To Kill a Mockingbird

Pros: acting, Peck, just about everything

Cons: some elements in book not in movie

The Bottom Line: ----

Review: If ever there was a film that everybody should see at least once in their lifetimes, To Kill a Mockingbird is that movie. Based on a Pulitzer prize winning book by Harper Lee of the same name (which people should also read) it features such...

Pros: The reader of this book is able to relate to it in their everyday life.

Cons: I could not find anything wrong with this book.

Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a fantastic book that everyone should get a chance to read. This book is inspirational and has many life lessons. This book is very easy to read and is interesting throughout the whole story. The readers of...

Pros: The entire production (acting, direction, music score, everything) is magnificent.

Cons: None.

The Bottom Line: One of the finest motion pictures of the past fifty years, and one of the best book-to-film adaptations ever made.

Review: Alan Pakula, Robert Mulligan and Horton Foote have made an absolutely terrific movie of one of the greatest books in contemporary fiction. The three years covered in the book are compressed into one year in the movie, and almost everything of...

Pros: Peck, Elmer Bernstein's introspective score

Cons: Overlong and meandering

The Bottom Line: An old fashioned message film with a strong performance by Gregory Peck. The unique viewpoint fascinates for a time but grows old. Good for one time through.

Review: To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

"...remember it [is] a sin to kill a mockingbird ...they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us." Atticus Finch

When a film establishes a character as "the greatest hero in...

Pros: Excellent Acting, Characters, Message

Cons: Moments of Musical Direction, Dated Qualities

The Bottom Line: In a somewhat disjointed tale, Atticus Finch defends a black man in the South during the Depression while his children's curiosity puts them in a similar situation.

Review: There is a temptation, I believe, to overrate movies that are considered "classics." Some classics certainly are worthy of being rated as perfect. Many, most - just like today's movies -, do not. Meryl Streep giving a great performance does not make...

Pros: Based on fabulous book

Cons: Not for children

The Bottom Line: To Kill A Mockingbird definitely could have been done better. The book, however, is great, and I recommend reading it.

Review: I wrote this review as an assignment in school. I received a good grade. I thought others might want to read it.

Everyone loved Harper Lee?s To Kill A Mockingbird, but was it such a good idea to turn it into a movie? To Kill A Mockingbird...

Pros: Excellent adaption of a novel dealing with bigotry and false accusations.

Cons: None that I can see, may be a bit too intense for younger children.

The Bottom Line: Looking at the shadowy edges of life in the Depression in the deep South, it's an excellent study of human nature and racial stereotypes.

Review: There's something about this film that I can't quite put my finger on. In terms of film-making, it's one of the best in terms of lighting, characters, adaptation of a novel, and of course, storytelling. Told through the eyes and memories of Scout...

Pros: Great material, great screenplay, great acting, great all around!

Cons: NONE. (Unless you don't watch B&W movies- which is a tragedy in this case!)

The Bottom Line: This is as close to perfection as any movie I have ever watched. This is a wonderful story of love, sacrifice, honor in the face of ignorance and prejudice.

Review: This has to be one of the all time best adaptations of a book to a movie ever. Horton Foote (who won an Oscar for this screenplay and Tender Mercies) absolutely captured the entire spirit of the book. You can never put every single detail from a...

Pros: Gregory Peck and the entire cast, the directing, the story, the score, the photography-everything

Cons: none at all

The Bottom Line: Here's another movie which is a classic combination of great performances, and a great story. The lawyer is a good guy! Doesn't that make it a fantasy?

Review: ?You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...?til you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.?

That has got to among the best lines ever spoken by a lawyer in any movie, and...

Pros: A powerful story on multiple levels!

Cons: How do you convince young people to watch an 'old' movie?

Review: Arguably one of the best movies ever made.

Harper Lee weaves a theme of unfounded prejudice into several concurrent events as seen through the eyes of a young girl, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham). How does a girl, too young to...