jes535 Reviews

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

A great movie if you have the stomach flu and are over 45

[5/10 · 9 February 2007]

This is a great movie if you have the stomach flu and are over 45. It also helps to be a white liberal who wishes he could be the kind of upright, loving, articulate father Gregory Peck plays in "To Kill a Mockingbird." I remember watching the movie when it was originally released in 1962 after having read the book. I am not the kind of person who cries easily, but I remembered crying over both the book and the movie. It was with my tears in mind and a difficult-to-define recollection that this is truly one of the great films that caused me to rent the DVD.

Watching it made me realize that there is a world out there that doesn't have the stomach flu. "To Kill a Mockingbird." is better than any stomach remedy if you are of the right demographic, as I am. I cannot imagine a 22 year-old (one of my children is 22) sitting still for the slow-moving pace of the drama or for the tedious subplot concerning the emotionally-disturbed young man who lives in the neighborhood.

This is a movie about racial injustice and how wonderful Gregory Peck is to defend a poor, frightened black man who is accused of rape in the South during the Depression. The sort of injustice described here is now lost to boring history books. Racism in America still exists, but not this particular flavor of racism that those of us who found it so familiar can appreciate. The racism I have in mind is like a fine old wine; namely African-Americans not treated as human beings in the deep South while a noble white guy enters the fray and gets credit for being noble.

Watching this movie is like reliving the bad old days when every stereotype is blatantly reenacted and the pleasure is in watching which stereotype will come next. This is not a movie about how hard it was to be black in the South in 1932. This is a movie about how pleasurable it is to remember the days when a brave white man like Gregory Peck represented what we like to think of as bravery and racial justice.

My guess is that most 22 year-olds wouldn't like Gregory Peck even if they knew who he was. Try it and see. Even if "To Kill a Mockingbird" does not stand the test of time, it still will be a comfort in a time of stress to folks like me.

Once in a Lifetime (1932)

This is funniest film I have ever seen.

[10/10 · 4 February 2007]

I am 59 years old; I have seen a lot of movies; "Once in a Lifetime" is the funniest film I have ever seen.

In the 1960s, when I was in high school in suburban Philadelphia, the local public television station broadcast this Kaufman and Hart play brought to the screen in 1932 with a brio that made it impossible to stop laughing.

The story concerns a Vaudeville troop unable to make a living because films had destroyed Vaudeville. Then, after seeing the "Jazz Singer," the troop members decide to head for Hollywood to open an elocution school for actors eager to speak acceptably for the newly-developed medium of talking pictures.

I have only seen this movie that one time, but every time I hear the word "elocution," I think of "Once in a Lifetime" and remember the train scene where a 9 year-old girl walks up and down the train reciting, "'Boots' by Rudyard Kipling…'Boots, boots, boots….'"