Sounder

source: Sounder

Saw this movie in the theater as a kid in '72 and loved it then for the faithful eponymous coonhound. "Where the Red Fern Grows" is another great coonhound movie. Just yesterday, one of the television movie channels showed "Sounder" without commercial interruption. I fell in love with it all over again. It is refreshingly simple and slow-paced, just like farm life. I believe it accurately portrays the era. The acting is just great- understated, but emotional. There is no easy stereotyping- few of the "white" characters are vicious racists. The heart and soul of this movie is the intense affection and devotion of the sharecroppers for each other. The great musician, Taj Mahal, does an outstanding job with the soundtrack, and as a supporting character, "Ike". If you are a country blues fan, you should see this movie for that reason alone. If you can enjoy a movie that rolls along slowly and doesn't try to beat you over the head with its message, watch "Sounder".

This is one of the Best 1970s movies I've seen. I can't believe it took me 37 years to catch it. It is a very simple film, yet it says a lot about the human spirit and will make you feel warm inside. The acting is perfection from the entire cast. Kevin Hooks is brilliant as David Lee Morgan, a devoted, hardworking son of a sharecropper family who hits upon hard times. The always solid Paul Winfield as Nathan Lee Morgan, a father of three and a devoted wife (Cicely Tyson). He steals food from a smokehouse to feed his family and gets in deep trouble. Cicely Tyson is superb as the mother and both she and Winfield received well-deserved Oscar nominations. Sounder, of the title, is the family's hound dog, who reflects the survival instincts of the Morgan family. This wonderful, hardworking family has very little to be sure, but one vital thing they have is love. This film will make you think twice if you think you have it bad. It was nominated for Best Picture and was beat by "The Godfather", but it is truly a gem!

This was one of the best movie I have seen. I shows you what Afican Americans came from and where we gotten now. They went through so much and still came out on top.If other people saw this touching movie they would view what hey have differently.When Nathan was arrested away you would think this would go down hill. When you the was see that was just a minor hing but it help get one of his children a better education. When look a your life and then look at theirs you see thats we (afican American)have really gotten some where in life and hopefully this is not the end of our growth maybe we can continue rising to the top of charts.This movie changes lives.

SPOILERS Obviously, the book is always better, and this is no exception. The book Sounder is better than the movie Sounder, but this is a brilliantly done movie that can warm your hearts. Let me just say this, though, this is not close to the book at all, kind of like My Side Of The Mountain. I mean, the father and Sounder die in the book, but in the movie they do not. Great, I spoiled the book. Anyway, there is something else in this movie. In the book, the officer totally demolishes the cake for the boy's jailed father. In the movie he just stabs like four holes into the cake, and he did not obliterate it. Also, I am kind of glad that Sounder did not die in the end. I hate it when a dog dies in a movie or a book or anywhere. Here is the plot of this movie. This film focuses on an African-American family that live in the middle of nowhere. This takes place when the African-Americans were treated unfairly. Then, one day, the father is arrested for stealing a ham, or at least that is way he is arrested in the book, I do not know how he is arrested in the movie. Anyway, a police officer shoots their dog named Sounder. The oldest boy in the family goes on a journey to find his father after he is transferred to a different prison. On the way of his journey he meets a school-teacher he helps him read. He does not find his father. He goes back home. Sounder, who ran off when he was shot, eventually comes home. Then his father comes home, but he is injured. In the end the boy goes to a school for the first time. Overall, this is a very well-done and heartwarming movie. Why the novel and the movie is called Sounder is anybody's guess. I mean, it does not really focus on Sounder. Also, I am glad that they did not make Sounder's wound from the bullet as gruesome as it was in the novel. I mean, in the novel, he was missing an ear, an eye, and he had a huge wound in his face. In the movie it is not so bad. Actually, the wounds are not even noticeable in the movie. It is like he was not even shot. Anyway, this a nice movie to watch with your family. 8/10 Recommended Films: Homeward Bound.

