Who disturbs the nightingale (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Who disturbs the nightingale
Original title To kill a mockingbird
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1962
length 129 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Robert Mulligan
script Horton Foote
production Alan J. Pakula for
Universal Studios
music Elmer Bernstein
camera Russell Harlan
cut Aaron Stell
occupation
synchronization

Who disturbs the nightingale (original title To Kill a Mockingbird ) is a literary film adaptation directed by Robert Mulligan from 1962 , based on the novel of the same name by the American Harper Lee . Like its literary source, the film was a huge hit with critics and audiences. Who disturbs the nightingale won three Academy Awards , including Gregory Peck for Best Actor, and was listed as the 25th best American film of all time by the American Film Institute in 2007.

action

The bright girl Jean Louise, called Scout, grew up with her older brother Jem in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama in the 1930s . Scout tells the story that began one summer and ended the following summer.

It is the time of the Depression , but despite the economic hardship in the hot summer of the American South , the children grow up happy and sheltered. The world of the two siblings is held together by their single father, the MP and lawyer Atticus Finch. Atticus is a friend, confidante, teacher and authority for children. The thoughts of Scout, Jem and their neighbor boy friend Dill are enriched by the mysterious neighbor Arthur "Boo" Radley, who never leaves his father's house and whom the children have therefore never seen. This stimulates the children's imagination. It is a test of courage to knock on his house. But time and again they find small gifts in a hollow tree trunk near Boo's house.

The intolerant world of racism slowly penetrates this childhood idyll . Atticus Finch, upright and unprejudiced, is appointed by the judge to be the public defender of the black farm worker Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping the white Mayella Ewell, daughter of the poor farm laborer Bob Ewell. Even before the trial begins, Bob Ewell harasses and threatens Atticus Finch and insults him as a “ nigger friend ”. The majority of whites only perceive Tom as part of the rejected black minority. Atticus is hostile to many of his fellow citizens because of his attitude that a black person has the same rights as a white person. His children also feel this rejection. Atticus implores his children not to allow themselves to be provoked. In this environment of prejudice and intolerance, Atticus tries to support his children on their way to adulthood. The night before the trial, Atticus positions himself in front of the prison to stop a lynch mob from killing Robinson. The children followed their father. When Scout speaks to one of the men she knows, the men finally turn back.

During the trial, blacks and whites sit separately in the auditorium. Atticus can prove the untenability of the allegations relatively easily. Mayella's injuries cannot possibly have been taught to her by Tom, since he can only use his right hand. Tom testifies that Mayella tried to seduce him. When the father came up angry, he disappeared as quickly as possible. Still, the jury, made up only of white men, bowed to the unwritten law that a black's testimony to a white's was unbelievable and found the accused guilty. Atticus wants to go to the next instance. Robinson is shot dead shortly after trying to escape.

Because of his dedicated work for Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch has drawn the hatred of Bob Ewell, who was exposed in the process. After the peace-loving Atticus does not allow himself to be provoked by the hateful man, the latter tries to take revenge on the children. One evening he lies in wait for them in the dark, but is stabbed to death by a stranger who has come to the aid of the children. It turns out that the shy Boo Radley is the savior. In order not to expose him to the collective curiosity of the small town, Atticus and the sheriff decide that Ewell's death should be portrayed as the perpetrator's fall into his own knife.

Scout comments on this silence with the remark that Boo, like a nightingale, must not be disturbed. This late with respect to the film title comes from the prohibition Atticus' to his children, the nightingale (in the original, however, a "Mockingbird," a Mockingbird ) to hunt because she only sings well and does no harm.

background

The film was made in 1962, two years after Harper Lee 's novel of the same name was published . Although the novel was a bestseller and received a Pulitzer Prize among others , most producers were not interested in making it into a film, as the story of a widowed lawyer and his two children contained little action, no love affair, and no major villain role. Ultimately, the young producer Alan J. Pakula won the film, which quickly won Gregory Peck for the lead role in the film. Peck was known for his liberal views in Hollywood, rather playing himself and his own beliefs. Gregory Peck managed the nine-minute plea in just one take .

The black and white film also follows the novel in that it depicts the events entirely from the children's perspective. Mary Badham and Phillip Alford, two previously inexperienced children, were selected for the child roles of Jem and Scout . Phillip Alford even only went to the film casting after his mother promised him that he would be released from school for half a day. Both Badham and Alford were from Birmingham in Handlungsort Alabama . In contrast, John Megna , the actor in Dill (whose character is based on Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote ), came from New York and had already gained his first experience on Broadway . Director Robert Mulligan tried to shoot as few takes as possible with the children because their acting usually seemed more natural in the first few attempts. But that didn't always work, so Mary Badham screwed up many missions, so that co-star Alford z. B. had to eat the same meal over a dozen times in the breakfast table scene and was very over-saturated in the end. Alford later reported that his hatred of Badham was once so strong that - when she was rolling in the tire in one scene - he wanted to roll her into a film crew's equipment truck.

Robert Duvall made a short but impressive film debut in the role of Boo. The future Oscar winner stayed out of the sun for six weeks for his role and had his hair dyed white. Also made her film debut William Windom as prosecutor Mr. Gilmer and Alice Ghostley as Aunt Stephanie. Mary Badham and Gregory Peck remained closely connected and called themselves "Scout" and "Atticus" until Peck's death in 2003. Other crew members also remained friends, for example Tom Robinson actor Brock Peters gave the funeral oration for Peck in 2003.

