Sounder (film)
| Sounder | |
|---|---|
Original poster
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| Directed by | Martin Ritt |
| Produced by | Robert B. Radnitz |
| Written by | Lonne Elder III |
| Based on |
Sounder 1969 novel by William H. Armstrong |
| Starring |
Cicely Tyson Paul Winfield Kevin Hooks Carmen Mathews Taj Mahal |
| Music by | Taj Mahal |
| Cinematography | John A. Alonzo |
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Production
company |
Radnitz/Mattel Productions
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| Distributed by |
20th Century Fox Paramount Home Video (original home video release) |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $900,000 |
| Box office | $16,889,761 |
Sounder is a 1972 DeLuxe Color drama film in Panavision directed by Martin Ritt and starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, and Kevin Hooks. The film was adapted by Lonne Elder III from the 1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder by William H. Armstrong.
The Morgans (Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks), a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays for a while with a dedicated black schoolteacher.
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, saying "I wanted to keep Sounder accurate in its historical context, and not go off on any present-day fantasies."
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.
Sounder received warm reviews, and was praised as a welcome antidote to the contemporaneous wave of black films, most of which were considered low quality, low budget and exploitative. The film’s depiction of a loving family was hailed as a banner accomplishment for black filmmakers and audiences. Film magazine 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."
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