We saw the Aaron Sorkin staging of it last weekend. It was excellent. This quote particularly struck me.


“Mob’s a place where people go to take a break from their conscience,” he had told his daughter Scout. “A mob acts out of emotion, absent facts, absent contemplation, mostly absent responsibility. What they get in return is anonymity. Conscience can be exhausting.”

Incidentally, the actor who played Scout in the movie with Gregory Peck played the irascible Mrs. DeBose in the stage version. Full circle.

We saw it last spring and really liked it. Very Sorkin-y, fast and talky.

We saw it a couple of years ago. I remember thinking I would have liked it fine, if I didn't know the book so well. It felt like Sorkin was determined put his stamp on it to the detriment of Lee's story and characters.

If I want that, I'll watch The West Wing, which I do like. But if I want the perspective of a little girl growing up in the Jim Crow South with only a good but flawed man to show her that things can be better, Sorkin is not the person to whom I'd turn for that story.