The Southern Pines Public Library presents a free film screening on Sunday, Dec. 4, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., in conjunction with the annual Author Read Series.

This movie is based on the novel "The Lords of Discipline," by Pat Conroy, which is set in the 1960s at the fictional Carolina Military Institute of South Carolina.

The novel was controversial when it was published in 1980 because it depicts The Citadel, on which it is believed the Carolina Military Institute is based, as a violent, corrupt and racially discriminatory school.

Conroy attended the military academy in the mid-1960s and played basketball there.

The R-rated 1983 film version of the novel stars David Keith, Robert Prosky, Barbara Babcock and Judge Reinhold, and was filmed in England after The Citadel refused to allow the filming to take place on campus.

Two local graduates of The Citadel will be viewing the film and participating in discussion following the movie: the Rev. Fred Thompson, 1951 graduate of The Citadel, who has not previously seen the movie nr read the book, and Tom Marsh, 1965 Citadel graduate, who was a cadet with Pat Conroy.

All library programs are sponsored by the Friends of Southern Pines Library and are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.sppl.net or www.facebook.com/SPPL .LIB or call (910) 692-8235.