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Post by midnitevulture99 on Feb 19, 2017 0:04:48 GMT
First of all, the novel by Harper Lee is excellent, and probably one of the few books that I read in high school which I actually felt to be truly worth reading, and a very important novel at that.
As for the film, the first time I saw it, I was in middle-school and hadn't read the novel, and back then I was in my testosterone-fueled love of all things action phase and I wasn't really into slower movies like this, especially if they were older. As I grew more mature, I gained a lot of respect for this film over multiple re-watches, and overall I think that its a genuinely good adaptation of Harper's novel, even if it's not exactly 100% faithful to the source material (which is something that I got over since the changes made enough sense for the film adaptation).
Gregory Peck is terrific as usual, and while child actors of any time are always a tough-sell, the ones in this film do carry the presence of innocent children and you do buy their roles well enough, so it all works out well, IMO.
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Post by teleadm on Feb 19, 2017 0:44:11 GMT
Thanks for reminding me about this movie, I know now what classic movie I will watch on Sunday (DVD). Though it is a few years since I've seen it I must admit that I had to see it twice before getting the grip and depth of it. Maybe this was director Mulligans best movie ever too.
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Post by wmcclain on Feb 19, 2017 1:48:43 GMT
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Feb 20, 2017 8:25:46 GMT
To Kill a Mockingbird, which I have seen twice in the theater since September 2013, is a great film, a haunting film. It does not compromise—it just lays reality out there. Indeed, the film's combination of nostalgia and brutal frankness may be unmatched.
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BooRadley
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Post by BooRadley on Feb 20, 2017 17:03:26 GMT
I loved the book and the film as a child, as a teen, as an adult, and I will love it just the same when I reach my golden years. It's greatness is timeless.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 21, 2017 3:06:33 GMT
It is a perfect American Novel, and a nearly perfect film of a novel. It doesn't surrrender any of the subtlety of the book, or throw away any plot point.
The one complaint I have is the casting of John Megma as Dill. Dill was a little blond beautiful child , precocious and charming , or he could nit have gotten away with all the stunts he pulled. Megma was decidedly odd looking , and I guess that was supposed to underline his outsider status. He seems merely freakish, and there isn't anything that makes the childhood love, which can be very powerful, a presence in the film, as it evidently was in the lives of Harper Lee and Truman Capote.
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Post by naterdawg on Feb 21, 2017 6:48:49 GMT
Megna was everywhere in those days, and he could definitely have benefited from a good dentist. He wasn't the weakest link for me--I thought Mary Badham's performance was pretty bad, and she looks like she's about to burst out laughing in a lot of scenes that don't call for laughter.
Peck is letter perfect, as is the boy playing Jem. My favorite scene is right at the end, as Scout walks Boo back home. The closing narrative is very nostalgic, and I absolutely ADORE the film score!
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Feb 21, 2017 10:25:14 GMT
It is a perfect American Novel, and a nearly perfect film of a novel. It doesn't surrrender any of the subtlety of the book, or throw away any plot point. ... precisely.
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Post by snsurone on Feb 21, 2017 15:18:33 GMT
I thought all the child actors were great. It's sad that John Megna died of AIDS at a young age.
Two years after TKAM, Philip Alford played "Boy" in SHENENDOAH. Another excellent performance.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 21, 2017 15:54:35 GMT
I thought all the child actors were great. It's sad that John Megna died of AIDS at a young age. Two years after TKAM, Philip Alford played "Boy" in SHENENDOAH. Another excellent performance. Snsurone - if we ever agree about anything I'm going to treat myself to a glass of champagne. The only other role I recall Megma in is as the young Hyman Roth in Godfather II. It's sad that anyone died of AIDS, but , nil missing and all but I can't say someone gave a good performance when imo, they didn't. Actually it wasn't his performance, he was just the wrong kid. They needed young Brandon DeWilde.
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Post by snsurone on Feb 21, 2017 17:58:08 GMT
Make sure it's imported French champagne, Marsha! ;-)
I remember John Megna in an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, when that show was expanded to an hour. He played a really creepy kid with telekinetic powers who eventually burned his neighbor's house down (with the neighbor inside it) just by using his mind. A really frightening performance!
BTW, Brandon deWilde was too old by then to have played Dill. The following year he played the teen-age Lon in HUD.
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Post by neurosturgeon on Feb 21, 2017 18:26:19 GMT
I saw TKAM in the drive-in when it was new, again on the big screen five years later and at the LACMA during their salute to Elmer Bernstein in September of 2001. I was about 13 when I read the book.
I thought the acting was freak. The kids seemed real to me and I was 8 when I saw it for the first time. I surely did not understand all of the elements of the story or the concept of rape, but that had me really seeing the story through the eyes of the young Scout.
As for John Megan, he was a creepy kid, but he reminded me of a childhood friend. The Alfred Hitchcock epidode, "The Magic Shop" is one of the most memorable for me. He was also in an episode of "The Naked City" playing a patailly-sighted boy lost in NYC.
One of my prized possessions is a laserdisc of this film, autographed to me by Gregory Peck.
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Post by marshamae on Feb 21, 2017 18:31:06 GMT
Make sure it's imported French champagne, Marsha! ;-) I remember John Megna in an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, when that show was expanded to an hour. He played a really creepy kid with telekinetic powers who eventually burned his neighbor's house down (with the neighbor inside it) just by using his mind. A really frightening performance! BTW, Brandon deWilde was too old by then to have played Dill. The following year he played the teen-age Lon in HUD. I know . I just meant Brandon de Wilde as he appeared in member of the wedding is the kid they shoukd have been looking for. i have a bottle of Moet Rose on ice waiting for a topic or film on which we agree.
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Courwes
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Post by Courwes on Feb 21, 2017 18:40:03 GMT
Its my favorite movie of all time. I watched it for the first time in 8th grade and something about it just resonated with me so much. Probably the only movie I watch several times a year every year. So many great performances.
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Post by snsurone on Feb 22, 2017 20:53:46 GMT
I have a bottle of champagne too. I was going to open it if Hillary won in November, but now I'll save it for when Trump is finally removed from office.
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shawshanked
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Post by shawshanked on Feb 22, 2017 21:05:36 GMT
I have a bottle of champagne too. I was going to open it if Hillary won in November, but now I'll save it for when Trump is finally removed from office. What does this have to do with the topic?
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gadolinium
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Post by gadolinium on Feb 22, 2017 21:15:28 GMT
I liked the performances and the opening credits sequence.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Feb 4, 2018 16:00:13 GMT
One of my earliest classic movies, having read the book for school and then watching the movie. I remember some of my fellow students lamenting that there wasn't a newer color version, but I found it a very powerful adaptation and true to the novel. Robert Duvall was the only actor anybody knew at the time, he was great as Boo Radley.
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Post by teleadm on Apr 6, 2018 15:35:37 GMT
spiderwort thanks for the thumbs up for one of my earliest posts here! I didn't watch it that Sunday, because I couldn't find my DVD, and then I suddenly found it in the wrong place several mounth later. It's was VERY rewarding movie to re-watch! Included on the DVD is also a fantastic 90 minutes documentary named Fearful Symmetry 1998, about both Harper Lee and the making of this movie.
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Post by petrolino on Apr 7, 2018 2:10:54 GMT
I love the film and the novel. I miss my late aunt whose favourite novel this was, she was a schoolteacher. Robert Mulligan's film is screening on one of the SKY movie channels here in the U K over the weekend, I'll try and set my timer tomorrow to record it. Thanks.
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