Chapter 11 Mr. Pike Finch: To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962

Mr. Pike Finch: To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962 1. Mr. Gregory Peck passed away from this world in the early hours of June 12, 2003, and the commemorative article in Time Magazine concluded with "Rise Up, America! Gregory Peck is Dead." For American Movies In the world, Parker represents a kind of idealism and a kind of humanistic spirit. His screen image, personal temperament and lifestyle can all be used as the benchmark of an era.And just a week before his death, the American Film Institute (American Film Institute) selected the 100 most representative heroes and villains on the screen in the past century. Small-town lawyer Atticus Finch in Robin Bird, followed by Indiana Jones and James Bond.Many people can't understand that Lawyer Finch didn't move his fist in the film, and only fired one shot just to kill a mad dog. Why can he become the "number one hero"?

For more Chinese movie fans, Parker symbolizes some kind of "ultimate romance" in black and white images in the golden age of Hollywood.If people regard Audrey Hepburn as an angel, then Parker is generally recognized as the person who is likely to make angels fall in love. The 1953 "Roman Holiday" has intoxicated people in love all over the world. Many people pursue Parker and Hepburn In the footsteps of her husband, she came to Italy to find her own romantic affair.Ten years later, no one expected that this handsome man, who is always affectionate in people's minds, would ascend to the throne of Oscar winner as a character who is nearly fifty years old and wears presbyopic glasses.This no longer young and handsome character is the lawyer Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird". He conquered the audience with an absolute sense of justice and flawless morality.

Michael Esmer, a professor at the University of California School of Law, once commented on the "legal hero" in this small town in his book "Justice in Images": "Fen played by Gregory Peck Lawyer Qi has established a professional style that all lawyers yearn for but few can achieve: no matter how dangerous the future is, no matter how much the society hates the defendant who asks him to defend, as long as he makes a promise, he will do whatever it takes , and unswervingly defend the client to the end." Indeed, in the past few years, countless lawyers said that after reading "To Kill a Mockingbird", they made up their minds to engage in this industry.

2. However, the image of Lawyer Finch has not only inspired people in the legal circles, he has become a hero of justice in a general sense (some people say that he is a representative: "every civilization that refuses to submit to tyranny since Socrates fighter").If you put it in a historical context, Parker and his lawyer Finch had a positive impact on the American black movement in the 1960s.It is said that Parker has a nine-minute defense scene in the film, defending black Tom. His speech is so impassioned and so moving that the entire film crew applauded when the director called it to stop.Many people still remember his statement to the jury: "In our country, the court is the most important balance. In the court, all people are born equal." In fact, off the screen, Parker is also a black civil rights movement In 1968, when the black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by racists, Parker, the chairman of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, resolutely announced that the Oscars would be postponed for two days. To mourn this great human rights fighter.In an era of unpredictable and treacherous political circumstances, such a decision was an act of righteousness.

Gregory Peck once said: "I gave him (Attorney Finch) everything I had—all my emotions, my forty-six years of life experience, and my belief in racism and social injustice." Abomination." Perhaps Parker played Atticus Finch because director Robert Mulligan had seen him in Elia Kazan's "Gentleman's Agreement," in which Parker played an upright Promising and sympathetic young writer Phil Green, the film was considered at the time "the first major counterattack against anti-Semitism."And Parker thinks that for this role, he "can put himself in Fincher's shoes without any acting. At the same time, I feel as if I completely recognize those two children." He spent his childhood in a small town in southern California, and he As a father, I have a full understanding of my children.

It is said that the studio originally planned to cast Rock Hudson (Rock Hudson) as the lawyer Fincher, who was also a big star at the time, and it seemed that Pike finally got the role in the end.Later, at the filming scene of "To Kill a Mockingbird", the original author Harper Lee came to visit the set. When she saw Pike who was no longer Prince Charming in "Roman Holiday", tears suddenly filled her eyes.Pike walked up to her and asked her softly why she was crying. Harper Lee said, "I just saw you with a big belly, just like my father did when he was alive." And Pike replied, "Harper, that's the real thing. Acting." In 1963, Gregory Peck finally won an Academy Award for this role. Before that, he was nominated four times, but missed the Oscar.Forty years later, Parker passed away peacefully beside his wife who had been with him for forty-eight years.The reclusive Harper Lee said on hearing the news: Gregory Peck was a handsome man, and Atticus Finch let him play himself.

