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Post by Southall on Dec 23, 2008 13:11:26 GMT -8
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Post by Joseph Bat on Dec 23, 2008 14:35:51 GMT -8
Yeah. A great filmmaker indeed. Rest in peace.
Joe
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Post by Jockolantern on Dec 24, 2008 2:49:21 GMT -8
The best decisions he made on To Kill a Mockingbird were casting Gregory Peck and hiring Elmer Bernstein to score the film. Taking the original novel out of the picture, the film is a solid, touching piece of cinema. As an adaptation of Harper Lee's classic, however, it falls quite short of the mark. Still, Mulligan was a fine filmmaker and deserves a fond farewell. May he rest in peace.
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Post by Hook on Dec 24, 2008 19:15:15 GMT -8
I saw this film for the first time today. I agree with Jocko, the casting in this film is superb (I hold Gregory Peck in some sort of mythical status, anyway) and the best thing Mulligan did with this film is letting it unfold through the performances. Some aspects of this film convey a sense of innocence that is insufferable ("oh, sure, he saved my son, so I'll just let the creepy, mentally disturbed grown man stay in my children's room to pet them and stare at them intensely") and it represents others in very simple and unrealistic terms (all through the courtroom scene I couldn't help but yell objection! at very clear breaches of the interrogation, as when Atticus affirms and establishes as fact without questioning that Yule is a drunk and hits his daughter, not to mention the trial takes all of one day). I can let this past, though, because it is a great example of filmmaking, a touching film, and a "growing up" story that puts others to shame. Not to mention Bernstein's score sounds quite modern, by which I mean he overcomes the artifice of schmaltzing up every scene with heart-wrenching and over-the-top music, a practice so common in its time and one that has become a nuisance for me every time I watch an oldie. People today bemoan the fact scores aren't as prominent as they used to be, but I think that's a good thing. Striking a good balance between film and sound editing and film scoring is the ideal, not taking the center stage.
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