This film seems great until you read the book on which it's based. The movie completely waters down the power of the book in the interest of box office. The book is a lean, mean profile of sharecroppers in the south a few decades after the Civil War. None of the characters are given names except for the dog, Sounder. I would think that the later movie (directed by Kevin Hooks, who played "the boy" in the original movie) is much better and accurate to the text. "Sourland" is a follow up to "Sounder" (the book) and makes you really think. I recommend both highly. I taught this book for a number of years to 6th grade students in East LA. Their reaction after reading the book was that the movie is much to easy on the subject of race and brings in too many "feel good" moments such as a "typical" American picnic with fried chicken and baseball which detracts from the historical reality of the period (the movie moves up the book a few decades). The music included was very "edgy" back in '72 but is passe and distracting now. If you're renting this movie thinking you're going to educate your child on the struggle of blacks in America, don't bother. It's too cleaned up. Read the book with your kids. It's not a book for 3-8th graders to read alone without guidance.

'Sounder' is a very small, sublime film- quietly powerful and perfect for just about anyone. Even though the title made no immediate sense to me (it's the name of the family dog), the plot and script is choice and proves what I've always believed regarding most scripts: less is more. Films with close, reverent, African-American families are still rare in the 21st century, and this one was extraordinary because it was a *1972* release, breaking ground when it was nominated at that year's Academy Awards for lead actor (Paul Winfield), lead actress (Cicely Tyson), screenplay (Lonne Elder III), and best picture. Only director Martin Ritt was not nominated, which was a travesty, but the Academy is historically famous for bonehead decisions. At any rate, it's nice to see a film which shows true family support- even in the event of the father's absence. I won't say why that happens, but it's only temporary, and his third act return- staged against a long stretch of open field and spotlighting a barefoot Tyson and limping Winfield running into each other's arms- is a bewitching, magical, sequence in the film. (There won't be a dry eye in the house.) Everyone is a standout, including Kevin Hooks as the pre-teen who needs to grow up overnight and to Carmen Matthews as the neighbor who quietly helps the family. Even more amazing is that this is a G-rated film; your whole family- black, white, or brown- will absolutely cherish it.

Only 34 reviews so far for a certified American classic that if not in the top 100 Hollywood films of the twentieth century is damn close? Almost as puzzling as why the Oscars rejected Cicely Tyson's subtle portrayal of dignity for Liza Minnelli's hammy chorus girl. (Paul Winfield's brilliant interpretation of the angry, loving father losing out to another dad, Brando's Don Vito Corleone, is of course, more defensible). However, IMDB indifference aside, this is a wonderful study of a poor, black, rural family's struggles in the segregated American South of the 1920s. It's a story we've seen many times before but rarely so de-sentimentalized. Lonnie Elder's fine screenplay and Martin Ritt's blessedly and unexpectedly low key direction seem to go out of their way to defang lugubriousness, so to speak, before it can bite us in our tear ducts. The result is a film that is moving without being schmaltzy or hokey and if you think that's all that common I defy you to come up with another example off the top of your head. Throw in John Alonzo's lovely cinematography which provides a nice, ironic contrast with the decidedly unlovely existence of the Morgan family, and Taj Mahal's wonderful blues/country score (which didn't even garner an Oscar nomination ,much less an award) and you can see why this is one of those rare films you can watch repeatedly and the experience still feels fresh. Give it an A. PS...Best performance by a dog in a movie since "Old Yeller".

The title to this movie is a misnomer, as "Sounder" is the family dog and it doesn't play that prominent a role in the film. Instead of a dog flick, it concerns the trials and tribulations of a Black-American family early in the 20th Century. Most of their problems concern racial prejudice but poverty helped contribute to their struggle as well. Overall, the movie really stands out for excellent acting as well as excellent writing--the characters have a lot of life and seem very realistic. My only quibble is that the story itself seems secondary--life WHAT occurs is far less important than the journey itself. While this is not a major complaint, it does blunt, somewhat, the overall impact of the film. There are, as a consequence, better films about the African-American experience BUT it is still well worth watching--especially for kids who might be too young for some other movies (like Rosewood or Glory).

This movie was nominated for four Oscars and I would agree that it is a very deserving movie. It's a touching story of courage and endurance, from the award-winning novel by William Armstrong, which has been successfully translated to the big screen with excellent cinematography and acting. The story is about a poor African-American family of Louisiana share-croppers struggling to survive during the early days of the Great Depression. 'Sounder' is the name of their faithful dog, whose bark I can still hear in my head as I write! After watching the movie I put on Gregory Peck's classic 'To Kill a Mockingbird' again. Both movies seemed to fit together quite well and explored similar themes of difficult race relations in the Deep South and an inadequate legal system. If you liked 'Sounder' you may also like 'Fried Green Tomatoes'.