To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
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Directed by: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, Robert Duvall
To Kill A Mockingbird ranked # 34 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 American Films list.
To Kill a Mockingbird was a 1960 novel by Harper Lee, which won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It was made into an Academy Award-
winning motion picture starring Gregory Peck by director Robert
Mulligan in 1962. A coming-of-age story, it is told from the point of
view of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, the young daughter of Atticus
Finch, an educated lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama, a small town in the
deep South of the United States. She is accompanied by her brother
Jem and their mutual friend Dill.
Truman Capote was a lifelong friend of childhood neighbor Harper, and
allegedly was the inspiration for Dill's character in her best-seller.
The title is taken from Atticus's advice to his children
about firing their air rifles at birds: "Shoot all the blue jays you
want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a
mockingbird". The blue jay is a very common bird, and is often
perceived as a bully and a pest, whereas mockingbirds do nothing but
"sing their hearts out for us".
Metaphorically, several of the film's characters can be seen as "mockingbirds", attacked despite doing nothing but good. The mockingbird represents innocence, and to kill one is to metaphorically kill innocence. Note that the protagonists
are also named after birds: Tom Robinson and the Finch family.
Awards
- Golden Globe Award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding
- Academy Award for Best Actor (Gregory Peck)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Gregory Peck)
- Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, Oliver Emert)
- Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay (Horton Foote)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture (Elmer Bernstein)
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