To Kill A Mockingbird Film Analysis Essay

722 Words2 Pages

Many times in Hollywood, a movie that intends to portray a novel can leave out key scenes that alter the novel’s message. Leaving out scenes from the novel is mainly do to time limits, however doing so can distort the author’s true purpose of the story. In history, Movies were directed to intentionally leave out scenes that could alter the public’s opinion. This frequently let novel 's main points be swept under the rug. There were times of this at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, where white Americans were the only ones making movies. Not many African Americans had the opportunity to be involved in the process of major productions. Because racism in To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is underplayed in the film, it shows The movie focuses more on Tom Robinson’s case itself, than the social caste issues with the citizens of Maycomb (Dave). The movie was made in hollywood during the the civil rights movement, which proves that the lack of racial issues addressed is intentional. When the trial begins in the novel, the White people enter the courtroom first, followed by the blacks in a different section. The movie shows the people entering together and separating into sections (Overview: To Kill a Mockingbird). The movie leaves out scenes that show the Finch children not seeing characters differently because of race. The movie leaves out Jem and Scout going to Calpurnia 's black church with her, while Atticus is away (Smykowski). Horton Foote’s screenplay adaption loosely shows the reluctance of scout’s character when dealing with the unwillingness of society to seek to know a person before judging them. The movie fails to show little details of prejudice. In the movie, African Americans are not seen doing the hard, manual labor, which was their only opportunity for employment (Overview: To Kill a Mockingbird). In the book, Reverend Sykes tells the children about how Tom Robinson 's damaged his left arm as a boy in a cotton gin. In the movie, Tom tells the court himself. Even though movies are not entitled to follow the book directly, the focus of To Kill A Mockingbird as the movie is In the court, the director leaves out the systemic racism that Harper Lee claims is the reason Tom Robinson is convicted of rape (Dave). The racist community, and mob of white men, make up the deciding factor of the court. However, for someone watching the movie it would not be understood that the hatred expressed expressed towards Atticus is for supporting a black man ("Overview: To Kill a Mockingbird"). The only reason Tom loses the case is because he is black and the movie underplays this as the reason. More than half of the movie is seen at the trial which left little time for the audience to build the idea that the novel builds up. This is the injustice do to racial matters, that is skimmed over and left to the viewers to determine their own opinions (Smykowski). The movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird ignores that racism is the reason Tom Robinson is

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