I tried my best to reflect Southern life appropriately in the book, because it is not every day that someone is lynched by a mob before breakfast. I think southerners, like people everywhere else, are appalled by the injustices that are happening on their land. - Harper Lee
Based on the American author Harper Lee's 1960 novel, the film is based on the author's observations of his family and neighbors and an incident near his hometown when the author was 10 years old (1936).
First, the film was a defense of the then-white southerners for their serious racism . As novelist Harper Lee said: "I tried to reflect Southern life appropriately in my book, because it wasn't every day that someone was lynched by a mob before breakfast. I think that southerners, like people everywhere, treated them as well. Shocked by the injustices that have taken place on the land." The film was released against the backdrop of severe racial discrimination in the American South in the 1960s. The civil rights movement triggered by racial discrimination in the United States began on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to comply with the segregation policy on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Rules were arrested and jailed for giving up his seat to a white man, and the following year, black residents of Montgomery launched a year-long boycott of the bus. So far, the modern civil rights movement in the United States has continued to develop, but even today, racial discrimination is still a major social contradiction in American society. It can be seen that in the 1950s and 1960s, racial discrimination reached outrageous At the time, the South also became synonymous with "racial discrimination". The purpose of the film may have been a defense of southern whites at the time, but it has a different value today.
The film tells us the narrative from the perspective of children, which can be roughly divided into two clues, revolving around the main line of the trial of black Tom and the auxiliary line of white "Boo" being rejected by people in the town because of his strange behavior. The first half spends a lot of time telling us the story of "Boo" through the children's adventures, using black and white to compare the black Tom and the white "Boo", who are both isolated people in the small town, Discrimination against specific groups is transformed into discrimination against individuals through this ingenious arrangement . During the trial, the black priest occupied the place for the children, but the director omitted it. In the novel, the black priest was known by the children through the black housekeeper of Atticus Finch's house. Audiences who have read the original novel believe that the blacks and whites in the original town are still very harmonious, and to a certain extent, it shows that the director's intention is to highlight that the racial discrimination in the South at that time was not as serious as people thought. At the end of the trial, all the black people standing upstairs stood up to pay their respects to Atticus, and it was the only shot in the whole film that aimed at the black group. Through this shot, the care of the white elites for the black people can be shown. , can also show black gratitude to the white elite, further raising Atticus' profile to a new level.
Different people see it from different perspectives. Some people say that this is a film that reflects racial discrimination, some people say that this is a film that reflects lawyers’ justice and the struggle for human rights, and some people say that this film also helps them educate their children. It has played a role in this regard. Atticus has taught his children by example, not to discriminate against anyone, and to treat others equally. Art is like this. Different people see it from different angles, and the same person sees it at different stages of life, and the feelings will be different. "A thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets", as long as the film can bring you inspiration for life, then the effect of art will be achieved.
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