Sounder (film)
Sounder is a 1972 American DeLuxe Color drama film in Panavision directed by Martin Ritt, and starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, and Kevin Hooks.[4] The film was adapted by Lonne Elder III from the 1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder by William H. Armstrong.[5] A story concerning an African-American family in the Deep South during the Great Depression, the film was both a critical and box office success.
| Sounder | |
|---|---|
 Original poster | |
| Directed by | Martin Ritt |
| Produced by | Robert B. Radnitz |
| Screenplay by | Lonne Elder III |
| Based on | Sounder by William H. Armstrong |
| Starring | Cicely Tyson Paul Winfield Kevin Hooks Carmen Matthews Taj Mahal |
| Music by | Taj Mahal |
| Cinematography | John A. Alonzo |
| Edited by | Sid Levin |
Production company | Radnitz/Mattel Productions, Inc. |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.9 million[2] |
| Box office | $16.9 million[3] |
Plot
The Morgan family live as sharecroppers in 1933 Louisiana, raising sugar cane for their white landlord. David Lee, the oldest son, is a bright boy who loves to hunt with his father Nathan Lee and their dog Sounder, but is only able to attend school sporadically in between helping his mother Rebecca on the farm. Nathan and David lose the raccoon they are hunting one evening, leaving the family without meat to eat, but the children awaken the next morning to the smell of ham cooking and happily eat it. When they return home after a community baseball game, which Nathan helps his team win, they find the sheriff and his deputies waiting to arrest Nathan for stealing the ham from a nearby smokehouse. As they take him away, Sounder runs after their wagon and one of the deputies shoots him. The injured Sounder runs away, and David cannot find him. He looks for him for days, but is unable to continue the search because with their father gone, he and his little brother and sister must help Rebecca farm and harvest the crops. Rebecca shares her faith with David that Sounder is alive and will return home eventually.
The family is restricted from visiting Nathan at the local jail while he awaits shipment to the work camp. Only David is allowed to visit, and he brings a chocolate cake that Rebecca baked for Nathan, and they enjoy a piece together despite their worries over not knowing where Nathan will be taken. Mrs. Boatwright, a sympathetic local woman who employs Rebecca to do her laundry and often gives the children books to read, promises David she will find out the location of the work camp Nathan has been taken to. When the sheriff refuses to tell her, she goes through his filing cabinet to find the information. Despite the sheriff's threats, she tells the Morgan family that Nathan has been taken to the distant Wishbone prison camp and helps Rebecca plot the route there on the map. Sounder returns home, though he does not bark like he used to, and accompanies David on a long journey on foot to find the camp and try to visit his father.
David makes it to the Wishbone camp, but is unable to find Nathan and is ignored by the guards when he inquires after him. When he tries to ask the prisoners, a guard strikes his hand with an iron rod and chases him off the camp. On his journey home, he comes across a school with all black students, where the kind, outspoken teacher, Miss Camille, bandages his injured hand and has him stay at her house and attend class at the school for several days before he starts for home again. One night she shares books from her collection about important African-American historical figures with him and reads to him from the work of W.E.B. DuBois.
After returning home, David longs to attend the distant school, but has largely given up on the dream when one day Sounder runs barking like he used to greet the returning Nathan, who was released from the work camp early after his leg was injured in a dynamite explosion. Seeing his father's depleted strength, David resolves to stay and work the farm in his place, but after learning of the school, Nathan is adamant that David go to attend it full-time. They have a heart-to-heart about how Nathan wishes for his children to escape the dead-end life of sharecropping and aspire to better things, and the next day, Rebecca and his siblings cheerfully see David off as he and Nathan head into town to buy clothes and school supplies, accompanied by Sounder.
Cast
- Cicely Tyson as Rebecca
- Paul Winfield as Nathan Lee
- Kevin Hooks as David Lee
- Carmen Matthews as Mrs. Boatwright
- Taj Mahal as Ike
- James Best as Sheriff Young
- Eric Hooks as Earl
- Yvonne Jarrell as Josie Mae
- Sylvia "Kuumba" Williams as Harriet
- Ted Airhart as Mr. Perkins
- Richard Durham as Perkins' Foreman
- Wendell Brumfield as Deputy #1
- Al Bankston as Deputy #2
- Myrl Sharkey (credited as Merle Sharkey) as Teacher
- Inez Durham as Court Clerk
- Judge William Thomas Bennett as Judge
- Reverend Thomas N. Phillips as Pastor
- Carl Bruser as Wagon Driver
- Jerry Leggio, Jr. as Guard #1
- Pete Goff as Guard #2
- Walker L. Chaney as Guard #3
- Roy Idom as Guard #4
- Randy Wilson as Convict #1
- Isaac Greggs as Convict #2
- Jackie Spears as Girl #1
- Porter Mathews as Boy #1
- Timothy Smith as Boy #2
- Spencer Bradford as Clarence
- Janet MacLachlan as Camille
Production
While the book centers on the family's concern for the dog, screenwriter Lonne Elder III stated that he preferred to focus on the family's daily survival. He noted that he at first refused the assignment, but producer Robert B. Radnitz and director Martin Ritt convinced him to work with them, as "I wanted to keep Sounder accurate in its historical context, and not go off on any present-day fantasies."[6]
A notable aspect of casting in the film is that the minister is played by an actual minister and the judge is played by an actual judge.
