Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird

This touching documentary from writer-producer-director Mary McDonagh Murphy looks at the stunning success of Harper Lee's semiautobiographical 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which won a Pulitzer Prize, inspired a beloved movie starring Gregory Peck, and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Although Lee led a closely guarded private life, the filmmaker draws on enough family history here to provide the necessary context for telling the story of the Alabama writer who would never pen another book. Author of Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy starts with a look at Lee's Monroeville childhood, including her friendship with Truman Capote, who inspired the character of Dill Harris, companion to young narrator Scout in the novel. Archival photos and excerpts from letters provide the backdrop for commentary from assorted individuals, including well-known figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Richard Russo, Tom Brokaw, and Andrew Young, as well as Mary Badham, who played Scout in the 1962 film; Lee's 99-year-old attorney sister, Alice Finch Lee; and others who've known her through the years, such as Michael and Joy Brown, a couple who not only befriended Lee while she was working in New York but also gave her enough money to take a year off to write what would eventually become her iconic novel. Some of the commentators here read passages from the book, which are set to scenes from Robert Mulligan's Oscar-winning motion picture. Lee herself stopped granting interviews in the 1960s, so Murphy incorporates archival radio material to fill that void. DVD extras include bonus interviews, and a text bio of the director. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)