An Old-Fashioned Hero.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: REEL WORLD - Atticus Finch of "To Kill a Mockingbird"

THIS YEAR MARKS the 15th anniversary of the American Film Institute selecting the 100 Greatest Heroes in cinema history. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) topped the list. To provide a sense of the competition, Finch was followed by Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981); James Bond (Sean Connery) in "Dr. No" (1962); Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in "Casablanca" (1942); and Will Kane (Gary Cooper) in "High Noon" (1952).

"Mockingbird" was based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and, as a movie, went on to be nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning in three categories: Best Actor (Peck), Best Screen Adaptation (Horton Foote), and Best Art Direction-Interior (Henry Bumstead and Alexander Golitzen). In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked the picture 25th on its list of the country's 100 greatest movies. Even before this honor, the British Film Institute had upped the kudos by recommending "Mockingbird" as one of the 50 films one should see before reaching the age of 15.

The setting is a small fictionalized Alabama town during the Depression. Widower Atticus is a Lincolnesque lawyer with two pre-teen children, Jean "Scout" (Mary Badham) and her older brother Jeremy "Jem" (Phillip Afford). The family lives next to a reclusive, almost special-needs neighbor named Boo Radley (Robert Duvall's film debut). Because he is seldom seen, the children treat him as a potentially scary character. Yet, he leaves modest gifts for them in the hollow of a tree, and later rums out to be their protector.

Though the story covers roughly three years, it seems to be masterly accordioned into a shorter time by Scout's adult narration (Kim Stanley). Atticus defends a wrongly accused African-American, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters, giving a nuanced underrated performance) in a rape case. This takes place during what has been called "The Negro Holocaust" (1880-1950), when white mobs were responsible for lynching approximately 4,000 African-Americans for any degree of questioning their second-class Jim Crow status. Atticus, with unexpected help from Scout, manages to stop Tom's lynching. However, in court, despite the most-obvious measured proof of Tom's innocence, he is found guilty and executed before an appeal can be made.

Scout's mantra from her dad essentially comes down to "Equal rights for all; special privileges for none." Atticus more than deserves that top hero ranking. I was roughly...