Words vs. Moving Pictures Vol. 1: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

What inspired me to begin this series was actually the knowledge that Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, was going to be releasing a new novel called Go Set a Watchmen. As I had remembered being fond of Lee’s writing, I was planning to read it. (I still have not, but am hoping to get to it after this). Before that, though, I thought – why not revisit the original novel, that I hadn’t read since high school? For that matter, why not also revisit the film adaptation that I saw around the same time?

It’s always interesting to me to revisit something that I had initially read or watched when I was younger, in order to pick up on many of the deeper thematic elements that I may have missed at the time. After all, who really understands everything when you are only 14 years old? At any rate, it was this that inspired me to start the Words vs. Moving Pictures series. And, if all goes well, I hope it will be a regular thing.

The Novel

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird takes place during the 1930’s in the deep south Mississippi county of Maycomb. The events of the novel are seen through the eyes of Scout, a 6-year-old girl that lives a quiet life with her older brother Jem and their father Atticus. The story begins when Scout and Jem become fascinated with their neighbor Boo Radley, a mysterious man that never leaves his house due to a potentially mental or debilitating physical disease. As is the custom for children, their stories for why he really can’t leave the house are wild fantasies; as such, they want even more to see him, often coming up with grandiose schemes just to catch the slightest glimpse of him inside his curtain-drawn house.

The most significant aspect of To Kill A Mockingbird that I first noticed was that the beginning chapters made little to no mention of Tom Robinson. In fact, the trial and the events leading up to it are not even located in the first half of the book. Tom Robinson, for those who remember, is the black man that is accused of raping a white woman, which leads to the criminal case of which Atticus is the defendant’s lawyer. When thinking back to the novel as a whole, this is obviously the most significant turn of events. But there is actually much more to the book than I had initially thought.

One story in particular that I scarcely even remembered reading was that of Mrs. Dubose, the old, crotchety, obviously racist woman that sits on her porch and shouts offenses to passersby. At first glance, she is nothing more than that, but Lee is not one to create shallow or underdeveloped characters. Soon, we come to learn that the woman is not only dying, but is seriously addicted to morphine. Before she went out, though, she was determined to beat her addiction. She struggles with withdrawal symptoms as she slowly dies, and Scout and Jem, forced by Atticus to look after her, look on horribly. But by the end, Mrs. Dubose had defeated her addiction. As Atticus says in regards to her: “She was the bravest person I ever knew.” Despite being an obvious racist, who had gone so far as to insult Atticus himself due to his agreeing to defend a black man in court, he truly believed this to be true, and this says a lot about the novel’s deeper themes as a whole. But more on that later.

Another aspect that I picked up this time around was just how much time is devoted to the exploit of Scout and Jem’s neighbor Boo Radley; from the first little game that Scout, Jem and their friend Dill play, in which they each in turn pretend to be Boo, to the almost deadly encounter that they have while trespassing in the Radley’s yard. There is a certain allure that draws them to Boo, and Boo himself also seems to do some rather pleasant things for them without even being asked. Among them – the leaving of treasures in a knot of a nearby tree, the hanging up of a lost pair of pants after Jem got them caught in their fence, or the draping of a blanket on Scout as she stood outside the Radley house on a cold night, forced to stand outside due to an outbreak of a fire down the street. Of course, this is all necessary in order to set up the story’s finale, but, yet again, this seems to speak volumes about the novel’s themes as a whole. Which I will get to very soon.

The Film

But first, the film. The film version of To Kill A Mockingbird is every bit as much of a classic as Lee‘s novel. Directed by Robert Mulligan, the film starred Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Brock Peters, and also Mary Badham as Scout and Phillip Alford as Jem. It is often spoken of as one of the closest and best adaptations of a novel, and, after rereading the novel and watching the film back-to-back, I couldn’t agree more.

