Review: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ arrives at the Hollywood Pantages with troubling timeliness
The movie is based on the Harper Lee novel of the same name, which was written in 1960 but not published until 1963, when it became a New York Times best-seller.
“It became the number one best-selling book in America,” director James L. Brooks told reporters earlier this year.
“Just as it should’ve been.”
The novel, a scathing exploration of racial and social bigotry, drew national condemnation. But it also became a cultural touchstone, inspiring generations of young readers to dream of escape.
Now, as the cast of young stars takes the stage at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” directed and presented by Brooks, is arriving with its own cultural hangover — even though it seems to have arrived at the theater with less than its usual fervor.
To Kill a Mockingbird, which opens Wednesday, is based on the Harper Lee novel of the same name, which was written in 1960 but not published until 1963, when it became a New York Times best-seller.
The film was produced on a budget of $9 million and was shot on a shoestring in the mid-70s.
The story, set primarily in the fictional town of Maycomb, Ala., and in the fictional town of Maycomb, N.C., details the efforts of three friends to escape the violent racial stereotypes of the era.
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The film, which also stars Octavia Spencer, Quinton Aaron, Anthony Mackie and James Earl Jones, has the trappings of another beloved American classic: The Great Gatsby, in which the wealthy Jay Gatsby tries to escape his fate with the help of a dreamy girlfriend who is also an impostor.
It also has the trappings of another beloved American classic: The Great Gatsby, in which the wealthy Jay Gatsby tries to escape his fate with the help of a dreamy girlfriend who is also