Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel became a 1962 film that earned Gregory Peck an Academy Award. Here is how the two versions differ, and what Lee made of the result.
The Book
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
The Film
To Kill a Mockingbird
Directed by Robert Mulligan, 1962
🔀 What Changed
The screenplay was written by Horton Foote, not Lee, and it adapts the novel by narrowing its focus. The book unfolds over roughly three years, while the film compresses that span into a tighter timeline. The novel is a sprawling portrait of Maycomb through Scout's eyes, with many side threads. The film trims those threads to keep the story moving toward the trial of Tom Robinson, which gives Atticus Finch a more central place on screen. Several characters and episodes from the book do not appear in the film. Aunt Alexandra is absent, and so is the story of Mrs. Dubose and her camellias, which takes up a significant stretch of the novel. The narration also changes in form. The novel is told by Scout looking back as an adult, and the film keeps that retrospective voice through an off-screen adult narrator, but it carries far less of her reflection than the book does.
🎙️ What the Author Said
Lee was reported to have been pleased with the film, and she formed a lasting friendship with Gregory Peck during and after production. She gave Peck a pocket watch that had belonged to her father, the attorney who inspired Atticus, and Peck is reported to have carried it on the night he won his Oscar. Lee famously gave few interviews in later life, so extended commentary from her on the adaptation is limited in the public record.
“Lee gave Peck her father's pocket watch.”
Two versions of the same Maycomb summer, one on the page and one on the screen. Which one earns your vote?