What feels most similar to the book in the film version is the sleepy, intensely intimate Southern town of Maycomb, Mississippi. Much of the film shows the daily activities of the many members of the community, who seem so tight-knit that not even a single secret can be kept for very long. Such can clearly be seen when the word starts to spread that Atticus Finch is going to be defending Tom Robinson, the black man that allegedly raped Mayella Ewell. Both Scout and Jem feel the repercussions of their father’s actions when people start to openly make fun of her father at their school, calling him a n-lover, among other things.

As I mentioned earlier, a significant difference between the novel and the film is the initial focus of the story. Whereas the novel takes quite some time to even get to the court case, the film mentions it almost right away. We even get to meet Bob Ewell (James Anderson) before the story gets to court, setting him up as the film’s clear villain. In context, though, the change seemed to make sense, because the film clearly wanted to focus almost solely on the racial politics involving the court case of Tom Robinson. It’s just a little disappointing that, in primarily focusing on this, we don’t get nearly as much time for Scout and Jem to toy with Boo Radley as we did in the novel. And this may have detracted ever-so-slightly from Boo’s joyous appearance at the story’s conclusion. But only slightly.

The Court Case

So let’s get to the court case, and how both the film and novel deal with that clearly significant scene. As far as dialogue goes, the two are almost exactly the same. The only real difference is that, in the novel, the case itself is split up among several days, and we are also torn away from it at times when Scout and Jem leave the courthouse. It’s not a significant difference, but it is noticeable.

In the film, the entire court scene is shot in one long, excruciatingly intense scene. We are brought down from Jem and Scout’s perspective in the balcony and are launched directly into the midst of the case. Atticus (Peck) provides questions to the witnesses, including Hector Tate, the sheriff (Frank Overton), Bob Ewell (James K. Anderson). Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox), the woman who is accusing Tom of rape, and Tom himself (Brock Peters). The testimony is often emotionally driven, with both Tom and Mayella being drawn to tears through the discussion of what allegedly happened.

It is Gregory Peck, though, who truly shines at this moment. With his tall, menacing, yet comforting stature, and stern, confident gaze, I would have believed nearly everything his character said, even if it didn’t also make coherent sense. Peck is especially remarkable in the final closing remarks of the case, which I feel that every trial lawyer should be forced to watch before going to court. He brings forth a kind of melancholy, intense energy into nearly every word. Even though I had first seen the film back before I was a more serious film buff, I always remembered that scene. Peck was truly an actor for the ages.

So Many Characters, So Little Time

Perhaps even more important than the story, though, are the characters of both the novel and film of To Kill A Mockingbird. First, of course, is Scout, who is played in the film by newcomer Mary Badham, a young actress who barely has done any acting since, yet was also nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Her embodiment of the character of Scout is, not surprisingly, almost entirely accurate.

Scout in the novel is often portrayed as a less-than-girly girl, who would prefer to hang out with her brother and his friend rather than stay inside with the women and chat. She feels uncomfortable being in a dress, and often gets into fights with people at school. In the film, she is much the same. Badham seemed to understand just what made Scout unique and likable, and she portrays her with that same unconventional blend of childlike innocence mixed with an unusually high capacity for understanding what exactly is happening in the world around her.

One of my favorite scenes of both the film and novel is when Scout approaches Atticus outside of a jailhouse, where he is standing guard over Tom Robinson’s cell, so that other people in the town do not harm him before the trial starts. The scene is almost shot-for-shot from the novel – Scout, Jem, and Dill sneak out of their house at night to see what is happening; cars suddenly pull up in front of the cell and dozens of men hop out; Scout uncontrollably runs over to Atticus in fear for what will happen. In doing so, she ends up talking to one of them, named Cunningham, and makes him feel so self-conscious that he tells all of the men to leave. It’s a beautifully tender moment when an 8-year-old girl is all it takes for a mob full of angry, drunk men to scatter; and the way it is both written and shown on screen is simply heartbreaking.