Soundtrack
Taj Mahal recorded a soundtrack to the film, released in 1972 by Columbia Records. According to music journalist Robert Christgau, it was "the first soundtrack ever patterned after a field recording", featuring a "suite/montage/succession of hums, moans, claps, and plucked fragments", all performed in the key of the gospel blues song "Needed Time" by Lightnin' Hopkins. Fellow critic Greil Marcus regarded it as Mahal's "most eloquent music", although Christgau said "even Greil doesn't know anybody who agrees. I've always regarded field recordings as study aids myself." He gave the soundtrack album a C-plus in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).[7]
Release
Sounder opened September 24, 1972 at the Embassy and Plaza theaters in New York City.[8]
Home media
When the film was released on VHS, Paramount Home Video assumed distribution rights. Sterling Entertainment currently has DVD distribution rights.
Reception
Critical reception
Sounder received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising it as a welcome antidote to the contemporaneous wave of black films, most of which were considered of low quality and budget and exploitative. The film's depiction of a loving family was hailed as a banner accomplishment for black filmmakers and audiences. Variety wrote that the picture had been "for good or ill, singled out to test whether the black audience will respond to serious films about the black experience rather than the 'super black' exploitation features."[6]
Some of Sounder's success was due to its innovative marketing strategy. Fox focused on group sales in major cities and targeted religious organizations and schools. Radnitz personally visited 35 cities and held over 500 screenings, with 60 simultaneous sneak previews held in New York City. The religious establishment came out in favor of the film, with an endorsement by the Catholic Film Office and a study guide for religious educators created by the National Council of Churches. The Variety article noted that Fox wrote a study guide, prepared by Dr. Roscoe Brown, Jr., director of Afro-American Affairs at New York University. 20th Century Fox spent over $1 million promoting the film, according to Variety.[6]
John Simon wrote "Sounder is a rare honest movie about people who work the soil under conditions of extreme rigor. Sounder is also a rare honest Hollywood movie about blacks, making it virtually unique'.[9]
Based on 16 reviews, Sounder holds an 88% "Fresh" score (and an average of 7.7/10) on Rotten Tomatoes.[10] In his Family Guide to Movies on Video, Henry Herx wrote: "Sounder captures the humanity of [its] characters and a fine, distanced sense of its sleepy Southern locale. The movie earns a deep emotional response from its audience because its [appealing] story and characters are believable. Not only a valid examination of the black experience in America, it is also a fine family experience." He added that the boy's search for his father "provides additional drama".[11] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, stating that "This is a film for the family to see." Both Gene Siskel and Ebert placed the film on their 10-best lists of 1972.[12]
Box office
Despite popular skepticism that the film would not be a financial success, and the belief that "the black film market is exclusively an action and exploitation market", the picture was a major box-office hit.[6] The film grossed $27,045 from 2 theaters in its opening week and grossed 30% more the following week.[8] Made for less than $1 million, it grossed just under $17 million, generating $9 million of theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada in 1973,[13] the 10th highest-grossing film of 1972.
Awards and nominations
Sequel
A sequel, Part 2, Sounder, was released in 1976.
Television version
In 2003, ABC's Wonderful World of Disney aired a new film adaptation, reuniting two actors from the original: Kevin Hooks (who played the son) directed, and Paul Winfield (who played the father) played the role of the teacher. Walt Disney Home Video has released the television version on DVD.
See also
Notes
- Tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Trojan Women.
References
- Miller, Gabriel (2000). "Notes". The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man. University Press of Mississippi. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-6170-3496-1. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
- Solomon, Aubrey (2002). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Filmmakers Series. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
- "Sounder, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- Greenspun, Roger (September 25, 1972). "Sounder (1972) Screen: 'Sounder' Opens: Story of a Negro Boy in Louisiana of 1930's". The New York Times.
- Harmetz, Aljean (Mar 18, 1973). "Robert Radnitz--Unlikely Avis to Disney's Hertz". Los Angeles Times. p. O1.
- "Sounder". American Film Institute. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: M". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 978-0-8991-9026-6. Retrieved January 31, 2021 – via robertchristgau.com.
- "'Sounder' A Slow Starter, Building Into B.O. Winner". Variety. October 11, 1972. p. 5. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
- Simon, John (1982). Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Film. Crown Publishers. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-5175-4471-6.
- "Reviews for Sounder". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
- Herx, Henry (1988). "Sounder". The Family Guide to Movies on Video. Crossroad Publishing. p. 251 (pre-release version). ISBN 978-0-8245-0816-6.
- "Siskel and Ebert Top Ten Lists (1969–1998)". The Inner Mind. May 3, 2012. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
- "Big Rental Films of 1973". Variety. January 9, 1974. p. 19.
- "The 45th Academy Awards (1972) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
External links
- Sounder at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Sounder at AllMovie
- Sounder at IMDb
- Sounder at the TCM Movie Database