Stewart opened the new decade with an appearance in the war film "The Mountain Road" (1960). To his surprise, it was a box office failure, despite his claims that it was one of the best scripts he'd ever read. He began a new director-collaboration with John Ford, making his debut in his films in the Western "Two Rode Together" (1961), which had thematic echoes of Ford's "The Searchers". The same year, he also narrated the film "X-15" for the USAAF. Stewart was considered for the role of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", but he turned it down, concerned that the story was too controversial.