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By
NICK ZEGARAC
From its unconventional main
title sequence, celebrating the lost recesses of a
child's imagination, to the quiet rectitude with
which Gregory Peck transformed a seemingly
soft-spoken gentleman into the very pillar of
masculine integrity, there was much to admire in
Robert Mulligan's graceful production of To Kill a
Mockingbird (1962). Based on the novel by Harper
Lee, the film tells the story of a small town
lawyer, Atticus Finch (Peck) and his unassuming
determination to exonerate a black man, Tom
Robinson (Brook Peters) from the false accusation
of raping a white farm girl, Mayella Violet Ewell
(Collin Wilcox). A seasoned critique of racial
prejudice and family abuse, the story diverges
from this public scandal into an intimate snapshot
of family life from the period. Atticus's children
Jem (Philip Alfort) and Scout (Mary Badham) share
an unjustified fear and mistrust of mentally
challenged neighborhood boy, Boo Hadley (Robert
Duvall) in a secondary narrative that only serves
to reinforce the story's central theme of
tolerance. On every level, the film is a vintage
class act. Small wonder then that in a recent AFI
poll of the most popular screen heroes, Atticus
Finch topped out at number one. Throughout the
filming, Gregory Peck referred to a pocket watch
to keep his character on time. The watch was a
studio prop. But after Harper Lee saw the film she
gave Peck a timepiece belonging to her late
father, on which Atticus was based, because his
performance so reminded her of him. As an actor,
Peck could have been paid no finer compliment.
Universal was one of the very first companies to
launch full force into the DVD market back in
1997, releasing a health sampling of contemporary
and classic titles from their catalogue in only a
few short months. But I am sure many will concur
with the statement that most of these early
releases were not of a quality or caliber suited
to the full capabilities of the digital format. In
fact, almost all were substandard. In this initial
fray, Universal delivered To Kill A Mockingbird as
a ‘Collector's Edition' disc that featured a
non-anamorphic transfer riddled with dirt and
scratches, as well as the documentary "Fearful
Symmetry." But now we get the film, as one would
expect it to be, cleaned up, remastered and
presented 16X9 enhanced, and with all the bells
and whistles one could hope for.
To Kill A Mockingbird: The Legacy Series presents
the film's beautifully rendered B&W image with a
consistently clean transfer. Blacks are deep and
rich. Whites are very bright, but never blooming.
Fine details are realized throughout. The audio
has been remixed to 5.1 surround, but is limited
in its spread – partly because this is mostly a
dialogue driven movie (hence, no car chases or
special effects to give your rear and side
channels a work out), but more to the point, due
to the limitations of sound recording circa 1962.
Nevertheless, one will NOT be disappointed by this
transfer – a definite step up from Universal's
initial effort.
Extras on disc one include the film's original
theatrical trailer and four tributary snippets.
The first is Gregory Peck's rather lackluster
Oscar acceptance speech. The last three are
vintage tearjerkers; At the AFI's Life Time
Achievement Award, Peck delivers a masterful four
minute oration that unequivocally proves he's a
true rarity in Hollywood; a gentleman of the first
order. Next up is Cecilia Peck's loving (if
slightly rambling) tribute to her late father,
given during an academy dinner. Third up is Mary
Badham's glowing and respectful reminiscence of
working with Peck on the film. (Aside: one
shouldn't expect much in the way of either audio
or video quality on these extras. Of the above
mentioned, the AFI Tribute exhibits the most
pristine image and sound quality. Both the Badham
and Peck tributes have a very poorly contrasted
image (the latter also grainy) and with an
extremely strident audio track. Peck's Oscar
speech is the poorest of the batch.
On disc 2 we get the previously issued "Fearful
Symmetry" making of feature length documentary
(which is really more of a retrospective on Harper
Lee's home town than a true ‘how the film was
made'), and the all new "A Conversation with
Gregory Peck" – a thorough and comprehensive
tribute to Peck chock full of interviews. The
image quality on both documentaries ranges from
good to fair. Ditto for the audio. |
