“The darkness beyond the hedge” by Robert Mulligan, the poster film of a courageous sixties American cinema season
In the 1960s, before 1968, American cinema experienced a courageous season addressing the hot topics of a society that in that decade saw terrible murders, starting with Kennedy and Luther King. Directors like Lumet, Pakula, Frankenheimer, Preminger investigated why and the manifest title is The dark beyond the hedge by a liberal author like Robert Mulligan, who could today be identified with “Black Lives Matter” because it concerns the life of blacks.
The film – in the year of blockbusters The longest day e Lawrence d’Arabia ― it was also successful thanks to the empathic skill of a convinced liberal like Gregory Peck, who won one of the three Oscars. The story of an unfair trial with the lawyer Atticus Finch who, in a southern 1930s town, defends a black man accused of the rape of a white girl.
Meanwhile, as in the evergreen novel by Harper Lee, Capote’s great friend, Atticus teaches his children democratic values: “You don’t kill a nightingale” (original title). He warns them when they ask for a rifle and everyone knows how much the indiscriminate use of weapons is one of the American plagues.
The film is the result of a clan of progressive filmmakers: produced by Pakula, very well scripted by Horton Foote (second Oscar in addition to that of the scenography), it is a didactic process in the heat of the South, a strong denunciation that never gives up psychological moves (the neighbor could be crazy, it’s Robert Duvall’s debut), in short, a great show on values and civil respect that today is not just about the States. Historical role for Peck, with many virtues: honest, civil, courageous, pacifist and provided with the constancy of reason.
The Darkness Beyond the Hedge, by Robert Mulligan, 1962. 7 am, 2 pm
July 25, 2021 (change July 25, 2021 | 07:10)
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