Sounder (film)

Sounder
Original poster
Directed by	Martin Ritt
Produced by	Robert B. Radnitz
Written by	Lonne Elder III
Starring	Cicely Tyson Paul Winfield Kevin Hooks Carmen Mathews Taj Mahal Eric Hooks Janet MacLachlan
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Studio	Radnitz/Mattel Productions^[1]
Distributed by	Twentieth Century-Fox^[1]
Release date(s)	September 24, 1972 (1972-09-24)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Sounder is a 1972 film starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, Eric Hooks and Janet MacLachlan. It was adapted by Lonne Elder III and directed by Martin Ritt from the 1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder by William H. Armstrong and spawned a sequel, Part 2, Sounder (1976).

1 Differences between the book and the film
2 Realistic casting of minor parts
3 Reception
- 3.1 Critical analysis
- 3.2 Accolades
4 Television version
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Differences between the book and the film

The film established names for the characters, which the book did not.
The white people in the book are more truculent, cruel and racist than those in the film.
In the book, the father is on the chain gang for multiple years, not just one year, as in the film; the boy begins spending his winters with the teacher long before his father's return.
Both Sounder and his master's father are more grievously injured in the book than in the movie, and they both die within months of the father's return from the chain gang.

Realistic casting of minor parts

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.

Reception

Critical analysis

Based on sixteen reviews, Sounder carries an 88% score (and an average of 7.7/10) on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2] 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".^[3]

Accolades

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture (by Robert B. Radnitz), Best Actor (Paul Winfield), Best Actress (Cicely Tyson) and Best Adapted Screenplay (by Lonne Elder III).

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.

References

^ ^a ^b Miller, Gabriel (2000). "Notes". The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man. University Press of Mississippi. p. 231. ISBN 1-578-06277-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=JmZ_cwPXn78C&pg=PA231&dq=Radnitz/Mattel&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
^ "Reviews for Sounder". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sounder/. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
^ Herx, Henry (1988). "Sounder". The Family Guide to Movies on Video. The Crossroad Publishing Company. p. 251 (pre-release version). ISBN 0-8245-0816-5.

External links

Sounder at the Internet Movie Database

Films directed by Martin Ritt

1950s	Edge of the City (1957) No Down Payment (1957) The Long, Hot Summer (1958) The Black Orchid (1958) The Sound and the Fury (1959)

1960s	5 Branded Women (1960) Paris Blues (1961) Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) Hud (1963) The Outrage (1964) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) Hombre (1967) The Brotherhood (1968)

1970s	The Molly Maguires (1970) The Great White Hope (1970) Sounder (1972) Pete 'n' Tillie (1972) Conrack (1974) The Front (1976) Casey's Shadow (1978) Norma Rae (1979)

1980s	Back Roads (1981) Cross Creek (1983) Murphy's Romance (1985) Nuts (1987)

1990s	Stanley & Iris (1990)