Sounder is the story of a Depression Era Louisiana black family named Morgan who are sharecroppers. But if it can be done they want a lot better for their kids. The parents are Academy Award nominees for Best Actor and Actress, Paul Winfield and Cecily Tyson.
This is the Great Depression, but in a sense nothing has changed for these people since Reconstruction. The sharecropping system came about with the southern white aristocracy trying their best to keep black people enslaved economically. If we can't own them any more then at least you can keep them bound to the land like the serfs of old economically. You can also bind the poor whites that way too and you install the segregation system to keep them from recognizing the poor of whatever pigmentation have a common economic interest. That's what the Morgans face in 1933 Louisiana.
Interesting also that this was set in the time and place it was in because this was the Louisiana of Huey P. Long who did in fact recognize that poor do have a common interest. He was a demagogue and a rogue, but in his way and as much as the society of segregated Louisiana would let him he tried to make small improvements in the lot of black people in Louisiana. That school where Myrl Sharkey teaches by the standards of the other southern states is a pretty modern one and the teacher spouts some revolutionary ideas.
Because he didn't like seeing his kids go hungry Winfield steals some food and is caught and does a year on a prison farm. During that year Tyson pulls her family together and they get through to the harvest or in the case of the cotton, cropping time. A whole lot like Sally Fields's family in Places In The Heart.
The oldest boy Kevin Hooks is a bright kid and on a trip to visit his father in prison (he has to because they won't allow women to visit the male prisoners)he detours and shows up at Myrl Sharkey's school and makes that miraculous discovery that there's a great big world out there that he'd like to find out about.
I wish I knew what happened to Myrl Sharkey. Sounder is her one and only film credit. In any event she's got a collection of books that bowls over young Mr. Hooks. When he asks her are there any books about living people she pulls out a copy of something by W.E.B DuBois and reads a passage from Souls Of Black Folk. Just the look on Kevin Hooks's face is some of the best acting without dialog you'll ever see.
Sharkey is following one of Dr. Dubois's tenets about educating and training the 'talented tenth' the best and brightest of us. Which is what she recognizes in Hooks. The question is can she get him to school or will the demands of the sharecropping life prove too much.
Sounder is the name of the family dog who was wounded when the law comes to get Winfield. He goes off to lick his wounds and in doing so becomes a symbol for a childhood that is cast away. Sometimes Sounder while wonderful family viewing is mistakenly thought of as just another boy and his dog film. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Besides the acting nominations for Winfield and Tyson, Sounder was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Unfortunately 1972 was the year of The Godfather so like a lot of other good films Sounder got crowded out by the Corleone saga that year in the final awards.
Still this is one excellent and nearly flawless film. I suggest viewing it back to back with Places In The Heart because they're both about poor farming families in the Depression at the same time with the same issues facing them.
This is the Great Depression, but in a sense nothing has changed for these people since Reconstruction. The sharecropping system came about with the southern white aristocracy trying their best to keep black people enslaved economically. If we can't own them any more then at least you can keep them bound to the land like the serfs of old economically. You can also bind the poor whites that way too and you install the segregation system to keep them from recognizing the poor of whatever pigmentation have a common economic interest. That's what the Morgans face in 1933 Louisiana.
Interesting also that this was set in the time and place it was in because this was the Louisiana of Huey P. Long who did in fact recognize that poor do have a common interest. He was a demagogue and a rogue, but in his way and as much as the society of segregated Louisiana would let him he tried to make small improvements in the lot of black people in Louisiana. That school where Myrl Sharkey teaches by the standards of the other southern states is a pretty modern one and the teacher spouts some revolutionary ideas.
Because he didn't like seeing his kids go hungry Winfield steals some food and is caught and does a year on a prison farm. During that year Tyson pulls her family together and they get through to the harvest or in the case of the cotton, cropping time. A whole lot like Sally Fields's family in Places In The Heart.
The oldest boy Kevin Hooks is a bright kid and on a trip to visit his father in prison (he has to because they won't allow women to visit the male prisoners)he detours and shows up at Myrl Sharkey's school and makes that miraculous discovery that there's a great big world out there that he'd like to find out about.
I wish I knew what happened to Myrl Sharkey. Sounder is her one and only film credit. In any event she's got a collection of books that bowls over young Mr. Hooks. When he asks her are there any books about living people she pulls out a copy of something by W.E.B DuBois and reads a passage from Souls Of Black Folk. Just the look on Kevin Hooks's face is some of the best acting without dialog you'll ever see.
Sharkey is following one of Dr. Dubois's tenets about educating and training the 'talented tenth' the best and brightest of us. Which is what she recognizes in Hooks. The question is can she get him to school or will the demands of the sharecropping life prove too much.
Sounder is the name of the family dog who was wounded when the law comes to get Winfield. He goes off to lick his wounds and in doing so becomes a symbol for a childhood that is cast away. Sometimes Sounder while wonderful family viewing is mistakenly thought of as just another boy and his dog film. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Besides the acting nominations for Winfield and Tyson, Sounder was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Unfortunately 1972 was the year of The Godfather so like a lot of other good films Sounder got crowded out by the Corleone saga that year in the final awards.
Still this is one excellent and nearly flawless film. I suggest viewing it back to back with Places In The Heart because they're both about poor farming families in the Depression at the same time with the same issues facing them.