3. In 1957, white people used force to prevent blacks from enrolling in Little Rock, Arkansas. In the end, President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to conduct military control to prevent the situation from expanding; in 1961, Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. led the "Freedom Ride" movement , that is, using interstate buses to promote the black civil rights movement; in 1963, Pastor King mobilized 250,000 people to march on Washington for freedom to fight for employment and freedom, and published the famous speech "I have a dream" in front of the Lincoln Memorial Speech; In 1965, the black leader Malcolm X, who advocated using violence to deal with violence, was assassinated; in 1968, Pastor King led 6,000 protesters into Memphis on April 3, and delivered a speech at the Masonic Church: "I have arrived Peak," and was assassinated the next day.

"To Kill a Mockingbird", the novel and the film were born in the context of the black civil rights movement: the novel was published in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize; the film was released in 1962 and won three Oscars.But excellent works are far from only existing for a while. The reason why this novel or movie is highly praised is indeed because of the social environment at that time, but its influence that has spread to the present is due to its direct impact on human nature. Discussion, and the natural charm exuded by the text.This book is one of the "100 Most Loved Books for American Children"; it was number one on the American Librarian's list of twentieth-century fiction (won the second-ranked "The Catcher in the Rye"); BBC 2004 The audience selected the five most influential "Women's Watershed Fiction", the first place is "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the second place is "To Kill a Mockingbird". In 2001, Chicago started the city-wide "Reading a Book" campaign, and "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the first bibliography selected because Chicago is a city full of immigrants of all races, and blacks account for a large proportion .Phil Ponce, a TV host in the city, said: "This is an important book because many of us still have a disguised "Radley Room" in our hearts. ——This "Radley House" is a place where a kind person hides in the novel. Prejudice and ignorant public opinion make it a haunted house (interestingly, this movie has a translation called "Strange House of Suspicious Clouds", when It's really "wrong is wrong").

When a book breaks away from the times, but also has its own vitality and multiple interpretations, various encounters will arise. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is also often comically "used" and seen in newspapers.The independent prosecutor who investigated the Clinton scandal, Starr, once gave a speech from Atticus Finch, and in Hillary’s memoir "Living History", she also specifically pointed out that "Finch's lawyer showed moral courage, while Smith Tal is abusing his power." Hillary gritted her teeth and said, "It's unbearable to compare."Later, it was reported that Saddam, who became a prisoner of the US military, loved to read "To Kill a Mockingbird", which was given to him by his lawyer. It is said that Saddam "likes to do justice for the wronged" protagonist".

4. In terms of the intuitive characteristics of the image, the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" lacks some of the original ambiguity of the novel, but some aspects are more powerful than the novel, such as "Radley" The description of the horror atmosphere of the house".Harper Lee herself agrees with the adaptation of this film very much. She once commented: "If the perfection of a film adaptation is based on its faithfulness to the original, then this script should be regarded as a classic." .Screenwriter Holden Ford also won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the film is listed among the best literary adaptations in Hollywood.The text of this movie seems to be regarded as a shortened version of the novel. Except for the deletion of some events and characters, the whole story of the novel is staged on the screen. Such a simple "subtractive" adaptation, although the film maintains a high degree of drama , but lost some of the original natural feeling of the novel.

