Sounder Collection

Drama

Sounder

Radnitz/Mattel Productions

United States of America

English

Cicely Tyson

Paul Winfield

Kevin Hooks

Taj Mahal

Janet MacLachlan

Carmen Mathews

James Best

Eric Hooks

Yvonne Jarrell

Sylvia Kuumba Williams

Teddy Airhart

Richard Durham

Wendell Brumfield

Al Bankston

Myrl Sharkey

Inez Durham

William T. Bennett

Thomas N. Phillips

Carl Braser

Jerry Leggio

Peter Goff

Walter L. Chaney

Roy Idom

Randy Wilson

Isaac Greggs

Jackie Spears

Porter Mathews

Timothy Smith

Spencer Bradford

Swampy

Martin Ritt

Lonne Elder III

William H. Armstrong

John A. Alonzo

Robert B. Radnitz

Sidney Levin

Walter Scott Herndon

Tom Overton

Dennis Jones

Michael A. Hoey

Joe Scully

Don Guest

Charles Washburn

Jerry Rosenthal

Robert Rogow

Jerry Brutsche

Louis Donelan

Robert Krume

Peter Wooley

Nedra Rosemond-Watt

CinemaSerf

After an energetic but fruitless coon hunt, “Nathan” (Paul Winfield) returns home to a family with his young son “David” (Kevin Hooks) and some empty bellies. They are a close and loving bunch and “Nathan” knows that nothing is likely to improve until the cropping season starts - but that is still some months away. Then he goes and gets himself imprisoned for stealing food and that leaves his wife “Rebecca” (Cicely Tyson) and the children to eke what they can and deal with the planting whilst he does twelve months hard labour. It doesn’t help their morale that they don’t even know where he has been detained, and so “David” with the help of their kindly neighbour “Miss Boatwright” (Carmen Matthews) sets about trying to track him down and make a contact that can reassure both that they are in each other’s thoughts and prayers. This film sees two strong performances. One from Tyson as a woman who will move heaven and earth to keep her family together and from starvation and the other from the enthusiastic and charismatic young Hooks who delivers quite poignantly as the young man who just wants to be with his dad. It shines the usual light on racism and iniquity, but it also extols some positivity as the young kids are determined to go to school, and they have parents who are equally determined that this opportunity should not be wasted. It’s touching but not sentimental and there is a degree of optimism for these children and, thanks to the somewhat risky intervention of “Miss Boatwright”, there might even be some roots of decency sprouting from the white folks too. The production is really quite effective at illustrating just how tough their lives was, and at the double-standards that prevailed amongst a community where hard work earned little but money for someone else.

Word of Mouth: Cinematographers William Fraker and John Alonzo discuss SOUNDER ('72)

SOUNDER- Trailer

Best Movies

Sounder

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Cicely Tyson

Paul Winfield

Kevin Hooks

Taj Mahal

Janet MacLachlan

Carmen Mathews

James Best

Eric Hooks

Yvonne Jarrell

Sylvia Kuumba Williams

Box office

More Like This

Fight Club

The Poseidon Adventure

The Experiment

To Die For

Dances with Wolves

The Hours

Solaris

To Kill a Mockingbird