To Kill a Mockingbird Theme (Elmer Bernstein)

[jestavic1]

This music is so beautiful and relaxing to me. I experience so many emotions when I listen to it and it seems to touch my soul in the most comforting way.

[racistraccon24]

bob ewell disliked this

[TheHenrygirard]

@tinasp3 I agree.

[uslines]

possibly, the most beautiful opening credits score ever composed.

[tinasp3]

I love this movie. The music is so beautiful.

[garracarra]

Shove it scottnsanfran don't comment your shit on a elmer bernstein clip. For shame. I hope YOU are hated till the end of your days.

[scottnsanfran]

Why does the right-wing hate Obama so much?

Because they are so blind and angry and racist.

He hates no man, he said it in 2004.

Not blue states or red states but the United States.

[Kenneth735]

@scottnsanfran He's making obvious wrong decisions, not everyone's perfect, but come on, quadrupling national debt in three years? All he can say is "My bad! here's more money we shouldn't be printing."

[sahranadejda]

The theme is soooo beautiful...my memory simply obsurbed it....throughout all these years. 

[Elyshua]

Why do I always tear when I hear this music?

[MandalorianBrickfilm]

When the song starts at 1:04 It brings me back to when i was young and had nothing to worry about... Those were the days.

[blessOTMA]

@MandalorianBrickfilm because it reminds us that wonder , love and freedom are our natural estate...you see with time one forgets....but a few bars of this music sweep away the forgetting . Our tears are from the joy of returning to oursleves, even if it's just for the lenth of a song .

[puleknow]

reminds me of boo radley just watching the world go by through the window of his house. Kinda like the hunchback of Notre dame

[Glinkaism1]

I heard this playing on the background music system at a Panera cafe. They upcut it to start at about 1:38, dumping the piano and other soft intro. Jeez, I sat there in the booth. And so I excitedly told a clerk what it was. Got the usual dumb look, typical of the retards they hire. Oy!

[Hensonme]

A beautiful, beautiful, song or montage of songs that do, indeed, inspire memories of happier, more care free times. Even, if not totally carefree, more nostalgic times. Such beauty to the ears and heart.  Thanks for posting.

[DeeDaisyDepp]

R.I.P Gregory Peck.

[MrsCullenJankowski]

Even though I am only 13 years old, this song brings back memory's of when I was younger. Still wish I live in the 1920's-1940's though

[MisterNifty]

The only thing true about this story and the movie is the beauty of this song.

[topsham69]

@MisterNifty

No, the sleepy, little town of Atmore, Alabama still rests w/ its past. Children climb up live oak trees, and neighbors sip iced tea from veranda rockin' chairs. The sweltering summer heat still makes you wipe your brow, and folks remember what their mamas said bout acting respectable. My great uncle, Marcellus McGinnis practiced law there in the forties. It's a place I've physically visited many times, & part of my spirit has never really left. It's warm cornbread in a skillet.

[MisterNifty]

@topsham69 Literature is the worst crime ever perpetuated by tyranny against the people.

[Heylilvelvet]

I've always liked Atticus's character. He defended the blacks and so do I. I love every person of every color in the rainbow. I love every person from skinny to heavy. I may have enemies, but I never hate them forever. I soon begin loving them again.

[jimmyb227]

Good morning, everyone! Just watched this again the other night- if you have never seen the movie, it comes highly recommended! The character of Atticus Finch was named the Greatest Movie Hero of All Time some years ago. Watch this movie, and you will certainly understand why! Have a great day, all!

[andresgvasquez]

4:00 to 4:47 is the part that appears in Vanilla Sky

[bookworm2445]

This music is beautiful. It always makes me think of my own childhood when I used to run across fields on a farm my aunt and uncle owned during the summer. And how I would read To kill a mockingbird every summer as I got older on my bed right next to the window in the house next to the barn.

[gva0917]

This is not only beautiful music; it happens to be one of my top, all-time favorite books and movie. I hear the music now around 1:05 and the chills come - I love things that move me so much! The song is hauntingly beautifu; I can visual scenes from the movie just hearing it. To Kill A Mockingbird's incantations are powerful, thought provoking and beautiful. According to Webster's "...words said as a magic spell or charm."  That works for me!! Thank you for this grand post.

[chkjns]

@gva0917 Thanks for a chance to hear this again Gayle - my comment was on pg 3! Thanks to Joker for posting a real gem here. This is on 3 of my 625 playlists: Elmer Bernstein, Film Favorites, & Music of 1962. Whether they search by artist, genre or year, I want people to find this one! Have you seen my channel in Portuguese? Tell me hat you think! chuck

[chkjns]

@gva0917 Thanks for a chance to hear this again Gayle - my comment was on pg 3! Thanks to Joker for posting a real gem here. This is on 3 of my 625 playlists: Elmer Bernstein, Film Favorites, & Music of 1962. Whether they search by artist, genre or year, I want people to find this one! Have you seen my channel in Portuguese? Tell me what you think! chuck

[musicsoothesusall]

Exquisite....hauntingly beautiful....brings me back to my childhood days...Oh, the sweet memories that fill my heart and mind so....I used to wish I could sit in Atticus's lap, while he read to me as he did Scout...Such a wonderful and caring Father...Such a beautiful man, a beautiful film forever...My all-time favorite !!!! (I was a little girl when this film came out...watched on TV around age 10

[musicsoothesusall]

Exquisite....hauntingly beautiful....brings me back to my childhood days...Oh, the sweet memories that fill my heart and mind so....I used to wish I could sit in Atticus's lap, while he read to me as he did Scout...Such a wonderful and caring Father...Such a beautiful man, a beautiful film forever...My all-time favorite !!!!

