To Kill a Mockingbird

Plot summary

Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning book of 1960. Atticus Finch is a lawyer in a racially divided Alabama town in the 1930s. He agrees to defend a young black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Many of the townspeople try to get Atticus to pull out of the trial, but he decides to go ahead. How will the trial turn out - and will it change any of the racial tension in the town ? Written by Colin Tinto {cst@imdb.com}

Through the eyes of "Scout," a feisty six-year-old tomboy, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD carries us on an odyssey through the fires of prejudice and injustice in 1932 Alabama. Presenting her tale first as a sweetly lulling reminiscence of events from her childhood, the narrator draws us near with stories of daring neighborhood exploits by she, her brother "Jem," and their friend "Dill." Peopled with a cast of eccentrics, Maycomb ("a tired and sleepy town") finds itself the venue of the trial of Tom Robinson, a young black man falsely accused of raping an ignorant white woman. Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem's widowed father and a deeply principled man, is appointed to defend Tom for whom a guilty verdict from an all-white jury is a foregone conclusion. Juxtaposed against the story of the trial is the children's hit and run relationship with Boo Radley, a shut-in who the children and Dill's Aunt Stephanie suspect of insanity and who no one has seen in recent history. Cigar-box treasures, found in the knot hole of a tree near the ramshackle Radley house, temper the children's judgment of Boo. "You never know someone," Atticus tells Scout, "until you step inside their skin and walk around a little." But fear keeps them at a distance until one night, in streetlight and shadows, the children confront an evil born of ignorance and blind hatred and must somehow find their way home. Written by Mark Fleetwood {mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu}

The place: a small town in the south of the United States. The time: the early 20th century. A black man is accused of raping a woman, and an idealistic lawyer gets to defend him. We start watching the reasons that make his defense far from easy; and that's mostly because nobody in this town seems determined to believe in the guiltlessness of an accused negro. Written by Chris Makrozahopoulos {makzax@hotmail.com}

An American film classic, based upon a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel: In the rural American south during the depths of the Depression, two children watch as their principled father takes a stand against intolerance. A gentle and leisurely movie despite some rough content, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' benefits immensely from its near-perfect casting, particularly of Mary Badham and Philip Alford as the children and Gregory Peck in the role for which he is best remembered, as their wise and patient father. Superb storytelling; superb film. Written by Carl Schultz

Cast of To Kill a Mockingbird

	Gregory Peck	...	Atticus Finch
	John Megna	...	Charles Baker 'Dill' Harris
	Frank Overton	...	Sheriff Heck Tate
	Rosemary Murphy	...	Maudie Atkinson
	Ruth White	...	Mrs. Dubose
	Brock Peters	...	Tom Robinson
	Estelle Evans	...	Calpurnia
	Paul Fix	...	Judge Taylor
	Collin Wilcox Paxton	...	Mayella Violet Ewell (as Collin Wilcox)
	James Anderson	...	Robert E. Lee 'Bob' Ewell
	Alice Ghostley	...	Aunt Stephanie Crawford
	Robert Duvall	...	Arthur 'Boo' Radley
	William Windom	...	Mr. Gilmer, Prosecutor
	Crahan Denton	...	Walter Cunningham Sr.
	Richard Hale	...	Nathan Radley