The speech in “To Kill A Mockingbird” has had a hand in the Civil Rights movement during 1960, when book was released, so having to interpret and revise that impacting of a speech for film while trying to keep its same meaning was a difficult process. To find evidence that Robert Mulligan did a proper job converting Atticus’s speech to film, it is expedient to look at what made the speech commendable, and what made the speech inadequate. So by comparing and contrasting the positive and negative aspects of Atticus’s speech in both the book and movie, it is possible to determine if the speech was adapted to film well.
There are many things that made the speech in “To Kill A Mockingbird” excellent. In the text, Atticus attempts to use his morals to sway the jury into his favour. Such as the jury’s assumption that “[...] all Negroes
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Atticus’s moral was that the actions of one individual does not define the actions of an entire group. What makes this exceptional is that it presents the reader with something to think about and process, which gives the title a layer of depth. Harper Lee uses this depth to add to Atticus’s character making the speech more than just words to read, it gives the reader a sense that Atticus was actually a real person. Adding to this, the speech uses previous information that was given to the reader to give it a sense of time flow. Such as when Atticus brought up the educational system stating: “The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious [...]”(p.274). This references back when Scout went home to Atticus asking why her teacher wanted her to stop reading with her father. By referencing back to past events, it shows that Atticus’s character