To Kill a Mockingbird - prize-winning

The film “To kill a mockingbird” is based on the prize-winning novel written by Harper Lee. It shows Atticus’s (Gregory Peck) struggle for justice in a small, racist community. He balances widowed fatherhood with his search for what’s right. He takes the impossible case of defending a black man accused of rape with strong dedication so as not to lose his self respect, risking the high regard of his neighbours and peers, and the safety of his children in the process. The outstanding book was a huge success in its own right as it tackles all themes of racial prejudice as it looks into the shadowy edge of life during the depression of the Deep South. After reading the classic book I was looking forward to seeing the timeless story being retold in motion picture and although I thoroughly enjoyed the film I found it to be a poor overall adaptaton of the book and failed to bring to life any of the extraordinary and loveable characters that Harper Lees writes about in her novel.

  Though a strong moral film, “To kill a mockingbird” manages to develop a well-rounded story by following the events through the eyes of Jean Louise Finch (Scout). Throughout the film we watch as her and her brother Jem play, go to school, get into fights, and dare each further and further into the notoriously spooky life of “Boo” Radley. While these routines give a glimpse into the innocence that Atticus attempts to protect, this is overdone and throws off the whole emotional pacing of film.

  The plot in the novel is extremely complicated; the plot in the film however is actually quite simple. This is mainly what makes the film a great deal worse. The book has a lot of other smaller plots still involving the same characters, but doing other things away from the main plot. All these other little plots joining together with the main one and makes the story what it is. But in the film it misses out a lot of the smaller plots, which are quite important. There is only about half of the...