Both the novel and the film version of "To Kill a Mockingbird" describe the story of Maycomb from the perspective of a six-year-old girl, Scout, and how Atticus Finch is a righteous man. Lawyers and fathers, but the novel version vividly shows a child's innocence and curiosity (this is the biggest charm of this serious novel), while the film version looks more like a well-dressed lady sitting upright— — which makes for an age difference between the two different mediums of the same work — the film version seems to age a little faster.Of course, the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" is still an excellent work. At the end of the last century, it was still ranked 34th among the 100 American films of the 20th century.It's just that the focus in this movie is too concentrated on Gregory Peck, and there is no three-dimensional depiction of other characters.What's more, the sets in Hollywood studios cannot revive the life atmosphere of the small town in the southern United States in the novel. As for me personally, because I didn't see the scene where Jem and the Scout brothers and sisters followed the black maid Calpurnia to the black church in the movie, I felt a little regretful.The scene of the blacks singing in a "line-by-line" way that white children can't believe is a meaningful and interesting passage in the novel.But perhaps in this way the film To Kill a Mockingbird has instead focused on reminding us how to honor a true hero.One of the scenes left a deep impression on many people—the attorney Finch, played by Parker, packed up the documents and left the court alone after losing the unfair trial. Little Scout said: "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father is going to pass." "We were once leopards and lions, and we were replaced by jackals and jackals...": Leopard, 1963 I am ashamed to say that I have seen very little of the works of the three masters of Italian neorealism (Rossellini, De Sica, and Visconti), and I don’t know much about them.Roughly due to my enthusiasm for DVDs released by Standard, I have seen two Visconti movies released on DVD by this company in the past year: "Leopard" and .Adapted from Dostoyevsky, it is a masterpiece, but a sketch.Visconti once said, "I want to open a new path for romantic realism films." I think: this film is dedicated to all people who still have firm thoughts about love and romantic thoughts about love.At that time, I was full of doubts about why Visconti, a master of realism, was so beautiful and romantic.Later, I read "What is Cinema" and read Bazin's criticism of "Undulations of the Earth". This kind of synthesis." And Bazin's dissatisfaction with "Undulations of the Earth" lies in its "dangerous aesthetic tendency".However, although this kind of aestheticism damages the artistic value of the film, it just attracts the attention of the general public, such as works such as "Death in Venice". Before watching "Leopard", I didn't have any mental preparations. I didn't know its time and place, actors and stories, and I didn't even know its length-it was three hours long.To be honest, I have always felt too much about European epic court movies, and I feel that they are too flashy and long and slow.But the opening of "Leopard" is enough to attract people. The quiet palace, the curtains blown by the wind, and the green mountains are completely a "frozen painting". The movement of the camera is also calm and leisurely. rhythm advances. The scenes in "Leopard" are extremely luxurious. It is said that the silk and porcelain are all real materials, and all kinds of clothing, antique furniture, tall walls, and empty houses all reveal the grandeur of this movie. style.Italian film critic Rondolini said: "The Leopard is an excellent (Italian) historical mural." But Visconti was not satisfied with this, he let these materials disappear into the background.Therefore, "Leopard" looks extremely gorgeous, but it does not show off its gorgeousness at all.This is the most direct impression of this film for me.Good-looking, but not harsh, not false.Equivalent to the splendor of the scene is the splendor of the structure. The passages of "Leopard" are very long and very atmospheric. For example, the street battle scenes of the Garibaldi revolution are usually handled with a few explanatory shots; and no one will explain a whole story in 50 minutes like Visconti ball.This is due to the bearing and talent of this aristocratic director.In the screen story composed of several large paragraphs, the emotions, destiny and changes of the environment of the self-proclaimed leopard protagonist Prince Salina are superimposed, so that they will not be isolated or weak. Corresponding to the gorgeousness of the surface is the loneliness of the character's spirit.British writer EM Foster once praised the original novel as "one of the greatest lonely works".The loneliness here is probably caused by the common decline of the characters and the fate of the times, so the luxury in "Leopard" reveals some decadent atmosphere.The author of the original work, Prince Lampedusa, director Visconti, and the protagonist, Prince Salina, all have the same temperament in this film, full of deep feelings.At the beginning of the film (when the revolution broke out), Prince Salina was still a strong man full of desire, strength, and power. After a holiday and a change of times, he became a desperate, tired, and aging lonely man at the end of the film.His cosmology is "everything changes, the world will be conserved", so this aristocratic royal family does not oppose revolution, he always believes that society is cyclical.Under the attack of his vigorous and ambitious nephew Tang Credi, who he had high hopes for, as well as the new forces he had to compromise and treat kindly-the nouveau riche landlord who was only looking for profit, and the arrogant and shameless military officers, this man with great ambitions The declining aristocrat who is generous and sees through the laws of history, after "his own world (era) sank and sank" (quoted from a film critic), he aged overnight.In my opinion, the feeling of helplessness and loneliness in "Leopard" is continuous and accumulated bit by bit, but in the end Salina's aging seems to happen suddenly, which has a strong impact on people.Then, the words ending the film appeared from the dark place of the old and dilapidated streets, and came to an abrupt end in a state of embarrassment. When looking for some information about "Leopard", I found that some people mentioned the poem "Leopard Emblem" written by the poet Ouyang Jianghe in 1990, which is said to have originated from this novel or movie.Such as: "The roar of the leopard scattered the flock / It reduced the vibration of the echo / To the damage of thin as a cicada's wing / And its unrestrained limbs were immersed in the throat...", "The leopard burned in its anger / Its noble blood blows the ferns of the heath", these sentences are called "Portrait of Prince Salina".And the name "Leopard" comes from the crest of Prince Salina's family, which is also his own statement: "We used to be leopards and lions, and we were replaced by jackals and dogs..." This kind of understanding of the current situation and life The feelings of decline, helplessness, and disappointment are palpable, vivid and profound. I wrote "Leopard" because I wanted to recommend it to film lovers who have long been unable to watch three-hour art films.The only regret is that the partial film shot by this 70mm camera can only be appreciated in a home theater, which far damages the gorgeous appearance of this work.