<P> The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and was a box - office success, earning more than six times its budget . The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck, and was nominated for eight, including Best Picture . </P> <P> In 1995, the film was listed in the National Film Registry . In 2003, the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century . In 2007 the film ranked twenty - fifth on the AFI's 10th anniversary list of the greatest American movies of all time . In 2005, the British Film Institute included it in their list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14 . The film was restored and released on Blu - ray and DVD in 2012 as part of the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures . </P> <P> The film's young protagonists, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham) and her brother Jeremy Atticus "Jem" Finch (Phillip Alford), live in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the early 1930s . The story covers three years, during which Scout and Jem undergo changes in their lives . They are innocent children, spending their days happily playing games with each other and spying on Arthur "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall) who has not left his home for many years and about whom many rumors circulate . Their widowed father, Atticus (Gregory Peck), is a town lawyer and has strong beliefs that all people are to be treated fairly, to turn the other cheek, and to stand for what you believe . He also allows his children to call him by his first name . Early in the film, the children see their father accept hickory nuts, and other produce, from Mr. Cunningham (Crahan Denton) for legal work because the client has no money . Through their father's work as a lawyer, Scout and Jem begin to learn of the racism and evil in their town, aggravated by poverty; they mature quickly as they are exposed to it . </P> <P> The local judge (Paul Fix) appoints Atticus to defend a black man, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), against an accusation of rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox). Atticus accepts the case . Jem and Scout experience schoolyard taunts for their father's decision . Later, as Atticus is sitting in front of the local jail to safeguard Robinson, a lynch mob arrives, which includes Mr. Cunningham . Scout, Jem and their friend, Dill (John Megna), interrupt the confrontation . Scout, unaware of the mob's purpose, recognizes Cunningham as the man who paid her father in hickory nuts and tells him to say hello to his son, who is her schoolmate . Cunningham becomes embarrassed and the mob disperses . </P>

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