While often undervalued as a director due to his lack of a strong directorial vision over his career, Robert Mulligan’s directing style and ability to elicit strong performances made him the perfect fit for the film adaption for To Kill a Mockingbird.
Unlike American auteurs like Woody Allen or Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Mulligan did not bear a personal stamp in his films; most of his films employ a straightforward, understated direction, which certainly is the case with To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite the popularity and easy availability of Technicolor film in the early 1960s, Mulligan filmed To Kill a Mockingbird with stark black and white photography. Mulligan was determined to amplify substance over style and wanted to aptly evoke the relevant themes of the film without the distraction of technicolor. The stark color palette helps to represent how society itself was divided between black and white, and intensifies the drama of the court sequence: the facial expressions of Gregory Peck (as Atticus) become all the more clear and expressive in black and white. Also, because of the outdatedness of black and white photography, To Kill a Mockingbird seems like a story of a past—an appropriate directorial choice, as the film takes place in the Great Depression and is told from the older Scout’s memory.
In addition to choosing black-and-white film over Technicolor, Mulligan forgoes eye-grabbing or flamboyant shots; instead, he renders the realism of the story with subtle visual cues. Atticus’s closing remarks in the trial, for instance, are filmed in a single long-take, but viewers are so engrossed in the content of his speech that they don’t even notice the delicate skill of Mulligan’s direction.
Also, Mulligan paid sensitive attention to the trials and tribulations faced by children throughout his career, and his talent for depicting the nuanced minutiae of childhood is especially on display in To Kill a Mockingbird. While the second half of the film emphasizes Tom’s trial, the first half largely centers on the experiences of Jem and Scout in the slow-paced, languid Southern town of Maycomb, and Mulligan illuminates both the naivety and the intelligence of the children. He allows viewers to become immersed in their point of views without ever resorting to condescension, which allows Jem and Scout to emerge as fully realized, sympathetic protagonists in turn.
Mulligan was crucially able to extract admirable performances from his cast. To Kill a Mockingbird was the film debut for both Mary Badham (Scout) and Philip Alford (Jem), and the two young actors embody their characters with a lighthearted precision. Notably, Gregory Peck’s performance as Atticus remains one of the most celebrated performances in film history. Thus, Mulligan’s humanistic sensibilities allowed him to shine as an actor’s director; his keen awareness of the human condition transferred to his direction of his actors, who beautifully personify the strengths and weaknesses of their characters.
While Mulligan may not stand as one of the most well-known filmmakers, his penchant for downplayed directorial flourishes and effective performances contributes to the enduring legacy of To Kill a Mockingbird.