[soprana90]

omg i read the book and afterwords saw the movie and once I heard the opening credits, I fell in live withthis song. I LOVE 0:41-1:02

<3

[pippozg]

didnt bernstien write the music for west side story? love this

[LoseorLive]

I Just adore this song. I play the french horn. I might ask my band director to play this

[TheTravelingIdiot]

1:36 until 2:06 always gets to me. Makes me wish I could go back in time to when I was young, my parents were both healthy, and life was much brighter than it is right now.

[Nater389]

@TheTravelingIdiot I couldn't agree more on the section of music. The music opens up and the orchestra gets loud...I love it.

[DaChris2368]

I Love Elmer Bernsteins Work! Thumbs up if you agree.

[brownve511]

this song had me crying my eyes out one day

[chetdog]

In year 10 english I had to study this novel. and I wrote the essay and got an 'A' for it.

[pippozg]

@chetdog I recently did one in gr.9 last week and got a 97

[theartisticpianist]

it's so simple and so effective, I love it :)

[HarmonicaWarrior]

how could no 1 like this movie and theme music? 1 of the best movies ever a feel good movie.

[Gorseheart]

Love this song! IT's very calming. Love the book and the movie. It bothers me when people don't know a good thing when they see it. I be the kids today ignore it when they learn it in 9 and 10 grade. I'm reading it now and I start 10 tomorrow.

[mewkitty4897]

@Gorseheart I'm in 8th grade and I just read the book and watched the movie for my reading class. I was brought to tears by it and the music in the movie was beautiful, the movie itself was beautiful. I just finished it today. People in my class said it was boring. I was angry at them. I'd like you to know that some people don't ignore the beauty of stories like this... and I understand why your bothered by it.

[Gorseheart]

@mewkitty4897

Thank you. The other day, I turned the TV on, and on the TCM Was To Kill A Mockingbird, but the last ten seconds of it. It made me cry. It is one of the greatest film and book I have ever come to know.

[mewkitty4897]

@Gorseheart It really is. :) It's such a beautiful story.

[chkjns]

Some composers, like Elmer Bernstein here, seem to have a special gift in tugging at our hearts. Others just make us feel GOOD! I have 500 playlists waiting for you - 300 artists, like Bernstein, each have a list, and every year since 1900 has a playlist, so you can listen as if you were back in the time of your youth or even the youth of your grandparents.

You'll hear this song on playlist Music of 1962.

Thanks to Joker for posting this amazing gem!

[jeffwpope]

Jay-Z should sample this dawg.....that shit would be off da chain!!! fo real!

[GeorgiaWarBoy81]

I love this music. This is one of my all time favorite movies. There is so much to learn from this movie. It gives a great persepective into the life of rural america during the great depression.

[MrSaturn33]

lol, no thumbs downs.

[grumbo1563]

My high school band performed this as our balad for our marching program this year, i didnt even recognize it till just recently haha ive seen this movie so many times too.

[mickeyh1961]

This movie is all that is great about America, I love its simplicity & like so many more of the contributors it brings me back to my own childhood in a small rural town close knit where values were respected & Understood. A great American movie classic.

[hollbri]

one of the best and most touchung movies ever,and something more i can't say...

[cbabiarz]

I want to play this at my Dad's Memorial Services because he was my Atticus!!

[MrSaturn33]

@cbabiarz :'(

[SHmacro44]

We just watched this movie in enlgish and the whole class was sleeping or drawing and I was soooooooo tooned into this movie. Its a great movie 10/10. I was the only person who clapped at the end of the movie too. lol

[MULESLAX]

everybody dies.

[gali32731]

WIDESCREEN EDITION

[tuxedosponge]

2:06 - 2:28 makes me tear up. I can't say why for sure. Maybe it's evoking my own childhood memories in a bittersweet way or something...anybody else get goosey at that part?

[MVR326]

tuxedosponge, I can definatly see why you would feel that durring that sequence. This score is so haunting but beautiful and rich, bittersweet, deeply poignant and dramatic. The sequence youre referring to from 2:06 actually reminds me of Ravel. Regardless, it is an Elmer Bernstein gem !

[cpinc40]

It is marvelous ... just fits the movie to perfection.

[mikhailguy]

@tuxedosponge

Yes.

