To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Synopsis of To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer/director team of Robert Mulligan and Alan J. Pakula. Set a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on scrupulously honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch, magnificently embodied by Gregory Peck. Finch puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of rape. The trial and the events surrounding it are seen through the eyes of Finch's six-year-old daughter Scout (Mary Badham). While Robinson's trial gives the film its momentum, there are plenty of anecdotal occurrences before and after the court date: Scout's ever-strengthening bond with older brother Jem (Philip Alford), her friendship with precocious young Dill Harris (a character based on Lee's childhood chum Truman Capote and played by John Megna), her father's no-nonsense reactions to such life-and-death crises as a rampaging mad dog, and especially Scout's reactions to, and relationship with, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his movie debut), the reclusive "village idiot" who turns out to be her salvation when she is attacked by a venomous bigot. To Kill a Mockingbird won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Peck), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Theatrical Feature Running Time:

130 mins

Director(s):

Robert Mulligan

Writer(s):

Horton Foote

Producer(s):

Alan J. Pakula

• 1998 - American Film Institute - 100 Greatest American Movies
• 1963 - Cannes Film Festival - Gary Cooper Award
• 1962 - Golden Globe - Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding
• 1962 - Hollywood Foreign Press Association - Best Original Score
• 1962 - Hollywood Foreign Press Association - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
• 1962 - Hollywood Foreign Press Association - Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding
• 1994 - Library of Congress - U.S. National Film Registry

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