HEY BOO: HARPER LEE & TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (MOTION PICTURE)
Summary
This documentary film is about Harper Lee and her famous 1960 novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The program begins with a 1964 interview with Lee in which she discusses her reaction of “sheer numbness” to the immediate and overwhelming positive response to her book. The long publication process of the book is then explored: in 1957, Lee, then working as an airline agent, stayed with friends Joy and Michael Brown in New York over Christmas and met with a publisher to discuss her unfinished manuscript entitled “Atticus.” Having recently come into some money, the Browns gifted Lee with a year off from her job to spend time writing, believing that her success was “a sure thing.” Once published, the novel instantly became a best-seller and won many awards, including the Pulitzer, and actor Gregory Peck, who portrayed Atticus in the 1962 film, talks about its resonance. Assorted writers and other notable readers weigh in with their opinions and memories of the book, including Oprah Winfrey, Wally Lamb, Tom Brokaw, James McBride, Roseanne Cash and others. The book is also frequently taught in middle and high schools, and students are shown offering their interpretations in classroom discussions, noting the lessons about racism, tolerance and respect present in the story. The book’s use of “the N-word” is also explored, and students evaluate what it means in context. The book’s characters are discussed in detail: narrator Scout, a young tomboy at the time of the book’s events, is said to be a quintessential American character for her curiosity and feisty challenging of the norm, and her refusal to behave like “a lady” speaks to society’s views of young girls based on their femininity. Actress Mary Badham, who portrayed Scout in the 1962 film adaptation, discusses her fondness for the character. Author McBride points out the challenge of an adult narrator recounting her childhood days in an authentic voice. The novel was more of a collection of short stories initially and required polishing; editor Tay Hohoff assisted her in her two-year revision process and eventual retitling of the book. The famous opening lines, in which Scout relates simply how her brother Jem broke his arm, are explained to symbolically outline the rest of the story, reflecting Lee’s experience in the tradition of Southern storytelling, forged in her youth in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee’s childhood in the Depression-era South is clearly represented in the novel, and her 99-year-old sister Alice talks about their impoverished lifestyle and the need for children to use their imagination for entertainment. The book’s hero, Scout’s father Atticus, is shown to be based largely on Lee’s own father, also a well-loved lawyer with “genuine humility.” Lee explains that she “grew up in a courtroom,” observing his cases, and that he gave her her first typewriter. The secondary character of Dill Harris, based on Lee’s friend Truman Capote, is then examined: he and Lee were neighbors and both “odd birds,” and he ended up basing a character of Idabel in “Other Voices, Other Rooms” upon her in turn.
The houses where Lee and Capote grew up are now gone, Lee’s father having sold the house after the sudden deaths of his wife and son, but the courthouse is now a museum for fans of the novel to visit. Various writers discuss Lee’s ability to take her own experiences and “transform the material” into something accessible to all. The memorable, mysterious character of Boo Radley is then analyzed; the mystique of the unseen neighborhood stranger in the supposedly spooky house has been emulated by writers ever since, and author James Patterson comments on Lee’s skill with tension and suspense. The story also contains a great deal of racial tension as well: activist Andrew Young explains that when the book was published in 1960, it was “too close” to his actual experiences of the civil rights movement, and he notes Lee’s bravery in telling such a story in the midst of controversy and violence. As explained, the book seeks to point out that the racist attitudes held by many characters were “the norm,” and it took great courage to stand up to it, as Atticus does. The “courageous” decision to end the book on a tragic or morally “gray” note highlighted “what was wrong with the system” and what needed changing.
Atticus himself is then examined, with focus on his close, loving relationship with his daughter Scout and the scene in which he explains to her his moral need to defend Tom Robinson, as well as the scene where he grimly and skillfully executes a mad dog. Winfrey talks about her fondness for the memorable scene in which the black audience members in the courthouse silently rise as Atticus exits, with Scout being told to “stand up, your father’s passin’.” Lee also assisted Capote with his own writings, specifically his 1966 “nonfiction novel” entitled “In Cold Blood;” her influence on him is depicted in the films “Capote” (2005) and “Infamous” (2006). It is explained that their friendship foundered after “To Kill a Mockingbird,” however, largely because of Capote’s jealously over its reception, and friends note the extreme contrast in the later lives despite their shared history. It is revealed, however, that he was the one who asked the Browns to look after his friend in New York.
Lee stated that she had “nothing but gratitude” for the creation of the 1962 film of “Mockingbird,” which won three Academy Awards, including one for Peck. The casting directors discuss their discovery of Badham and Phillip Alford, who played Jem, as well as the casting of Robert Duvall in his first film role as Boo. The film was released just before segregation was outlawed in the South, and Lee was frequently asked to comment on the real-life racial tensions in America. Badham notes that “ignorance hasn’t gone anywhere” since then, despite many law changes, and suggests that the book will always be relevant for its themes of intolerance. Lee gave her last full interview in March 1964 and then receded from public view, craving privacy and feeling that the press took “too many liberties” with her words. Despite spending years conducting research for her second book, “The Long Goodbye,” it never came to fruition, although she did publish a number of essays. A rumor arose that Capote may have ghost-written some or all of “Mockingbird,” but friends debunk this idea, noting the differences in style and the unlikelihood of Capote’s not taking credit for it. The film concludes as other associates speculate that Lee may be more like the shy, caring character of Boo than like Scout, and they discuss the powerful scene in which Boo is finally revealed and kindly greeted by Scout after he saves her and her brother from death, observing the emotional weight of such a simple scene.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 30, 2010
- RUNNING TIME: 1:21:49
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 105292
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; Literature
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Mary McDonagh Murphy … Executive Producer, Writer, Director
- Christopher Seward … Producer
- Bryony Kockler … Associate Producer
- Bob Mayer … Narrator
- Jennifer Laird White … Voice of Tay Hohoff
- Jane Beasley … Voice of Harper Lee
- Bob Mayer … Voice of Truman Capote
- Christopher Seward … Voice of Reporter, Voice of Maurice Crain
- Donna Coney Island … Voice of Idabel Tompkins
- Phillip Alford
- Mary Badham
- Tom Brokaw
- Joy Brown
- Michael Brown
- Truman Capote
- Roseanne Cash
- Robert Duvall
- Tay Hohoff
- Wally Lamb
- Alice Finch Lee
- Harper Lee
- James McBride
- James Patterson
- Gregory Peck
- Oprah Winfrey
- Andrew Young