Discussion of To Kills a Mockingbird - Essay Example

To Kill a Mockingbird: Movie and Novel Comparison Introduction To Kill a Mockingbird is a novelwritten by Harper Lee. This novel is considered to be one of the classics of modern American Literature and is the winner of the American Pulitzer Prize. The book raises an important issue with respect to racism and adopts a humorous tone in approaching such a serious issue. Two years after the book was published in 1960, a movie adaptation of the book was released by Universal Pictures. This movie was directed by Robert Mulligan. As with the book, the movie also received an overwhelming response. The movie is considered to be among the 100 greatest movies released in American cinema. Often movie adaptation are a source of disappointment after they are released but this was not so with this movie. Movie adaptations offer a more visual experience of the story but they place certain burdens on the writers and scriptwriters. It is often taxing for the directors to adapt the novel into a movie. Often movie adaptations of a novel are met with a strong sense of anticipation before the release of the movie but viewers are left with a sense of being robbed of the novel’s essence when they watch the movie. This is often because the audience feels that the characters were not portrayed properly in the movie. Also the novel is often shortened when it is adapted into a movie. However, the movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird does not displease the audience. The movie has been able to catch the essence of the novel and is considered to be one of the best movies of modern American cinema. The movie, though has its limitations, but director Robert Mulligan has been able to overcome these to deliver a great piece of film that entices the viewers to read the novel if they have not already done so. Discussion The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is written from the perspective of a small girl, Scout Finch who lives in Maycomb County with her older brother, Jem and father, Atticus. The book deals with Scout’s life in Maycomb at a time when the term desegregation was not coined. The author takes on a narrative form of writing in this book. The movie, has tried to keep up with the similar element of narration. Even as the movie begins, it is clear that the child’s perspective is kept in mind. The movie begins with credits being rolled out with a child-like voice humming in the background. The movie begins on a similar tone as that of the book. The voice of the woman in the background is introduced to capture the narrative form of writing in the original novel. Even the narration offered in the movie takes up sentences from the book; such as ‘Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum’ (Lee, 5). However, the voice of the narrator is not continuous in the movie. The narrator is only introduced at certain points of the movie. At other many points throughout the movie, the director has completely removed the narrator from the scene. These include scenes where Jem goes with Atticus to inform Helen Robison of the death of her husband. In this regard, the movie, unlike the book, is not limited to the experiences of Scout but rather takes on the perspective of both the children, Jem and Scout. One reason the movie is so successful is because the characters in the movie ring quite true. The director has been able to bring out the personality of the characters in the movie quite like the characters in the book. The children and Atticus in the movie carry the same essence and personality as these characters have in the book. According to a viewer, Ross Parkison, ‘the best part of the movie is the characters in the movie. It seems that the director has taken out the characters right out of the book’. The main protagonists in the movie are Scout, Jem, Dill and Atticus. These characters have been portrayed with much detail and resemblance to their novel versions. Scout in the movie for instance, has the same degree of inquisitiveness as the Scout in the book. In her first scene, Scout’s questions to her father, Atticus set the pace for the character. She calls her father by her name and continues to ask him questions. Throughout the first half of the movie, the director continues to reinforce Scout’s character. He brings forth the different elements of her personality. In the first few scenes, for instance, the director shows a scene where Scout is reading to her father. This was another important part of Scout’s personality and it was quite seamlessly portrayed in the movie. Mary Badham acts as the perfect Scout. She has the same stubbornness of Scout’s character. The actor portrays the same combination of wisdom and childlike curiosity as the character in the novel. The character of Atticus was another appealing part of the movie. It seemed that Gregory Peck was perfectly suited to the character of Atticus. ‘He has just the right combination of gravitas and human warmth, just the right level of floppy-haired handsomeness to appear every bit as lovable and admirable as the man on the page’ (Jordison). Readers of the novel would agree with the above statement. Anyone who would have imagined Atticus in his mind would not have been disappointed with Peck. The novel quite like the movie has portrayed Peck as a caring father who cannot be always present for his children. Peck is able to uphold the respect that