Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and directed by Robert Mulligan, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), an American legal drama crime film, was made at a time when the battles for civil-rights in the US were escalating towards the boiling point. Set in the racially segregated American South during the Great Depression of the 1930s, in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabana, the film is a timeless exploration of justice, morality, and innocence. However, the film uses the realities of its time only as a backdrop for the devotion of a brave white liberal. The film narrates the personal experience of a little girl, Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, whose widowed father, Atticus Finch, a principled and respected attorney, was appointed by John Tylor, the town judge, to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white girl Mayella Violet Ewell. However, the case brought up the worst racial impulses among many of the white townsfolk who were quick to convict Tom solely because he is a black man and tried to pursue Atticus to pull out of the trial. But despite social pressure, even exposing Scout and her brother to taunting at school, Atticus Finch took his stand to fight for the truth, exposing the darkness of systemic injustice, and at the same time, teaching his children the valuable lessons about courage, compassion, prejudice, and tolerance. To Kill a Mockingbird depicting a deeply human story about the fight of a man for social justice and establishing the truth, standing alone against heavy odds, also explores themes of nasty racism that was very much prevalent in the society of the 1930s Southern United States.

Jean Louise née Finch, nicknamed Scout, a six-year-old intelligent girl, and her preteen brother Jem Finch, were living happily in the fictional town of Maycomb, in the early 1930s, with their widowed father, a respected attorney, Atticus Finch, who had to manipulate his time between work and raising the kids, with the help of their housekeeper Calpurnia. During the time, Scout, Jem and their friend Dill, used to play games, and often stay with Aunt Stephanie, the Finches' next-door neighbour. They had an odd fixation on Arthur Boo Radley, a reclusive neighbour who lives with his brother Nathan, and considered him the scariest man in town. They never saw him, but occasionally, Jem found small objects left inside a tree knothole on the Radley property, which include a broken pocket watch, a medal for an old bee spelling competition, a pocket knife, and several carved soap dolls, which surprisingly resemble Jem and Scout.

Atticus Finch, a man of principal, strongly believed that everybody deserves fair treatment, and many of his clients were poor farmers who pay him for his services in trade, leaving him fresh produce, firewood, et al, which often exposes Scout and Jem to the town's racism, calling their father as lover of niggers. However, despite everything, Atticus always encourages his children to be empathetic and just, and specifically tells them that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because it does no harm, but only sings, suggesting that that the birds are innocent and harmless. It is therefore natural for Atticus to accept the proposal of John Taylor, the town judge, when he approaches him with the request to defend in a problematic case involving a Black man, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of raping a white girl. Nevertheless, White opinion was strongly against the black man, and Robert Bob Ewell, father of the so called victim, paying an ominous call on Atticus, alarming him to leave the case or face the consequences, indirectly threatening his children.

Initially, Tom Robinson was kept in the Abbotsville jail, located at a distant place, as the Sheriff Heck Tate thought he would be safer there. But as his trial was near, he was shifted at the town jail, which made Heck Tate apprehensive. Sensing trouble, on the evening before the trial, Atticus sits in a chair on the jail porch, apparently reading a book, to safeguard Robinson, while Jem also started to walk towards downtown, along with Scout and Dill. Nevertheless, by that time, several cars arrived at the spot, and men equipped with rifles approached the gate, when the kids pushed their way forward, and unexpectedly interrupted the confrontation, although they were unaware of the mob’s intention. Despite Atticus urged the children to go home, Scout refused to oblige, and recognising Mr. Cunningham, asked him politely to say hello to his son Walter, her classmate. Something in her tone made Cunningham look embarrassed, and gets the mob dispersed, along with him.

Next morning, mixed crowds of white and black people arrived at the courthouse to attend the trial, along with the children, where Atticus established that according to the testimony of the Sheriff, Mayella was badly beaten on the right side of her face and had finger marks all around her neck, to which the judge pointed out that it is evident that the assault was done by a left-handed. While it was alleged that Tom entered the Ewell property, Mayella testified in her statement that she asked Tom to chop up a piece of furniture in the yard, and that when she went in to get him a nickel, he followed her and brutally attacked her, showed signs of having been beaten. Later, when Tom was called to stand for identification, Atticus asked him to catch a small drinking glass with his left hand, when Atticus informed that he is incapable to catch it with his left hand, as his left arm was disabled due to a farming accident years ago. Tom also strongly denied that he attacked Mayella, but confessed she kissed him against his will. Therefore, it was established that the supposed rapist had assaulted Mayella with his left hand before raping her, while Tom Robinson was not in a position to use his left hand. Finally, Atticus pointed out the lack of evidence in the matter, the fact that no doctor examined Mayella after the alleged incident and that Mayella was actually beaten by Bob Ewell, her left-handed father, when he caught her seducing the young black defendant.

In the closing chapter of the case, despite Atticus Finch’s request to the all-white male jurors to give up their prejudices before giving their verdict, Tom was found guilty. After Atticus returned home, Sheriff Tate visited him to inform that Tom was shot dead by a deputy when he broke loose and ran crazily attempting to escape. To inform the family of Tom's death, Atticus and Jem visited them, when Bob Ewell appeared and spat in the face of Atticus, who calmly wiped his face without any repercussion.

After a few days, one day during autumn when Scout and Jem were returning home after attending an evening school pageant, Jem wearing the large, hard-shelled costume, they were attacked by an unseen assailant, who knocked Jem unconscious. However, the assailant was attacked and killed by another man, whom Scout could not see as her costume restricted her vision, but she heard a loud grunt and saw a man in the baggy shirt carrying Jem to their house. Somehow, she wriggles out of her large, hard-shelled costume, and ran into the arms of her frantic father, and found Jem unconscious with a badly broken arm. She also noticed a strange man behind Jem's bedroom door, with whom Atticus introduced her to be their reclusive neighbour Arthur Boo Radley. Later, when Sheriff Tate reported that Bob Ewell was found dead at the scene, and probably he attacked the kids to take revenge for Atticus humiliating him in court, Atticus presumed that Jem killed Ewell in self-defence. However, deep in his mind, Sheriff Tate knew the truth, he knew that it was definitely Arthur Boo Radley, who killed Ewell to protect the children. But as he did not want to drag the quiet, shy and introvert Boo into the spotlight, he insisted on declaring Ewell accidentally fell on his own knife. To the utter surprise of Atticus, Scout agreed to the proposal, pointing out that the unwelcome attention would be like killing a mockingbird, that does nothing but sing. Nevertheless, Atticus thanked Arthur Boo for saving his children, and Scout accompanied him to his home, but before returning home, she took a moment to stand in the Radley porch.

To Kill a Mockingbird, depicting the memories of a young girl, as well as a darker drama about the roots and consequences of racism and prejudice, earned overwhelmingly positive reception from both the critics and the public, nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won three, which included the Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Gregory Peck. Considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1995, and in 2003, the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch as the greatest movie hero of the 20th century.