TODAY ONLY, SATURDAY FEB 15, 2 PM at HARBOR THEATER!
Join us for To Kill a Mockingbird, the timeless classic of bigotry and quiet heroism.
“My God, he’s got a little pot belly just like my Daddy” -Harper Lee seeing Gregory Peck suited up for Atticus Finch
“That’s no pot belly, Harper, that’s great acting.” -Gregory Peck
It's hard to imagine an actor more perfectly suited for a character than Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the film adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. The character was based on Lee’s father. Curiously, Peck wasn’t the first choice to play the role, Rock Hudson was among those considered by the studio and Jimmy Stewart turned down the role due to the potential controversy of its story. Peck’s agent tried to talk him out of the role as it could alienate his fans in the south. Thankfully he was given the role and the rest is history. Few film heroes portray such moral integrity through simple unpopular actions. Harper Lee always claimed no one else could play the character she created.
While it caused a stir when it came out in 1962, the film is set decades earlier in depression-era Alabama from experiences based on the childhood of Harper Lee. It is set in a town based on Lee’s childhood home, yet it was shot on a Hollywood set. While many of the characters are inspired by real people like Lee’s father and Truman Capote, it is not strictly autobiographical, and the specific court case was based on many cases of unjust treatment of black men in the deep south during Jim Crow.
The film won three Oscars including Best Adapted Screenplay for Horton Foote and Best Actor for Gregory Peck. The role, Peck always maintained, was his favorite of his career. The film lost Best Picture to the epic classic Lawrence of Arabia, which is another film for the ages. Later the American Film Institute named Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch as the greatest film hero of all time. Peck could play so many different types of roles from evil villains like Joseph Mengele to supersized egos like Douglas MacArthur, but it is undoubtedly his role as morally pure Atticus Finch willing to stand up for an unpopular cause is his greatest legacy. No film hero stays with one quite like Finch, knowing when it’s right to stand up but also when not to fight back.
Tickets: Adults $12 | Children (under 18) $8. Member Pricing: Adults $8 | Children $6