As for the rest, we don’t get nearly as much time in the film with some of the characters that I enjoyed reading – Miss Maudie, for one, was always a fun character. She often acted as a pseudo-mother for Scout, helping to watch over her when she tired of her brother and Dill. Though her character is in the film (played by Rosemary Murphy), she doesn’t get nearly as many memorable lines or screentime. There is also an absence of Aunt Alexandra in the movie version. For much of the novel, Aunt Alexandra is seen living with the Finches, helping out her brother with his care of the children. I’m not entirely sure why they excluded her from the film, but perhaps it is just because there was already a wide assortment of characters to distinguish, and one more just wasn’t in the cards. Aunt Alexandra was often a bitter nuisance, though, so I can’t say that I missed her terribly.

The final characters to mention would have to be that of Jem and, of course, Boo Radley. Jem is played by Phillip Alford in the film, and is also a first-time actor. Though perhaps not as memorable as Badham, Alford holds his own, and manages to imbue the naive, yet protective aspects that made Jem such a good brother to Scout. And Boo Radley, who appears for a very small amount in the story, is played by Robert Duvall (who many of you have probably heard of). Despite not uttering a single world, Duvall’s presence is wonderfully engaging. He speaks more volumes with a gaze alone than many actors could possibly hope to do with a movie-full of dialogue. It’s not surprising that Duvall would go on to have a long and distinguished career in film (and still!).

Racism and Inequality

The discussion of Boo Radley brings me to my final point. Both the novel and the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird are obviously concerned with the idea of racism and inequality, and how it affects the perspectives and choices of people in the community around them. Racism was especially prevalent in the deep south of Mississippi, and this is evident in the entirety of the Tom Robinson court case. If such a case were to come to our modern courts, one would think that, due to its throwaway circumstantial evidence, it would never make it to trial. At least, I would hope not.

But such a case in 1930’s Mississippi is basically hopeless. Though Atticus honorably tries his best, it is still not enough, as we witness with the jury’s “guilty” verdict. But what else is the story trying to say about racial politics? Though both the novel and the film ended with Boo Radley saving Jem and Scout, and with Atticus and the sheriff deciding to turn the other way due to what exactly Boo did in order to save them; I would actually consider the novel to be slightly more insightful on the subject.

As I mentioned earlier, the character of Mrs. Dubose is discussed at length in the novel but only briefly in the film. Her character arc moves from a hateful racist to a somehow triumphant, honorable dying old woman. Yet, earlier in the novel she had chided both Scout and Jem while they walked past her porch, declaring their father to be a shameful and disgraceful person for choosing to defend a black man. It is enough to make Jem lose his cool and destroy all of her geraniums. Despite her remarks, though, Atticus forces Jem to pay Mrs. Dubose back by reading to her everyday, which he does up until she finally dies. As Atticus often says to them (in both the novel and the film): “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” From Mrs. Dubose’s upbringing, and from the general consensus of the society around her, racism and prejudicial thoughts are acceptable.

So is To Kill A Mockingbird trying to state that racism and discrimination is acceptable, as long as you’re a mean old dying lady trying to break a morphine addiction? Of course not. But it is much, much worse to purposefully harm a person because of one’s prejudices, as is the case with Bob Ewell, who frames Tom Robinson, a black man who just had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Racism is bad, to be sure. But to act on it, especially at the expense of somebody’s life – that is unforgivable. As Atticus says: “Remember, it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.”

Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier, the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird is among the best that I have seen, containing a great majority of the novel’s introspective themes and displaying them amongst a lush Southern background. Though it may be missing a few of the side stories and characters that I found to be important to the novel, it would have been nearly impossible to include them all, and what is there is truly spectacular. Boo Radley’s scenes are nearly identical in the novel and film, and both the characters of Scout and Atticus Finch are mirror images of how Harper Lee wrote them. It’s no wonder that, fifty years later, people still read and watch both adaptations of To Kill A Mockingbird. I just hope that, going forward, both schools and parents continue to teach this very important piece of history.

Have you read or seen To Kill A Mockingbird? What are some of your favorite book-to-film adaptations? Let me know and I may include it in a future volume. Thanks for reading!

(top image source: Harper Collins)