To Kill …

One of my favorite movies and books is To Kill a Mockingbird. This past week it ran again somewhere on DISH so I dvr’d it. It took me two nights to watch but it is always worth it.

Before I get into the movie stuff one of my early and favorite memories is of my dad and me at a drive-in movie in Dallas on a hot summer night watching this. I remember sitting in the front seat of the car, sweating and swatting. For some odd reason I recall that odd sound quality of the tinny little in-car-speaker that hung on our window combined with the echo of all the other car-speakers in the place.

Any literate American should be familiar with the story (if you are not – familiar, that is, I can’t help you with the literate part - go to your library and request a copy. Amazon probably has plenty of used copies - cheap) 

This time around watching the movie (adaptation and screenplay by Horton Foote - he wrote Tender Mercies later) brought me two new thoughts:

Just wondering about the whole cover-up between Atticus and Heck Tate and Scout who sat there and heard it all. Can you imagine that happening today with our 24/7 media coverage? No matter how bad a man Bob Ewell was, someone would have to be accountable for his death. And Tom Robinson’s shooting as he tried to escape? Sure. That could easily be kept quiet.

Secondly, wonder what happened to Boo Radley. This gentle troubled soul (think Lenny in Of Mice and Men) but who was certainly capable of extreme violence. What happened to him when his parents died? Where would he fit into today’s society?

I have a sequel in my head of Scout’s life after she grows up but it would be disrespectful of Ms. Lee’s original masterpiece to even think of writing such a thing down.