Letter from The British Board Of Film Censors to Gregory Peck after viewing 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

[Are_grits_groceries]

http://www.lettersofnote.com

Harper Lee did understand children. That's part of what made her book and the film so great.

[jsr]

1. Good find

[Scuba]

2. "Kindly Defective" is now my choice for the name for my band!!!

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. At that time, that term was probably considered a correct definition and inoffensive term to use.

It may not sound good in today's light, but I don't think it was mean spirited nor meant to be a slur.
Other terms used at that time were very harsh.

[Nye Bevan]

7. +1.

I'll bet that some words and phrases we use today that are considered perfectly PC will be considered offensive 20 or 30 years from now.

[Yo_Mama]

9. Oh, yes.

Words pick up connotations based on the zeitgeist. "Retarded" is now considered mean, but the term began as a kindly one meant to remove stigma. Now we use developmentally disabled, and eventually that will shift to something else like "differently abled".

Or consider the ongoing "entitlement" feud on DU, in which someone will post saying that SS & Medicare aren't entitlements, because beneficiaries worked for them. The word "entitlement" is in no way pejorative in the English language, but apparently it has picked up that meaning.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. When I heard Mandela speak in 1990, it was Mr Peck who introduced him, at Mandela's request.

Thank you for sharing this letter. If only all such boards were so thoughtful and wise.....

[niyad]

5. thank you for this

[Roland99]

6. Just watched this yesterday w/the kidlets

They'd never seen it before. They were enthralled.

Proof that kids today can still thoroughly enjoy a film that's pure dialogue (and in black and white)

[Jack Rabbit]

8. I used to know a man who named his child Atticus

He said Atticus was a man who stood on principle for something positive, and he wanted his son to be like that.

There is tribute to Gregory Peck's performance.

[calimary]

10. Bruce Willis and Demi Moore named one of their daughters Scout after the character of Atticus's

daughter in the film.

A WUNNNNNderful movie. Good to see how well it was received. Still one of my all-time favorites.

[bvar22]

11. DURec.

Thanks for posting.
This remains one of my all time favorite novels and movie.

The typewritten letter and 60s language strummed the cords of nostalgia in my heart. We were headed in the right direction in 1963. We were changing for the better.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

12. This book "To Kill A Mockingbird" ranked #1 last year among DU'ers

Here is a link to the final compiled list I did. The list is supposed to be top books you'd recommend to teenagers:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022186743

1 To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
2 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
3 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
4 Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut
5 The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkein
6 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn
7 Lord of the Flies William Golding
8 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
9 Catch 22 Joseph Heller
10 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
11 Siddharta Hermann Hesse
12 Animal Farm George Orwell
13 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
14 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein
15 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
16 Ishmael Daniel Quinn
17 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
18 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
19 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
20 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
20 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut
20 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey
23 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig
24 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
25 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
26 Les Miserables Victor Hugo
27 Harry Potter J.K. Rowling
28 Great Expectations Charles Dickens
29 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[Kablooie]

34. Once I finish "The Woman in White" I think I'll revisit the Harper Lee.

I'm finding it hard to become involved in many modern novels and put them down so I'm beginning to go back to reread some of the classics.
(Though I'm delighted when I find an intriguing new novel that carries me through to the end.)

[klook]

13. Wonderful, thank you.

One of the greatest movies of all time, both as a work of art and as a courageous act of social activism. It's great to see the thoughtful consideration that went into this board's verdict.

The book by Harper Lee is brilliant, and this is one of the rare examples of a movie that honors the book.

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. I think that being a B & W film

adds to the movie. I have never wished that I could see it in color.

[klook]

21. Yes - gorgeous cinematography

and it stands as a masterpiece of film-making to this day.

[Martin Eden]

18. "a courageous act of social activism"

I wonder how was the movie received in the South when it came out.

[klook]

19. I was a kid in the Deep South when it came out.

My conservative white parents thought it was a great movie, and my all-white elementary school class had a discussion about it led by our teacher.

The tone in both cases was actually fairly enlightened, as I recall. Certainly not racist. Many white Southerners of the time saw the changes coming and -- while not exactly embracing progressive values -- at least realized the kind of cruelty and ignorance depicted in the story had to stop.

I'm sure there were many backward racists who objected strenuously to the book and the movie, but I wasn't personally exposed to any such attitudes.

[Martin Eden]

22. Thanks, glad to hear it.

It's such a wonderful movie on so many levels other than race, which may explain why it was embraced to the extent it was in the South.

[freshwest]

23. Neither was I exposed to the badwardness about the film and subject. I thought hearts would change.

Perhaps they did for a time, or else my refusal to associate with the worst,who must have gone underground, never did. But to witness this nation retreat into that, has been hell. Obama drew them out, and it's been all downhilll with them.

[sheshe2]

14. Beautiful, thank you.

My all time favorite book and movie!

[Are_grits_groceries]

15. Mine too! nt

[freshwest]

24. Yes, I feel like I have never left that vision, at times, that the world would change, get better.

Last edited Mon Dec 16, 2013, 08:18 PM - Edit history (1)

I found a website you might like:





Watching it, I thought their hearts would change.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechtokillamockingbird.html

It also has a link to the closing arguments by Atticus Finch:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/newmoviespeeches/moviespeechtokillamockingbird34593593495.mp3

The world is still changing and it is past time for it. I credit our president and his team for this.

