To Kill a Mockingbird (4k UHD + Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Nov 5th, 2022
Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Ruth White, Paul Fix, Brock Peters Frank Overton, James Anderson, Robert Duvall
Written By: Horton Foote
Directed By: Robert Mulligan
Studio: Universal
Buy On Amazon.com
The timeless, classic film To Kill A Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee’s novel, is now available on 4k UHD and 4k digital for its 60th anniversary. If this is a movie you never owned, now is a good time to get it since it looks fantastic quality-wise.
The movie takes place in the deep south in the 1930s. An adult Scout Finch narrates the movie about growing up in Alabama during this time. Scout (Mary Badham), Jem (Phillip Alford), and their friend Dill (John Megna) spend their summer getting into mischief and spying on their mysterious neighbor “Boo” Radley (Robert Duvall). Jem and Scout’s father, Atticus (Gregory Peck), is a lawyer who agrees to defend an African-American man who’s been falsely accused. By doing so, the kids hear it from their classmates in school and tension rises throughout the town.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie and even longer time since reading the book in high school. I did a review of the DVD back in 2005. That’s honestly probably the last time I saw this? Maybe I watched it after that. Either way, It’s a timeless movie unfortunately, especially with the ongoing racism in this country/the world. It’s infuriating watching parts of this, and makes my blood boil.
The performance from Gregory Peck as Atticus is just incredible. The character is iconic because of the way he puts everyone on a level playing field. The kids of course were fine as well, and their ongoing curiosity of things makes the movies enjoyable to watch, despite some of the subject matter. Based on what I remember from the book, some characters were minor in the movie compared to the book. The movie still captures the deep south in that era quite well. I think with child actors, if they sucked in this; it wouldn’t have been a good movie. Even the powerful performance from Peck, if the kids were bad – it just wouldn’t stunk up the movie. Thankfully that didn’t happen.
The 4k quality movie looks great despite when the movie came out. The black and white of the film really stands out now, it looks sharp and just the best I’ve seen yet on the quality. I believe audio wasn’t really remastered as much as the picture quality. Most of the extras carried over from the Blu-Ray release in 2012 but there is one featurette that’s really good called “To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View.” Check that one out if you have less than a half hour to spare.
After all these years of not seeing To Kill a Mockingbird, the movie still holds up extremely well as being timeless, a classic and unforgettable. Everytime I watch, it’s a gut punch on what happens in it. With this being on 4k UHD, it looks awesome and definitely worth purchasing if you like to own the movie in its highest quality to date. If you’ve never read the book or seen this movie, well what the hell are you doing reading this review? Watch or read this now!
Features:
To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View
Fearful Symmetry
A Conversation with Gregory Peck
Academy Award Best Actor Acceptance Speech
American Film Institute Life Achievement Award
Excerpt from Tribute to Gregory Peck
Scout Remembers
Theatrical Trailer
100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics
Audio Commentary: Director Robert Mulligan and Producer Alan Pakula.
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS 2.0 Mono
Spanish: DTS 2.0 Mono
French: DTS 2.0 Mono
German: DTS Mono
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
Bottom Line: An unforgettable timeless classic looks even better on 4k
Running Time: 129 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
