JFS To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

Screened: 1st November 2003

USA 1962
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Leading players - Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, Robert Duvall.

Synopsis

Atticus Finch (Peck), is a small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, who gives an impassioned, if ill-fated, defence of a black man (Peters) who has been wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. Through this unfolding drama, Finch’s children are forced to get to grips with the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred while at the same time overcoming their fear of the unknown as personified by their bogeyman neighbour Boo Radley (Duvall).

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Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize winning novel, UIP followed through by winning three 1963 Oscars for Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction along with five more nominations and 2 BAFTA nominations the following year and remains ranked 34 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 Greatest American Films.
Recognised by many as one of Gregory Peck’s finest performances, although it’s black and white, American, set in the 1930s and made in the 1960s, it is the pressing morality of the issues raised in this film (racial prejudice, hatred, tolerance, integrity and courage) that still make for essential viewing.