Robert Mulligan - "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Director Robert Mulligan died this week at the age of 83 -- nearly half of those years spent making films. Like Stanley Kubrick, he grew up in the Bronx, and also like Kubrick he made relatively few films (interestingly, Mulligan's Summer of '42 is watched by Wendy in Kubrick's The Shining).
His debut, Fear Strikes Out, is an hilarious and strangely moving story about an athlete's mental illness. I suppose I could resort to disdain and suggest that "mentally ill athlete" is redundant (zing!) but it's a great film, and Anthony Perkins gives a perfect pre-Psycho performance.
The Other is an eerie, somewhat Gothic, not really all that successful early entry in the 1970s horror genre.
His final film was The Man in the Moon, a lovely and touching film about two southern sisters -- the younger wonderfully acted by Reese Witherspoon in her first role.
Most fondly thought of, though, is his To Kill a Mockingbird, screen-captures of which I've posted here. I love the film. I've never read the book, though its fans generally seem to respect the movie. I guess I'd say it's the finest Hollywood film about the world of children. Like Victor Erice's much more artful Spirit of the Beehive, it observes children as they learn to observe the world around them, considering notions of "monstrosity" (Frankenstein in Beehive, Boo Radley in Mockingbird), responsibility, right and wrong, etc.
I don't think Mockingbird is flawless, though -- I've always had a problem with its racism subplot. Obviously it was well-intentioned (was this subject emphasized by socially-conscious producer Alan Pakula?) but there's a touch of tokenism about its treatment... as well as logical issues: For example, not once, but twice, does Atticus leave the scene of Tom Robinson's family home while the drunken - presumably dangerous - Robert E. Lee Ewell was on the property.
There's also an element of "the Law for Law's sake" in what Atticus is doing -- while we certainly get the sense that he belives in a basic decency in the treatment of others, it could just as well be explained away as him doing his job, and if the Law suggested otherwise, he might fall on the other side of that line.
Still, the courtroom scenes illustrate - via the children's pained, wide-eyed responses to the proceedings - how simple right and wrong have been convoluted and legislated into meaninglessness. The presence of racist characters - too often taken as the main point of the story - expands the complexity of a dignified film that is exceedingly respectful towards the already complex lives and minds of children, and what it means to grow up.