[brownve511]

@tuxedosponge i start full out crying at that part, gets me every time

[musicsoothesusall]

@brownve511

SO DO I, EVERY SINGLE TIME....

[headedsomewhere]

@tuxedosponge you just explained something to me as well. I always wondered why when I heard this song it does that to me, and now I know. have a great day. Lady L.

[ForeverOldiesO1]

@tuxedosponge Sweetie...the whole song makes me tear up..we are reading the book in school now, even though I have already read the book and see the movie 1000 times...and every time I do, I cry like baby. When we finally get around to watching the movie in school, everyone is going to be like..OMG YOUR A FREAK

[LilysApple]

So many thing about this movie bring childhood memories flooding back. Growing up in the south in a small town a simpler time a time of wonder and innocents. My dad was Atticus fair modest and soft spoken. Swinging on a tire swing and running past the "scary house" on our way home from school. The music could not be more perfect.

[SaulCarp]

One of the best

[druxha]

I remember seeing this movie when I was about the same age as Scout. I wanted Atticus to be my dad, I thought he was the greatest, more fair man on earth. Scout was a sensitive, smart little girl, and I cried a river when they killed the black guy.

This music is so moving, it sounds like the dawn of understanding and a loss of

innocence's intermingled. So beautiful...music and movie.

[zako77728]

1:50 - 2:25

[NewOrleansWoman]

most beautiful song ever written.... of the south...of childhood...long summer nights...fireflies.... this song always makes me long for something I can't quite put my finger on.... I just want to do it all over again ....

[SuperSwingdancer]

I LOVE THIS SONG WITH ALL MY EARS!!!

[2009vendeta]

omg!!! this was my marching band ballad song last year :) :D

[blessOTMA]

if wonder and revelation have a sound track,  this is it. Its beauty immediately brings tears.

[TheMalgal123]

amazing book, amazing movie.

[AJNorth]

One of the great American novels, and finest motion pictures. Peck deservedly won his Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, his favorite role.

Elmer Brenstein's disarmingly simple, yet achingly poignant and evocative score fits the picture perfectly.

Robert Mulligan & Alan J. Pakula captured the essence of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to perfection. (Horton Foote's screenplay left out elements of the novel, else the film would have had a three-hour running time.) A treat!

[JEFFMM71]

this just makes me wonder how i grew up so fast, im only 17 but it seems like only yesterday i was about 7 playing in the backyard. kinda sad.

[res57]

Peck was Atticus Finch! I love this story.

[blackayumi]

This book really thought me alot of lessons... omg its so nice!

[moviefreek234]

Me too...it really changed my view of the world and I think about it almost everyday <3

[SuperAbby2009]

this song is just so lovely and so bittersweet.

[tripsadelica]

Bernstein's greatest piece of music ever...a triumph of wonder-making...of depicting the past without heavy sentiment...of how a minimal orchestra can be used to convey so much. The man was a master and this film, and its music, deserve the accolades it has received over the years. I strongly recommend "Boo Radley's theme"...so beautiful.

[erazaqi]

This song always get to me. Great song, great film, great book.

[LynneC44]

The music, as another poster put it..."heart breakingly beautiful." Summers from long ago...when times seemed simpler and all the wonder of childhood still lay in your heart....my grandmother always present even when she was not physically there...my cousins...

[SheltieMomm5]

OMD! Musical Scoring will make or break a movie! Public Enemies sorely needed a genius of sound like Bernstein!

..........kisses.........

[irarube]

my all time favorite. As good as the book --- if that's at all possible. Defintely Bernstein's finest work too. Captures the spirit and beauty of the story told from the perspective of the two children..... he gave us 2 wooden dolls, a watch, a set of marbles...... and our LIVES. Atticus once said you never really know a person til you walk around in their shoes. Just standintg there on the Radley porch was enough."

[dlpine71]

this is one of my two favorite movies ever, and is one of the very few to follow the book and be as good as the book, i think.

the music of elmer bernstein is the icing on a very delicious cake!!

david

[RLOVE47]

This is one of my favorite movies and remnds me of when I was their age and how the summers seemed to last forever! Playing until you were called in at dark--trying to stay longer if you could! Memories for a lifetime!

[Xeresa18]

I felt exactly the same sentiments when I first heard this theme and it evokes the same feeling everytime I hear it.

That music expresses so vividly how time felt as a child. Heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant!

[pluryandfj554]

I recently watched the movie, and i LOVE the music

[forren6]

I have this movie on DVD now. It just touches something within me when I hear the music.

thank you for posting this :)

[Brough1111]

seems to take me back to a simpler time,

when my brother and I ran across fields of grass racing and I never won he was just more of an athlete than I, he has passed I loved him

[JokerRecordings]

The perfect background theme for old footage of the childhood.

[bassmaster42493]

u filthy fatass

[09wilsonm]

Oh my gosh!!!!!!!

I forgot how much I loved this music.

I would watch the opening credits of this movie all the time. I would just rewind the VHS and watch it. I even tried to plink it out on the piano. Simply adore this. thanks for reminding me of this old flame Joker.