnesses like the canned suspense of the shadow creeping towards the children when obviously, the figure casting the shadow (Boo) would be completely visible to them; the canned suspense of when Scout accidentally rolls into the Radleys' yard and Jem and Dill embark on a needlessly elongated rescue attempt with Jem running up to slam the Radleys' front door for no apparent reason; the canned suspense of Boo hiding behind Jem's bedroom door and no one figuring out that he was the one who rescued the kids. So what I'm saying is, there's a lot of hokey canned suspense. The themes of coming-of-age, fatherhood, goodness, tact, humility, fighting against injustice in the face of futility, as espoused by the novel and film are still beautiful, and the entire court sequence with Brock Peters' plaintive testimony, Gregory Peck's masterful closing argument, and Reverend Sykes chastising Scout to stand as her father passes and the entire black congregation rising, are just indelible moments in our cinematic history.
Super Reviewer
Gregory Peck takes the lead and provides an exceptional performance in this Harper-Lee-novel-adaptation. To Kill a Mockingbird's impecable direction and accuracy in respects to the book are the highlights of what makes this a smooth and striking film. 4/5
Super Reviewer
To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes
| Atticus Finch: | Heck? Atticus Finch. Someone's been after my children. |
| Jean Louise "Scout" Finch: | Mr Tate was right |
| Jean Louise "Scout" Finch: | Mr Tate was right. |
| Atticus Finch: | What do you mean ? |
| Atticus Finch: | What do you mean? |
| Jean Louise "Scout" Finch: | It would be sort of like shooting a mockingbird, wouldn't it ? |
| Narrator: | Atticus' would be there in Jem's room all night. And he'd be there when Jem waked up in the mornin'. |
| Bob Ewell: | You believe his word agin' ourn? |