Something to watch tonight: To Kill a Mockingbird

We cel­eb­rated the life and career of Robert Duvall the oth­er night by watch­ing his first screen per­form­ance, as Boo Radley in the 1962 adapt­a­tion of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Radley is a pres­ence through­out the film – he’s spoken of often and the kids are trans­fixed by the spooky house down the road where he lives – but he does­n’t actu­ally make an appear­ance until the end, a coda to the main story of Tom Robinson’s tri­al and tragedy but one that emphas­ises the film’s mes­sage of empathy and understanding.

We’ve spent so long won­der­ing about Boo Radley that it would be easy for his even­tu­al appear­ance to be a dis­ap­point­ment but Duvall, in that first reveal in the shad­ows behind the bed­room door, man­ages to show us everything we need to know. Despite his lack of social under­stand­ing and his fear of con­sequences for his actions, he has stayed in the house to make sure Jem Finch (Phillip Alford), who he has just res­cued from a viol­ent attack, is going to be alright.

It’s a per­fectly cal­ib­rated per­form­ance and a good film becomes great because of it.

Where to watch To Kill a Mockingbird

Physical media: UHD col­lect­ors edi­tion from ViaVision

Aotearoa: Digital rental

Australia: Streaming on Binge

Canada & USA: Digital rental

Ireland & UK: Digital rental

India: Digital rent­al from Amazon

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Bonus

While I am on the top­ic of 4K black and white res­tor­a­tions, I thought I would men­tion that we watched the Imprint edi­tion of Scorsese’s mas­ter­piece, Raging Bull, the oth­er night.

Is it still a mas­ter­piece? Probably even more so. On this view­ing I focused less on the tech­nic­al achieve­ment of the box­ing sequences or the trans­form­a­tion­al achieve­ment of De Niro’s phys­ic­al appear­ance. This time around I was taken by the pres­ence of the women in the film (espe­cially Cathy Moriarty as Vickie and Theresa Saldana as Lenore) who are like Anna Paquin in The Irishman, wit­nesses and vic­tims of the cent­ral char­ac­ters’ showy tox­ic mas­culin­ity. We see the hor­ror through their eyes and their performances.

Decades after I last saw the film, I finally took notice of Scorsese’s clos­ing title card, a quote from St. John’s gos­pel (chapter 9, verse 24): “So, for the second time, the Pharisees summoned the man who had been blind and said: ‘Speak the truth before God, We know this fel­low is a sin­ner.’ Whether or not he is a sin­ner, I do not know,’ the man replied. ‘All I know is this: once I was blind and now I can see’.” Truly, a film is not com­plete until the final frame has run through the projector.

Talking of frames, this edi­tion is the closest I have ever come to believ­ing I was watch­ing cel­lu­loid pro­jec­ted on the wall of my liv­ing room. The film grain is so alive, it feels like you’re look­ing at bac­teria under a microscope.

Where to watch Raging Bull

Physical media: UHD box from Imprint – cur­rently out of stock at ViaVision in Aus but still in stock loc­ally at JB Hi-Fi

Aotearoa & Australia: Streaming on MGM+ (a prime Video channel)

Canada: Streaming on MGM+ or HollywoodSuite

Ireland: Streaming on Netflix

India: Streaming on MGM+

UK: Streaming on Netflix or MGM+

USA: Streaming on Fubo, MGM+ or Roku (free with ads)