To Kill A Mockingbird

Write a blog post that compares the portrayal of one character from the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird with the way the character is presented in the stage version. Do you think the director and actors have altered the character in any significant way and if so does it change the way we understand the narrative or specific theme from the text?

Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mocking Bird was one of the many performances that we enjoyed whilst in New York City. This text was by far one of my favourite to study and I was extremely intrigued to see how the story would resonate on stage in ­­­­­­­Sorkin’s interpretation. The stage show fundamentality demonstrated a different portrayal of Atticus in the play compared to the film and the novel. The best way to describe Atticus’ character in the film was loveable and able to persuade anyone on his side through his charming and smooth manner. At first I felt as though the comedy depicted in the play took away who I knew Atticus’ original character was and this then shaped him to be the fool of the play. However, this new representation saw him to be genuine rather than extremely perfect and able to do no wrong which we see depicted in the film. The play allowed Atticus to have flaws including him getting angry. This was seen in his attack of Bob Ewell which is not seen in the original film or text. His character has the sense to do the right thing but he makes mistakes as humans do. This making him more of an applicable and relatable character in the play. This could be due to the film’s overall standpoint of the story and the shift in this when translated onto a stage. The film was a portrayal of the story from Scout’s perspective. As scout’s father, she saw him as flawless and this is captured in the film in which depicted an idea in my head for what I thought he should be, or more so what I expected him to be on stage. On stage the audience is able to see him as real person with human like qualities of making mistakes and not being perfect. In some way, I feel as though the change in perspective and the overall portrayal of Atticus took away from the original story, however; by opening up the perspective to the audience and allowing room for Atticus’ character to evolve it allowed for another voice to be heard. Atticus’ flaws were always present in the film and novel adaptation but in the play characters such as Calpurnia facilitated in addressing these flaws to the audience and critiquing his decisions as a human.  when Calpurnia calls Atticus out for saying “you’re welcome” When looking into his character’s portrayal didn’t necessarily change entirely but the character’s around him and their response to his actions were able to be voiced and able to be heard by the audience. This abolishing the white saviour complex evident in the original story and making it more relatable for a contemporary audience. The addition of Calpurnia’s voice and the influence of her character alone challenged the virtues of Atticus in the performance when compared to the play. Calpurnia’s character was contemporised as she was able to speak the way she did to Atticus. Calpurnia didn’t speak much in the film but her facial expressions and body language lead us to believe she didn’t agree with some of the things that Atticus said and did. In the play, her voice was a powerful one for the black community and for a modern interpretation this was interesting to see. She was altered in a significant way in order to allow a voice for the black community and destroy the white saviour complex that is imbedded in the film.  There were little things about Atticus’ character that I believe weren’t necessary in telling the story on stage. For example, when Atticus raised his voice this seemed almost pointless to me as it doesn’t necessarily match his demeanour and it wasn’t his demeanour that needed to be put in to question it was his values. I feel as though it would have been more powerful if he were to stay calm and passive and we were to see those values challenged and expressed through the character portrayed and depicted in the film. Demeanour is one of the prime aspects that creates this character to be so loveable in which the play would have been interesting to see how the dynamics of the story where to then be executed if Atticus was depicted in that way.