The film's exterior shots were shot on a stretch of street recreated in Hollywood ; the setting was able to use contemporary houses from the area, which were intended for demolition and were converted. The city of Maycomb in Alabama is fictional. The county town of Monroeville , with a population of 6,500, is the birth town of Harper Lee and is home to an old courthouse where Harper Lee watched her father as a lawyer as a child. It served as an exact model for the set of the film. Today the "Old Courthouse" in Monroeville is a museum and also serves as a theater in which "To Kill A Mockingbird" is regularly performed. The first act takes place outdoors, the second act in the courtroom.

Filming for Ruth White , who took on the role of the racist and unfriendly neighbor Mrs. Dubose , was frustrating . In the finished film, she can be seen in one scene, sitting on the veranda, talking to Atticus and his children. Originally, however, her role - as in the book - was significantly larger. The scenes in which Jem reads stories to the dying Mrs. Dubose on behalf of his father lasted around ten minutes. White had to spend four hours in the mask every day to embody the old woman. Although director Mulligan and producer Paluka thought the scenes were well done and they were impressed with White's acting, they decided with great regret to remove it from the film entirely - Mrs. Dubose's subplot slowed and destroyed the continuity of the entire film, which was tailored entirely to the trial scenes. The cut scenes were apparently destroyed afterwards.

The screenplay was written by Horton Foote and received high praise from Harper Lee: "I think it's one of the best translations of a book into a movie of all time." The writer was particularly moved by Peck's portrayal of the lawyer, who is loosely on her own Father Amasa Coleman Lee is based. Amasa Lee had died in April 1962 at the age of 82, shortly after meeting Gregory Peck. The actor received her father's gold wristwatch from Harper Lee as a token of her appreciation. Peck is said to have called this film the favorite work of his career.

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created in 1962 by Berliner Synchron GmbH under the direction of Hans F. Wilhelm .

role actor Voice actor
Atticus Finch Gregory Peck Martin Hirthe
Jean Louise "Scout" Finch Mary Badham Marion Martienzen
Narrator - Adult Scout Kim Stanley (voice only) Tilly Lauenstein
Jem Finch Phillip Alford Rolf Hinze
Dill Harris John Megna Hans-Georg Panczak
Sheriff Heck Tate Frank Overton Horst Niendorf
Tom Robinson Brock Peters Alexander Welbat
Calpurnia Estelle Evans Christel Merian
Judge Taylor Paul Fix Herbert Grünbaum
Mayella Violet Ewell Collin Wilcox Anita Kupsch
Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell James Anderson Gerd Martienzen
Aunt Stephanie Crawford Alice Ghostley Elf tailors
Mr. Gilmer, prosecutor William Windom Heinz Welzel
Reverend Sykes Bill Walker Gerd Duwner
Walter Cunningham Crahan Denton Rolf Bogus

Reviews

  • Lexicon of International Films : A humanly moving, successful literary film adaptation with a high ethical attitude, which convincingly stands up against racism and for tolerance.
  • Filmstarts.de: One of the film's central points perhaps best describes the story. When Scout had a fight with a boy and no longer wants to go to school because the teacher scolded her, Finch says to his daughter:
    “I'll tell you a nice trick now. You get along a lot better with all kinds of people with that. You only really understand a person when you look at things or what they are from their point of view, when you crawl into their skin and stroll around in it. ”
    This statement and the fact that the film at a time was filmed, in which the discrimination against the Afro-American inhabitants of the states had completely different dimensions than today, make “To Kill a Mockingbird” a courageous testimony to American film history, whose statements, however, are still valid today beyond the concrete story.
  • Prisma Online: Gregory Peck shines as a sincere citizen who, driven by a sense of justice and equality, finally gets to feel racism on his own body. Peck rightly received an Oscar for his great performance.

Awards

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and received three awards:

They were also nominated

In 1995 was To Kill a Mockingbird in the National Film Registry of the United States included.

This film has been featured four times in the American Film Institute's top lists :

  • Top 100 American Movies of All Time: # 34 (1998 placement), 25th (2007 placement)
  • America's best film score: 17th place
  • America's Most Awesome Films: # 2
  • The greatest heroes of American film: 1st place for Atticus Finch

In August 2008, a list of the best judicial films of all time appeared in the American Bar Association Journal . Whoever disturbs the nightingale was voted first.

literature

  • Harper Lee : Whoever disturbs the nightingale ... Roman . (OT: To Kill a Mockingbird ). German by Claire Malignon. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-499-24182-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ IMDb Trivia
  2. ↑ IMDb Trivia
  3. ↑ Interview with Mary Badham in the Telegraph
  4. ^ Fearful Symmetry , 1998 documentation
  5. ↑ Tom Santo Pietro: Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters: What Harper Lee's Book and the Iconic American Film Mean to Us Today . St. Martin's Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-250-16376-9 ( google.de [accessed September 30, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Article in the NY Times
  7. ↑ IMDb Trivia
  8. ↑ Whoever disturbs the nightingale. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 22, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ Criticism at film releases
  10. ^ Criticism at Prisma Online
  11. ^ The 25 Greatest Legal Movies - Magazine . ABA Journal. August 1, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2011.