To Kill A Mockingbird

[Archangel2]

Has anyone read "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It is a great book. It is mostly about Prejudice and intolerance in 1930's America. Has anyone read it. If so post your opiions they would be greatly appreciated!

[lizwest]

G'Day

I've read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and
it's a classic. The book is based on
the life of Harper Lee herself. It
is written through her eyes as a child
and I think the two main themes of
prejudice and innocence are combined very
well. Did you know there was a film starring
Gregory Peck? Old, mind you, but very good.
Glad to discuss this marvellous book with you.

Cheers Lizwest

[oron]

Terrific book, and a classic here in America. Harper never wrote another, unfortunately, but then, maybe she didn't have to.

lizwest--

A great film and also a classic, it was written by one of America's foremost playwrites, Horton Foote, who won an Academy Award for the screenplay. TKAM is considered one of the ten best screenplays ever written and probably the best adaptation, and is taught in college film courses along with Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels.

For more of Foote's filmwork. check out videos of Baby, The Rain Must Fall with Steve McQueen, and Trip to Bountiful with Geraldine Page. They're both wonderful, though for different reasons.

[lizwest]

G'Day again

Thanks Oron for your info on Horton Foote the
playwright who is responsible for the film. I also think
Citizen Kane is a film which will be one of the greatest
classics in history. "Mockingbird' is one of my
favourite books as it really gives a clear insight into
what USA was like in the 1930's.Although I am Scottish and
have lived in Australia now for over 17 years, I am and
always have been very interested in American literature.
Good to talk to someone who is interested in the American
classics. Lizwest

[lush_puppy]

Originally posted by lizwest

Thanks Oron for your info on Horton Foote the
playwright who is responsible for the film. I also think
Citizen Kane is a film which will be one of the greatest
classics in history.

The film of Kill a Mockingbird must be one of my all time favourites. I've read the book and loved it, and I think that Gregory Peck as Atticus, Phillip Alford as Finch and Mary Badham as Scout portrayed their characters beautifully. especially Badham! Peck is much better here then in, say Roman Holiday (hehe). as for Citizen Kane, well i was a bit out of it when I watched that early, early one morning so i can't comment, except to say that what i remember seemed good ...

...I am Scottish and
have lived in Australia now for over 17 years

Australia huh? Good on you! I'm an Aussie myself but am intending on going to Scotland in the near future. Anyway, must dash.

cheers,
lushpup.

[oron]

liz--

"Mockingbird' is one of my
favourite books as it really gives a clear insight into
what USA was like in the 1930's.

Sort of. A bit narrow, perhaps. You might want to look at William Faulkner (all his books are good, but for a deep and disturbing picture of what the South was really like in the Depression, I can recommend Intruder in the Dust, which was made into a surprisingly good film by a forgotten but extraordinarily talented director named Clarence Brown, or Light in August), and for the rest of the country try John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (also made into a classic film starring Henry Fonda; it's very moving in spite of the fact that the most powerful sequences in the book had to be left out of the film--including the climactic one--due to censorship), and William Carlos Williams' book of poetry, Paterson. Written sometime in the late 40's or early '50's if memory serves, Paterson gives the reader a wide-ranging look at the effect of the Depression on all levels of American life, and does it with a down-to-earth beauty of language and generosity of spirit. The combination of these three along with Mockingbird--with maybe a little Fitzgerald thrown in for a sense of what came immediately before--will, I think, provide you with a pretty well-rounded portrait of the era and the people who lived through it. So traumatic was that time, followed immediately by WWII, that we are still dealing with its after-effects.

From lushpup:

...as for Citizen Kane, well i was a bit out of it when I watched that early, early one morning so i can't comment, except to say that what i remember seemed good ...

Citizen Kane should definitely be viewed only when one is awake. Seen through half-closed eyes and sleep-numbed mind, it would look like not much more than a dumb movie about some guy who publishes a newspaper and has more money than is good for him. There is, I assure you, more to it than that.

[lush_puppy]

Originally posted by oron
Citizen Kane should definitely be viewed only when one is awake. Seen through half-closed eyes and sleep-numbed mind, it would look like not much more than a dumb movie about some guy who publishes a newspaper and has more money than is good for him. There is, I assure you, more to it than that. [/b]

thanks oron. i'll remember that one. i think i was on a two day sleepless stint at that point in time.

lushpuppy