Review of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) by Lucas D — 06 Jun 2014

After recently watching Philadelphia and reading that the plot for To Kill a Mockingbird also involved a lawyer defending a man within a prejudice community, my interest grew in the film and I was looking forward to seeing what it offered. However, my expectations were way too high and I was left feeling disappointed. The movie does in fact contain a courtroom scene which keeps you hooked on the characters actions, however this segment was only a small part of the movie. This was the highlight of the movie for me and left me wanting more. After the verdict was given I was expecting the story to continue. Instead the accused was written out the movie with a single line. Following this, you witnessed a number of scenes which left me confused with what was actually going on. Since reading up and realising what happened, it still felt it was a strange end that I don't necessarily agree with.

To Kill a Mockingbird does contain one filmmaking aspect that was a nice change and that was to have the movie narrated by an older version of the featured young girl. Whilst it did catch my attention at the start, I just couldn't keep hooked. It was only when the film went into court that I began to perk up, but that was finished before you knew it.

I'm not saying it's a bad film and I respect that a lot of people hold it quite highly, however for me personally it was nothing special. I didn't find it hugely entertaining and simply could not see what all the fuss was about. Whilst my score may seem low, To Kill a Mockingbird will definitely have it's fan who would give it a more deserving rating.