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Posted: |
Jul 23, 2020 - 8:33 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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Doggie, can’t say that I have much respect for Ebert’s review. I don’t think Ebert fully understands what it was like in 1932 for African Americans in the South. If Harper Lee was correct, African Americans were very cowed and fearful of white people which is why they tolerated certain actions in the movie.
Of course, racism is a key theme and social issue in the movie and novel. Both novel and movie use racism as a key social issue for another major theme that Atticus Finch embodies which is to live by one’s convictions and to have the courage to live by one’s principles and convictions. Through various incidents, his children learn what real courage is. It isn’t a man shooting a rabid dog. (That does earn Jem’s admiration.) It is the nobility of his father who faces with courage the rage of many of the town’s people when he defends Tom.
We see the movie and novel through the eyes of Scout who really doesn’t understand the social dynamics in her small town. When people in the town want to hang Tom, Ebert says the following.
Her speech is a calculated strategic exercise, masked as the innocent words of a child; one shot of her eyes shows she realizes exactly what she's doing. Could a child turn away a lynch mob at that time, in that place? Isn't it nice to think so.
I don’t think she had any idea of what she was doing. She waded into the group of “lynchers” and naively addressed a man Atticus had helped. No way was her behavior calculated although I think she sensed a bit later that those men were a danger to her father.
Most egregiously Ebert never mentions Bernstein’s amazing score.
In my opinion, Ebert really didn’t understand the novel or movie. If he had, he might have understood why Atticus, a white man, was often the main focus of the movie, and that his courageous behavior in the face of horrific racism is one we should all be bold enough to emulate. It is a 4 star movie.
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Posted: |
Jul 24, 2020 - 12:14 AM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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I think one of his points was there was lack of emotions at the end of the flim.
Then Ebert was wrong. The whole ending is emotional. I go through a box of Kleenex when I see the ending.
Anyway Doggie, you wanted what we thought of his review and I wrote what I thought of it.
Ebert also finds the trial of Tom Robinson to be lacking in emotion:
The problem here, for me, is that the conviction of Tom Robinson is not the point of the scene, which looks right past him to focus on the nobility of Atticus Finch. I also wonder at the general lack of emotion in the courtroom...
Strange, I found the trial to be quite emotional -- the soul-wrenching performance of Brock Peters for one, and of course the impassioned final argument of Atticus to the jury. The reaction of the blacks in the balcony was also quite impactful.
Joan makes great points, and I particularly disagree with Ebert (and agree with Joan) about the innocence of Scout's intervention into the scenario with Atticus and the mob on the steps of the jail. To suggest that a six year old, even a bright one, would be capable of such a "calculated strategic exercise" to shame an adult into abandoning his violent plans is itself beyond belief, and out of character for the film. I also disagree that the film changes the book's perspective from the child to that of the father. The score, as well as the richness of the "culture of childhood" depicted in the film, preserve the book's point of view quite beautifully. Few films have as faithfully honored their source material as this one.
Finally, if Ebert was in fact not "a music guy" then he was, shall we say, "one brick short of a load" as a film critic, ignoring a potentially powerful element of films in general and this one in particular. I respect Roger Ebert's understanding and appreciation for the technical aspects of filmmaking (listen to his commentary on the DVD of CITIZEN KANE for example) but to review TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and ignore Elmer Bernstein's contribution to the story-telling and emotional impact of the film is egregious and frankly embarrassing.
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I like Ebert's review, he makes some excellent points and his critique is well reasoned. That said, I still think TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD is an excellent movie. Just because I find his review is on the mark does not mean I have to agree with its sentiments. Ebert is right: the movie is a time capsule, in several ways: it's a movie that takes place in the thirties and was made in the sixties, so it is a move with the sensibilities of the 60s depicting events from the 30s, and we are looking at that movie now from the 2020s. That's one of the wonderful things about movies, they transport you back in time in more than just one way. Ebert writes that TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD uses the realities of its time only as a backdrop for the portrait of a brave white liberal. I say remove the word "only" and you're on the mark. That's what THIS movie is about. It's a model portrait of a brave white liberal (and I mean "liberal", not Democrat or Republican) but that is the point. Again, later Ebert points out that in the courtroom, it's not so much about the conviction of a clearly innocent man, Tom Robinson, but about Atticus Finch, but again, that is not a "fault" of the movie, that's what the movie IS. I mean, you can approach lots of stories in many different ways. TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD sees the father of a girl/woman through her eyes, and it goes to show how good and noble behavior can be passed on from one generation to the next. It's not so much about civil rights or racism, which is why these issues, while there indeed, are not the main focus of the story. It's about how to take a stand and to be an integrious character.
So good movie, and good review in my book.
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just some dude on IMDB
?
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just some dude on IMDB
?
IMDB.com has user reviews. While they may be written by "regular" people, some of these reviews - albeit a minority number - can be relatively cogent and insightful.
Thanks fmfan1. I assume that dude also includes "dudettes". 
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A troubling aspect of TKAM is what was revealed in Lee's sequel published posthumously, “Go Set a Watchman.” The novel revealed an older Atticus, and a less admirable one. A grownup Scout came home to Alabama from New York City to find that, in his dotage, her beloved father was opposing the work of the NAACP and attending meetings of a white-supremacist group.
I wish Miss Lee's heirs had left well enough alone and not cashed in.
Sigh! Way to go to ruin a great character. Nicely done. 
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Posted: |
Jul 24, 2020 - 11:22 PM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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A troubling aspect of TKAM is what was revealed in Lee's sequel published posthumously, “Go Set a Watchman.” The novel revealed an older Atticus, and a less admirable one. A grownup Scout came home to Alabama from New York City to find that, in his dotage, her beloved father was opposing the work of the NAACP and attending meetings of a white-supremacist group.
I wish Miss Lee's heirs had left well enough alone and not cashed in.
Sigh! Way to go to ruin a great character. Nicely done.
I agree that Go Set a Watchman would have been better left unpublished. Compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, it was a poor piece of writing, and reflected badly on all concerned. On the other hand, I think that the aspects of the Atticus Finch portrayed in Mockingbird that most shine through were his bond with his children and the personal integrity and moral courage he displayed in his advocacy for Tom Robinson. Ultimately it is not so important (to me, at least) whether the "model" for that character actually measured up to the Atticus Finch we meet in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a work of fiction after all, and has to be evaluated on its own terms. It remains one of the all-time great novels and films as far as I'm concerned, regardless of who or what A. C. Lee may have actually been.
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