This is an unadulterated mash note for one of my favorite documentumentaries of recent years.
I stumbled across this film on Netflix last year and was transfixed by it . It is based on great reporting by producer Mary Murphy, a former 60 Minutes senior producer, who got as close to Harper Lee as anyone has yet . (the film features an interview with her older sister, Alice. ) and that reporting earned her a deep understanding of the novel and its impact on American culture, particularly in the South.
The film is a wonderful mix of film clips, readings from the book, interviews with actress Mary badha who played Scout, and revealing interviews with the famous and regular citizens who were deply affected by the book.
Highlights among these interviews include an account by a classmate of Mary Badham, who recounts her identification with Tom Robinson in the film , and how disturbing it was to find herself a young southern girl crying for a black man . Also charming is Oprah Winfrey's account of taking Harper Lee to lunch in NY to convince the author to finally do an interview, only to soon realize how impossible her task was.
It's a film full of such moments that always keeps the book itself in sharp focus, no small feat when there is such a well made film to always tempt a producer to fall back on .
I could go on and on detailing the film's virtues, including its wonderful intellectual climax about Boo Radley , but I wrote this mostly to encourage you to watch it.
The film originally aired on American Masters on PBS. No longer streaming at PBS.org, but it is still streaming on NETFLIX
And check out producer Mary Murphy's website:
Mary Murphy's website
Enjoy.
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