[sheshe2]

25. That is one of the best speeches. Atticus Finch's summation.

[url=http://postimage.org/][img][/img][/url]

Atticus was a powerful character and Gregory Peck brought him to life. Harper Lee is a hero to me, she wrote an amazingly poignant story.

Thank you for the links, freshwest. I believe it is time for me to dig out my copy of the movie to watch once again. The book I had to toss years ago. I read it so many times that the binding broke and the pages spilled out.

[freshwest]

27. Good pic. The one I posted keeps coming and going. I've posted it twice. I'll try again:

EDIT:

I still can't see it. Can you?

[sheshe2]

28. Yes, I got it! The first one too!

I love that man, Gregory Peck,

snip

Actvisim and Recognition

When he wasn't acting, Peck put his energy toward civic, charitable and political efforts, serving as chairman of the American Cancer Society, a board trustee for the American Film Institute, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among other roles.

In 1969, Peck was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his humanitarian efforts, by President Lyndon Johnson. Thirty years later, in 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.

http://www.biography.com/people/gregory-peck-9436049


Gregory Peck - 50th Anniversary of "To Kill a Mockingbird" @ the Obama Whitehouse.
Video Clip!

http://www.biography.com/people/gregory-peck-9436049?page=2

freshwest! Enjoy~

[freshwest]

30. I can't see it there, but I found it here:

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird on Film

Published on Jun 25, 2012

President Obama hosted a film screening of To Kill a Mockingbird in the Family Theater at The White House to commemorate its 50th anniversary with guests including local students from Washington-Lee High School, Mary Badham Wilt, the actress who played Scout, and Veronique Peck, widow of Gregory Peck who played Atticus Finch. The President also acknowledged the American Film Institute for their commitment to the fine arts and NBC Universal and USA Network for their efforts to commemorate this important film.

Very appropriate to have this anniversary with White House support . This transformation in America is what we have needed for so long. More, we want more.

[sheshe2]

32. So glad you found it, freshwest.

What an amazing White House we have with Obama~

We are blessed.

[freshwest]

31. The powerful plea of Atticus to do the right thing:

Brings tears to my old eyes, but when I first saw the film as a child, I really though the jury was going to do the right thing. But they did not, nor did the townspeople.

[sheshe2]

33. A film for the ages, as was his summation here.

I don't remember when I first saw it, yet I was young when I first read the book.

It is a story that never really leaves you, it remains in your heart forever.

[Martin Eden]

16. I saw To Kill a Mocking Bird when I was a child, not long after it came out.

It is perhaps the finest example of the kind of stories we SHOULD be telling our children.

Thanks for sharing that letter, which reminded me that Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has an exhibit on moviemaking that includes Gregory Peck's handwritten notes from when he was filming Mockingbird -- a priceless treasure!

[freshwest]

20. I saw it as a child, too, and agree these lessons are what we need to impart to children now. n/t

[SpcMnky]

26. Loved him in Gentelmans Agreement, too

Thanks for sharing
http://viooz.co/movies/1760-to-kill-a-mockingbird-1962.html

[dflprincess]

35. "Gentleman's Agreement" trivia

In the movie, Peck's mother was played by Anne Revere, a direct descendent of Paul.

Her Hollywood career was pretty much ended (though she had some later success on Broadway) because she was blacklisted after she refused to tesify in front of the House Unamerican Activities Committee. She was quoted as saying "I'm a free thinking Yankee rebel, and nobody's going to tell me what to do!"

This is from the letter to her fellow members of the Screen Actors Guild over the Hollywood black list:

[div class = "excerpt"]
You, the Board of the Screen Actors Guild, point with pride to your seven-year fight against the Communist conspiracy. What have you accomplished? You have sanctioned the blacklist of 23 of your fellow members because they chose to defy an unconstitutional investigation into their thoughts and beliefs. Have you given strength to the industry by depriving those artists of their art and bread? Or have you further incapacitated the industry and the art which you profess to nourish? For seven years you have purged the screen of 'dangerous ideas.' With what results? The obliteration of all ideas. And people. Behold an industry that once bestrode the envious pinnacle of world leadership, now so paralyzed with fear that the screen is now inhabited solely by three-dimensional spooks and men from Mars. But there is still hope. The invalid is sick but not dead. Unlock the dungeon doors. Give him fresh air and sunshine. Take off the straitjacket and let him move about with freedom. But above all, return his conscience which you have filched from him.


I'm sure her famous ancestor would have been proud.

[SpcMnky]

36. Thank you for sharing that... does it not feel like we are living through similar times?

It really got started after 911, with all this "with us, or against us" sloganeering of the fear agenda... this time maybe not against the Jewish, or Communist, but again, people of color... people from the middle east, or south of the border.

The fear agenda being used to justify the sacrificing of all our rights on the alter of national security with the constant pillory of Snowden and Greenwald, and anyone who speaks up in defense of them, in the M$M or even right here on this democratic site.

Makes me shake my head, but I still have faith in the better angels of our nature.

[malaise]

29. Lovely

Thanks Grits