Vanishing Points
Published 2012-07-01
Keywords
- justice,
- law,
- parallel trials,
- civil rights movements,
- segregation
- screen version ...More
How to Cite
Romero Escrivá, R. (2012). The Screen of Justice. To Kill a Mockingbird Fifty Years Later. L’Atalante. Journal of Film Studies, (14), 98–107. https://doi.org/10.63700/62
Abstract
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), based on the homonymous 1960 Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Harper Lee, has been alive and kicking for over half a century in the USA. To Kill a Mockingbird was the most popular American novel with a racial theme of the twentieth century. Despite its conventional characters and plot, its popularity helped to make the film a success. Even though the judicial proceedings depicted take place in the 1930s Maycomb (Alabama), both the book and the film were released in eventful times, during the most remarkable transformation that the South had been through ever since the American Civil War, and they encouraged white audiences to take part in the fight for civil rights. The cinema version turned this controversy into —as Walt Whitman would say— «future history» for the American public. The present article explores the main historical, aesthetic and sociological implications of the novel and the film, focusing especially on the racial topic. The aim is to present the reader with lines of interpretation in order to value To Kill a Mockingbird as a piece of art, without disregarding the context that is projected in the film, which, obviously, cannot be ignored.Downloads
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References
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APPELO, Tim (1992). Atticus doesn’t live here anymore. California Lawyer, 8.
BELTON, John (1983). Robert Mulligan. Direction by Indirection. Cinema Stylists, Filmmakers, 2. Metuchen, Nueva Jersey, Londres: The Scarecrow Press.
BERGMAN, Paul y ASIMOV, Michael (2006). Reel Justice. The Courtroom Goes to the Movies. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishers.
BLACK, David (1999). Law in Film: Resonance and Representation. Chicago. University of Illinois Press.
BLOOM, Harold (ed.) (2007). Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Updated Edition. Nueva York: Chelsea House.
CHASE, Anthony (2002). Movies on Trial: The Legal System on the Silver Screen. Nueva York. The New Press.
DENVIR, John (1996). Legal Reelism: Movies as Legal Texts. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
FOOTE, Horton (1967). The Screenplay of To Kill a Mockingbird. Nueva York: Harvest Books.
FREEDMAN, Monroe H. (1992). Atticus Finch. Esq. R.I.P. Legal Times, 40.
—(1993). Atticus Finch – Right and Wrong. Alabama Law Review, 45.
GÓMEZ COLOMER, Juan Luis (2004). El perfil del jurado en el cine. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.
GRAHAM, Allison (2001). Framing the South: Hollywood, Television and Race During the Civil Right Struggle. Baltimore, Londres: John Hopkins University Press.
GREENFIEL, Steve y OSBORN, Guy (2010). Assessing Cinematic Lawyers (I): Heroes and Villains. The Heroic Lawyer: When Atticus Met Lincoln (pp.94-110). En Film and the Law: The Cinema of Justice. Nueva York: Hart Publishing.
GRIFFITH, James (1997). Walking Around in Harper Lee’s Shoes: To Kill a Mockingbird (pp.169 y ss.). En Adaptations as imitations: films from novels. Newark, Londres: University of Delaware Press.
JOHNSON, Claudia D. (1994). To Kill a Mockingbird: Threatening Boundaries. Nueva York: Twayne Publishers.
—(2007). The Issue of Censorship. En BLOOM (ed.) (pp. 3-22).
LEE, Harper (2011). Matar un ruiseñor. Barcelona: Zeta.
LUTHER KING, Martin. 2010. Un sueño de igualdad. Madrid: Los libros de la Catarata.
NAVARRO, Antonio José (2000). Justicia y racismo. A propósito de El sargento negro y Matar un ruiseñor. Nosferatu. Revista de Cine, 32.
NEVINS, Allan; COMMAGER STEELE, Henry; y MORRIS, Jeffrey (1996). Breve historia de los Estados Unidos. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
NICHOLSON, Colin. (2007). Hollywood and Race: To Kill a Mockingbird. En BLOOM (ed.) (pp. 65-74).
SAN MIGUEL PÉREZ, Enrique (2003). Historia, derecho y cine. En especial, el cap. 6 de la Parte II, Cine y justicia (pp.137- 183). Madrid: Editorial Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces, S.A.
SOTO NIETO, Francisco; FERNÁNDEZ, Francisco J. (2004). Imágenes y justicia. El Derecho a través del cine. Madrid: La Ley.
STRICKLAND, Rennard (1997), The Cinematic Lawyer: the Magic Mirror and the Silver Screen. Oklahoma City University Law Review, 22.
SUNDQUIST, Eric J. (2007). Blues for Atticus Finch: Scottsboro, Brown, and Harper Lee. En BLOOM (ed.) (pp. 75-102).
WALZER, Michael (2007). ¿Qué significa ser americano? En J. Beriain y M. Aguiluz (eds.), Las contradicciones culturales de la modernidad (pp. 139-162). Barcelona: Anthropos.