Movie Analysis: Comparison between Casablanca, 12 Angry Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird

Films and their Societal Messages

Films come in a variety of genres and are made for a variety of causes. While all movies are meant to entertain, others are made with the intention of conveying a strong message about problems in society. While other movies will focus on science, comedy, and love, some of the difficult subjects that will be covered thematically include racism, corruption, and violence. Three films were produced in a timely manner and with utter fearlessness, and they are strong in their articulation of the message with relation to the important societal issues. They are To Kill a Mockingbird, Casablanca, and 12 Angry Men. The three movies include the themes of racial segregation and prejudice in a world in which people struggling with self-identity. In all these film, strong political messages were passed along.

Casablanca: War and its Consequences

Casablanca is a story that originates from the World War II, during which the whole of Europe was in war and the Nazi racially profiled people. The plot surrounds scenes in Casablanca, Morocco in North Africa, where Europeans tried to get visas and other paperwork they would need to get into the United States. A primary theme in this film is war and its consequences on the civilians of different nations around the world. Laszlo escapes from a concentration camp and needs help with his wife Ilsa, in order to escape further impacts of the conflicts (Curtiz). At the time, Germany wanted world domination and threatened to invade not only the whole of Europe, but the whole world. The USA played a significant role in stopping the European war. American policies supported egalitarianism, and condemned racial prejudice. The main message, as depicted in the film is that racism and other forms of focus on individual characteristic differences results in war and death of many innocent civilians (127). The USA comes in as an international conflict resolver, a role that continued to dominate the rest of the 20th Century.

12 Angry Men: Race and Justice

The major themes in 12 Angry Men include race and justice. As the title suggests, this story involves 12 jurors who are charged with making a decision regarding a murder case involving a Black teenager. It surrounds events of a courtroom involving a case in which an 18-year old African American boy is charged with killing his father. When the judge calls upon the team of 12 men to make a unanimous decision, they all agree on the guilty verdict with the exception of one, Juror number 8 (Lumet). The initial decision involved evidence that the knife used to stab the deceased was unique and had been sold to the boy earlier before the murder occurred. In his presentation of doubts, Juror 8 manages to convince the rest of the team members that the boy could be innocent, and they arrive at a stalemate as they cannot proceed without a unanimous decision. Race becomes an issue when it is revealed that Juror 10 tells the rest to vote for execution because the boy was black. The movie was significant at the time of release because racism was a significant topic in the 1950s, and many judges would be easily swayed for this reason. However, this issue is resolved as Juror 8 manages to convince the rest that they can stand above their prejudices for the sake of constitutionalism and justice (146). This film is political in the sense that it went against the societal norm to defend Blacks, showing that they had rights under the US constitution and were to be treated in a similar manner as the Whites.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Race, Justice, and More

To Kill A Mockingbird also involves the themes of race and justice, and others such as femininity, fear, morality, and youth. It is based on a town called Maycomb, Alabama, with a narration from a child’s perspective of how a Black man named Tom Robinson had been accused of raping a White girl with little evidence, and yet the case seemed to proceed. The narrator’s father, Atticus, had taken on this case to defend the accused (Mulligan). His children are picked on at school because of their father’s decision to defend a racial minority individual. Jem and Scout had learnt that the Blacks despised the Whites and blamed them for their misfortunes, something that directly reflected in the American society at the time of release of the movie (293). Issues of race were rife in the mid-20th century, and as is seen in the 12 Angry Men, being Black qualified any juror to put a person through torture for false and baseless accusations. Maycomb was perfectly selected for its traditional conservativeness in which, at the time, Blacks were considered as people with no rights. The political message expressed through the film is the policy of egalitarianism that Franklin Roosevelt’s administration had adopted at the time (292). Therefore, it was aimed at racial integration of the American people regardless of their races.

Relevance Today

The three films, being Hollywood products of the mid-20th century, were made at a time when racial prejudice was high and people had little intolerance for each other. Whether based on American or foreign issues, they all propose an egalitarian agenda in which everyone is equal. They are as relevant today as they were at the time of their release as the fight for equality is still on. Their political agenda to unite everyone in a just society was expressed strongly.

Works Cited

12 Angry Men. Dir. Sidney Lumet. 1957. Film.

Casablanca. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Perf. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. 1942. Film.

Haas, Elizabeth, Terry Christensen and Peter J. Haas. Projecting Politics: Political Messages in American Films. Routledge, 2015. Print.

To Kill a Mockingbird. Dir. Robert Mulligan. 1962. Film.