When I think of filmmakers who are perfectly in tune with their times, I usually think of those who tackle pressing political or social issues. However, the great American director Robert Mulligan, whose centenary is this month, was the opposite. His work wasn’t tied to a specific era; instead, it focused on the universal and timeless states of childhood, adolescence, and love.
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From his Oscar-winning classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” to the nostalgic “Summer of ’42,” Mulligan developed a cinematic style that was expressive, lyrical, and deeply aligned with the internal dramas of his characters. At the time of his death in 2008, he was truly Hollywood’s last poet standing.
🎬 Finding His Voice with ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
After starting his career directing television in the 1950s, Mulligan found the project that would perfectly align with his vision: “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962). The film, starring Gregory Peck as the heroic lawyer Atticus Finch, was released amidst the civil rights movement, but Mulligan found a more poetic angle on the story.
He chose to emphasize the viewpoint of Atticus’s children, Scout and Jem. By framing the action from their innocent and worshipful perspective, and using narration from an adult Scout, he beautifully preserved the unique texture of Harper Lee’s novel. The film was a massive success, winning three Oscars, including Best Actor for Peck. This empathy for young people became a hallmark of his career.
☀️ The Bittersweet Nostalgia of ‘Summer of ’42’
Another of my favorite Mulligan films is “Summer of ’42” (1971). The story centers on three teenage boys during a wartime summer, but it takes a serious turn when one of them, Hermie, develops feelings for a young woman whose husband is away at war.
Mulligan’s visual and lyrical style shines in this film. He masterfully captures Hermie’s rapt admiration for the woman, Dorothy, aided by Michel Legrand’s Oscar-winning score. The film’s most powerful scene, in my opinion, is a nearly silent one where Dorothy, having just learned she’s been widowed, shares a heartbreaking, trance-like dance with her young friend. It required immense delicacy and tact to render this quasi-romance believably, and Mulligan handled it perfectly.
🌙 A Return to Youth in His Final Films
To conclude his career, Mulligan returned to his home turf: the joys and sorrows of growing up. His final film, “The Man in the Moon” (1991), was a magisterial work starring a young Reese Witherspoon in her first screen role. She plays a tomboy in 1950s Louisiana who falls for an older boy, only to see him develop a romance with her older sister. Mulligan visualized her angst and yearning with graceful, kinetic photography, launching a major screen career in the process.
Mulligan was a filmmaker whose straightforward narratives and stirring cinematic style are easy to neglect today. He once wrote to a journalist, “I walked away and I don’t look back.” We, however, are free to look back on the rhapsodic heights this singular filmmaker attained.
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