domenica 3 aprile 2016

Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1962: Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird

Mary Badham received her only Oscar nomination to date for her performance as Jean Louise "Scout" Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. 


To Kill a Mockingbird is an amazing movie about a lawyer who defends a black man from an accuse of a crime he didn't commit in a racist, Southern town. It's just a wonderful movie that is both brilliantly written and beautifully directed. I also found the cinematography to be quite stunning and I thought it played a key role in creating the unique atmosphere this movie has. The movie is quite well-acted and, aside from its iconic leading performance, there are a few other supporting turns that are quite remarkable: Brock Peters is fantastic and heartbreaking as the innocent man; Robert Duvall makes the most out of his very small screen-time; and Collin Wilcox, although a bit over-the-top in moments, gives a pretty good performance.

Many people complain about Patty Duke's category fraud but in my opinion Mary Badham belongs in the supporting category even less: she is the lead of the movie just as much as Atticus, maybe even more so in parts, and even if she steps into the background during the trial she is the central character of the movie otherwise. But what about her actual performance? Is the performance great or simply just iconic? In my opinion, it's the latter. In the book, Scout was an amazing character, a precocious kid with some childish behaviors but mature thoughts. In the movie the beauty and originality of the character, unfortunately, went lost: it's not at all the writers' fault as you can see that everything that Harper Lee wrote about Scout is still very much in the screenplay too, but Mary Badham isn't quite able to capture the nature and the complexities of Scout and instead portrays her as straight-forward as possible. She doesn't do a bad job actually: she's mostly quite good in the role and is rather entertaining in portraying the tomboy personality of Scout. She has a nice, sweet screen-presence and she makes for a rather endearing character that is always nice to watch but it's not quite the acting per se the problem, but rather her inability to handle a complex character making it a far more standard and conventional one than it was intended. But even if the acting itself isn't truly the problem, it doesn't mean it's perfect either. She doesn't even give the best child performance in the movie (Philip Alford, who plays Scout's brother Jem, does) and she isn't completely natural and comfortable in the role. As I said, she's pretty good for the most part but a few line-deliveries come off as rehearsed and unconvincing. There are moments in the movie when you can literally see Badham struggling with the role and overthinking about what to do next, coming off as a bit unnatural. 

Now I don't want to sound too critical about her performance though because she is far from being bad and she has a few moments in which she is actually rather effective. I thought that she did a very good job in the lynch mob scene, making it unclear whether Scout is unaware of the situation or is cleverly and intentionally preventing the crowd from going forward with their plan (it probably wasn't even intentional but it works very well). Her chemistry with Gregory Peck is also quite great and their interactions are very warm and tender - they pay off each other extremely well and they make their relationship something truly special. Badham actually fails to impress in their pivotal scenes and when she's required to do some heavier acting she isn't up to the task but the quieter, ordinary moments are what makes their relationship so memorable and powerful and in those scenes Badham is sweet and believable. Also I feel she deserves credit for the final scene - she's actually quite great in it and she is one of the reasons why it's one of the best endings ever. Her reaction when she sees Boo Ridley for the first time and her line-delivery of "Hi Boo" are pretty much perfect and in that small moment she and Duvall works together perfectly and it's very impressive considering they didn't share the screen before - in that brief scene, they just click and it's pure magic. 

Overall, Mary Badham gives a decent performance and she carries her scenes quite well but ultimately her inexperience and inability to fully inhabit the character prevents her performance from becoming truly great. And while I get why this performance is so iconic, I think it's a slightly unsatisfying effort considering that the role allowed for greatness. I like her performance well enough but maybe someone else could have pulled off the role better. 

3/3

9 commenti:

  1. I definitely liked her more than you did. I thought she was functionally correct, yet extremely effective in key moments. I'd give her a 4. But I do agree, that her performance didn't give full justice to the character.

    Your ratings and thoughts on Alford, Duvall and Peter.(Unless you want to save them forfor later bonus reviews)

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    1. On first viewing I actually gave her a 4 too, but a rewatch made me like her performance much less. It's just a performance I really don't know how to feel about: she has some very memorable moments and she is actually a very strong 3 verging on a 3.5, but Scout is a character I love dearly and she didn't do it justice.

      Alford - 3.5 (I thought his performance was the complete opposite of Badham's. Badham gave an imperfect performance that was helped a great deal by an amazing role. Alford instead gives a very good and natural performance and I'd say he overshadows Badham whenever they share the screen together, but Jem is given much less focus than Scout and while Arford portrays pretty well his character's maturation the movie isn't very interested in it. Nonetheless, a very good performance)

      Duvall - 4 (His screen-time is extremely limited but he makes the most out of it. His appearence gets a lot of build-up and when he finally shows up he doesn't disappoint. Through his reaction when Boo finally meets Scout Duvall is one of the reasons why the ending is so wonderful and as I mentioned in my review, he and Badham make that small moment magic)

      Peters - 4.5 (I thought he was fantastic. Peters is just consistently believable in portraying the fear of his character and he makes the trial scenes extremely compelling. Most of all he carries a great emotional punch and even after several rewatches his performance never becomes less heartbreaking)

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  2. I liked her a bit more, but I think she was completely overshadowed by Alford, and it was bad because she had the better role.

    And even it's category fraud, I'm happy she was nominated instead of Wilcox.

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    1. Completely agree that she had a better role than Alford yet he gave the better performance between the two.
      As for Collin Wilcox, I actually hated her the first time I saw the movie and I found her shrill and annoying. Now, I like her performance more than Badham's. I think she is really quite effective and makes Mayella the despicable yet sort of tragic character that she is supposed to be. She is indeed a bit too much in some moments, but I liked her performance quite a bit.

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  4. I pretty much agree. She's very inconsistent but has good moments in there. Alford's performance is very underrated when it comes to discussions around the film.

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    1. I don't love Alford's performance as I think the role of Jem is a bit limited in the movie but I agree he was better than Badham. The thing is that Badham never actually detracts from the movie but if you look closely at her work it's a bit underwhelming.

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  5. I love this film, my #7 of all-time and so it follows that my ratings would be a bit more lenient, but I'd give her and Alford 4.5's, and Duvall and Peters 5's.

    Yep. Great review though! Can't wait for Duke :)

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  6. Thanks! The movie is actually one of my favorites too and I think it's amazing, as I don't think the flaws of Badham's performance actually detract from the movie. It's truly a masterpiece.

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