To Kill a Mockingbird and Lethal Weapon

Once again I have not read To Kill a Mockingbird in some time, but I am more than familiar with the Lethal Weapon series and hopefully today's entry, done in lieu of studying, will convince you of the similarities between the two.

Good and evil. It is a common theme in literature and Hollywood. A few years ago, the American Film Institute came out with a list titled the "100 Greatest Heroes and Villains" or something like that. Number one on that list was Atticus Finch, the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird (or, more correctly, the Gregory Peck portrayal of him in the movie version) was named the number 1 greatest hero of all time. However the idea of a hero, like the idea of good, needs a counterbalance. So who was the villain in To Kill a Mockingbird? To put simply it was Bob Ewell, the personification of racism, a pitiful man and quite evil. He was the counterbalance to Atticus Finch and all that was good. Atticus, an attorney, took the case of a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl, Bob Ewell's daughter. after finding in himself a set of morals not allowing him to not take the case.

Martin Riggs, as portrayed by Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series, did not make AFI's greatest heroes list. However, this does not do anything less to his roll as a hero. So just as Atticus Finch stood up against the racist white community of the fictional Maycomb, Alabama, Martin Riggs stood up against a band of mercenaries smuggling drugs into the city of Los Angeles. He had no one to help him and most people could not tolerate a cop on the edge. Riggs helps his partner, Roger Murtagh, an aging African-American cop played by Danny Glover, solve the mystery of his friends murder. They run across a band of mercenaries smuggling drugs into the city; the main antagonist being Mr. Joshua, played wonderfully by Gary Busey.

As we can see the stage is set for a great showdown between good and evil. Just as Atticus Finch could not morally recuse himself from not taking the case, Martin Riggs could not say no when Murtagh asked for his help after Mr. Joshua and his cronies kidnap Murtagh's daughter. In To Kill a Mockingbird a vicious mob gathers outside of the jail to lynch Finch's client. Finch literally stands between the mob and the jail and faces them down. In Lethal Weapon, after an extended torture scene of Riggs and Murtagh, Mr. Joshua's boss says to Murtagh, "no one is going to save you, there are no more heroes left in the world," at which point Riggs bursts in, killing everyone and they get the 'flock' out of there.

Atticus Finch confronts evil in the form of racism and teaches his children a valuable life lesson that "you must always confront evil, even if you cannot win". Martin Riggs confronts evil in the form of Mr. Joshua. As always, evil does not win.