To Kill a Mockingbird - Film - Quotes

To Kill a Mockingbird
Intro – colouring in by child, tearing of bird drawing
Atticus Finch –
Good
Lawyer who accepts hickory nuts for legal work from Mr. Cunningham
Strong belief that all should be treated fairly
Won’t let his son, Jem, have a gun
Jem: “He won’t let me have a gun…”
RE: “Boo” Radley rumours
Tells Scout to “leave those poor people alone...”
Looking into courtroom
“The coloured man looks to me like he’s crying… I wonder what he’s done to cry about” – Dill looking into courtroom
“There’s a whole lot of men sitting together on one side and one of them keeps pointing at the coloured man”  division between Atticus & Richardson and others
Mr. Ewell – “I’m real sorry they picked you to defend the nigger that raped my Mayella… I don’t know why I didn’t kill him myself instead of going to the sheriff”
“Somebody told me just now that uh… that they thought you believed Tom Robinson’s story against ours”
“You know what I said? I said you wrong man! You dead wrong!”
Atticus: “I’ve been appointed to defend Tom Robinson. Now that he’s been charged that’s what I intend to do.”
Body language of Atticus – clenched jaw, looking down, avoiding eye contact
“What kind of man are you?! You’ve got children of your own!” – Mr. Ewell
END OF SUMMER
Dinner with son of Cunningham
While discussing guns, Atticus says that he could shoot birds as a boy but that “It was a sin to kill a mockingbird.” “Why?” “Well I reckon because mockingbirds don’t make anything but music for us to enjoy… they don’t do one thing except sing their hearts out for us.”
Consoling scout after a fight at school “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… ‘till you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
“Scout, do you know what a compromise is?” “Bending the law?” “No, it’s an agreement reached by mutual consent.”

Coloured home, encounter with Mr. Yale
Yale: “You nigger lover.”
“There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son, and I wish I could keep them all away from you. That’s never possible.”
Fights at school
“Atticus, do you defend niggers?” “Don’t say nigger, scout.”
“I’m simply defending a negro, Tom Robinson.”
“If you shouldn’t be defending him , then why are you doing it?” “For a number of reasons, mainly because if I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town.”
Guarding Robinson at Jail
Standing above lynch mob = higher moral code
“Hey Mr. Cunningham, I said hey Mr. Cunningham… You brought us hickory nuts one morning and we had a talk.. I go to school with your boy, I go to school with Walter. He’s a nice boy. Tell him hey for me, won’t you? You know something Mr. Cunningham?”
“No harm taken, young lady. I’ll tell Walter you said hey. Now let’s clear out of here.”
Trial of Robinson
Segregation a symbol of the context – children are oblivious and sit with the Negroes to watch trial upstairs.
“That Atticus Finch is trying to take advantage of me, you gotta watch tricky lawyers like that Atticus Finch.”
The close up, alternating shots of Tom and Mayella, Ewell during Tom’s testimony – contrast – race + liar/victim + guilty/innocent
When the white prosecutor is establishing the fact that “[Tom] felt sorry for [Mayella]” his standing position is above that of Tom, in a dominant stance and looking down upon him. While a nervous, seated Tom sweats, looks down at the floor.
“The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence of the crime Tom Robinson was charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has no only been called into serious question on cross-examination but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant.”
Closing Statement: To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place... It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewel was beaten - savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses... his RIGHT. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime - she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now, what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption... the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is, in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against TWO white people's! The defendant is not guilty - but somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levellers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system - that's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality! Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review, without passion, the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision and restore this man to his family. In the name of GOD, do your duty. In the name of God, believe... Tom Robinson.
Standing alongside Tom, separated from the prosecution and the jury in alliance.
Reverend (Negro) holding a sleeping Dale
All the negroes stand for Atticus Finch, Reverend “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. You’re father’s passing.” Symbol of respect
After Trial
“Jem… I don’t know if it’ll help but I’m gonna say this to you... There’s some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us… your father’s one of them.”
“We had such a good chance… we had more than a good chance…”
Going to tell Robinson’s family of his death
Rushes to Robinson’s wife when she collapses of grief
Spat in face by Bob Ewell – takes one step forward – wipes it away – drives off