the readers had for the character in print. His appearance in the movie is very similar to his appearance in the novel. Since the movie is centered on the children’s perspective, Atticus is absent in many of the movie’s scenes. However, he is still present in the background as one can see the father’s upbringing and care reflected in his children, Scout and Jem. One the most obvious limitation of adapting a book into a movie is the timeframe. While the novel can continue on for unlimited number of pages, the movie has restricted with a certain time limit. The novel, in this case, runs for a length of around 500 pages while the movie ran for 2 hours 10 minutes. Therefore, it should be expected that many parts of the book and even characters in the novel had to be cut down. For instance, the movie does not make any reference to Uncle Finch. In the novel, the children and Atticus spend their Christmas at the Finch Landing. In the movie, this part has been removed entirely. However, the viewer understands that it is not possible to incorporate all scenes in the book and the director had to cut down those that did not have an impact on the plot and main characters of the movie. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, can be divided into two parts. In the first part, Harper Lee has tried to set the pace for the novel. He creates a vivid picture of Maycomb and the people who live in it from the perspective of the two protagonists, Scout and Jem. The first part of the book focuses on these two children; their school and their forays during summer vacation. The children’s fascination with Boo Radley forms an important part of the first half. In the second half, the novel makes a little shift in focus as the book takes a serious turn. In the movie, the director has given more time to the courtroom scenes. The lives of the Scout and Jem do not form the integral part of the movie. The interviewee, Ross Parkinson, also agrees that the childlike innocence in the book is somewhat missing in the movie. When reading the novel, the Parkinson was able to relate with the children but this was missing in the movie. While watching the movie, the viewer felt that the opening scenes of the movie were leading up to the scenes in the courtroom. The scenes of the courtroom were also more elaborating done. It is clear that the director were more interested in the courtroom scenes and considered them more important than the other scenes. As the movie progresses into the courtroom drama, the children are switched to the roles of lookers-on’ (Crowther) Robert Egbert feels the same way when he writes, ‘The courtroom scenes are the most celebrated in the movie’ (Egbert). The scenes in the courtroom were perhaps the best part of the movie. This was particularly true for the ending speech of Atticus where he tries to defend Tim for the last time. The dialogues that Atticus’s delivers are taken from the original book, such as ‘that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber’ (Mulligan). While the dialogues may have been taken from the book and adapted and shortened for the movie, these dialogues reinstate the superior performance of Gregory Peck. Peck delivers the dialogue with the right intonations. He stresses some parts of the dialogues with strong emotions that lend more drama to the courtroom scenes and make them more real for the viewers. The absence of music in the courtroom also lends an air of drama and intense expectations among the audience. Mulligam understands that music would have had distracted the audience from the important issue and therefore he uses music quite sparingly throughout the movie. Conclusion The movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most acclaimed movie adaptations of all times. When the same novel by Harper Lee was published in 1960, it received a very favorable response from the literary circles and even among the common readers. When director Robert Mulligan considered adapting the novel into a movie, he was therefore faced with pressures to deliver a good movie. Mulligan has been quite successful in achieving this. Mulligan’s success with the movie has been a result of two important aspects. Firstly, Mulligan used the child’s perspective in the movie. This helped to capture the essence of the novel. Furthermore, Mulligan focused on bringing out the true characters of the protagonists. His characters rang true during the entire length of the movie. The movie only falters at one point. The director has allowed too much focus towards the courtroom and less of the children and their forays. Overall, the movie has been successful in adapting to the novel. Works Cited Crowther, Bosley, “To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Screen: To Kill a Mockingbird:One Adult Omission in a Fine Film 2 Superb Discoveries Add to Delight”, NY Times,  February 15, 1963. Web. Accessed 6 July 2014 Egbert, Robert, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 11 November 2011. Robert Egbert.com. Web. Accessed 6 July 2014 Lee, Harper, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Illinos: Dramatic Publishing Company. 1960 Print Jordison, Sam, “To Kill a Mockingbird: shadows on film” The Guardian, 25 July 2013. Web. Accessed 5 July 2014 Parkinson, Ross, Personal interview. 4 July 2014 To Kill a Mockingbird. Dir Robert Mulligan. Perf. Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton. Universal Studios. 1963. Film Read More