"Sounder" (1972)

 Back to School: Part 3 of a 3-part series. Of all the great vintage films about schools and teachers, one stands out today as a timely look at the black experience and the power of education in an age of crisis.

“The longing of black men must have respect…The rich and bitter depth of their experience, the unknown treasure of their inner life, the  strange rendings of nature they have seen, may give the world new points of view and make their loving, living, and doing precious to all human hearts...” 

W.E.B DuBois, quoted by teacher Camille Johnson to student David Lee Morgan, in “Sounder”

“Sounder” is a movie we need very much right now.  Although it is a family film, made at a time when a G-rating didn’t mean suitable only for pre-schoolers, “Sounder” sneaks up on you with serious intent.  It plays like a small art film, on the surface a straightforward story that reveals surprising emotional depth.  In fact, the quote by W.E.B. DuBois above could have been a perfect tag line for the movie.

This simple portrayal of a black family, struggling to overcome poverty and endure pervasive racism in 1933 Louisiana, moves us by focusing on the humanity of its characters.  “Sounder” was a groundbreaking movie at a time when “black” cinema often meant Hollywood “blaxploitation”, with its emphasis on drugs and crime, pimps and hookers, violent action and exploitive sex, providing an adrenaline rush without human dignity.

Among its great qualities, “Sounder” is one of the few Hollywood films to elevate the experience of learning and going to school, all without fuss, and with inspiring success.

Most of all, with the skill of its brilliant actors, it illuminates the delicate strength of a loving family, and transcends race.  It is a film of gritty realism that honestly stirs us.  It accumulates scenes of increasing warmth and power, while maintaining the leisurely tone of a languid summer.  Most of all, it is an extremely quiet film that communicates so much with its silences.

The great Cicely Tyson and the powerful Paul Winfield play Rebecca and Nathan Lee Morgan, a hardworking couple raising three young children, eking out a sparse existence as sharecroppers.  David Lee, their oldest son, played by Kevin Hooks, is a thoughtful and respectful young man, eager to hunt with his father, help out in the fields, and roughhouse with his younger brother and sister.  He travels miles on foot each day to attend school, and is the only member of the family who can read and write.

When Nathan Lee, desperate to feed his family, is sent away to a labor camp for stealing food, David sets out on a journey to find him.  Along the way, he encounters a school unlike any he has ever seen, and is inspired by the teacher he meets there. The trip changes his life and his family forever.  His odyssey is the allegorical heart of the movie.

Tyson and Winfield were rightly honored with Oscar nominations (as was the film, and the screenplay by Lonne Elder III.)  It was the first time that two black actors were nominated in the same film. (Also, that year, Diana Ross earned a nod for “Lady Sings the Blues”.  The multiple nominations for black actors and for films about black experience was a defining moment for black cinema.)

Director Martin Ritt was unfairly left out of the nominations list.  He made “Sounder” into a stunning tone poem, with beautiful imagery that works on many levels.

The movie’s title refers to the family’s beloved coon-hound, but despite the title, the dog is not the main subject.  Sounder is a symbol, a presence, always there, in the background.  He is the warning call and the cry of joy; when we see him in closeup, it foretells something major will occur. He is a traveling companion and a loyal protector.  Sounder comes to represent love and caring, hope and healing.  He is the omnipresent soul of the family.

When Sounder is grazed by the bullet of an unfeeling white lawman and runs away, Rebecca comforts the children, telling them that Sounder “has just gone off to heal himself somewhere.” Her words might describe the painful experience of an entire people.

The effects of racism are portrayed in a matter-of-fact way, showing how the victims appear resigned in order to protect themselves.  This is made all the more powerful by the film’s refusing to sermonize.  In “Sounder”, racism hurts everyone, particularly the repressed minority group, but also those in the majority who sincerely want to help, but risk being rejected or worse by members of their own community.

“Sounder” illustrates subtle, commonplace racism another way, by showing us two different schools, and contrasts David’s experience in each: 

In his regular school, the white teacher is unsympathetic as David walks in late, having traveled over a long, hot distance. Far from inspiring her students, she reads aloud (and badly) from “Huckleberry Finn”, a passage filled with offensive vernacular and dialect, as David takes his seat with the other black students in the back of the room.

On his journey to find his father, David happens upon a school run by Camille Johnson (Janet MacLachlin), a compassionate and intelligent black woman, who leads her class of all-black students in reciting the multiplication tables.  Our first glimpse of Miss Johnson is a very brief but striking shot: she stands in the front of the classroom, with an enormous American flag draped on the wall behind her.  (What a perfect illustration for Black Lives Matter.)

“Sounder” is based on Newberry Award-winning book by William H. Armstrong.  The film itself is a champion for the importance and life-saving potential of books.  Few Hollywood films honor books the way “Sounder” does.   In one sequence, Mrs. Boatwright, a wealthy woman who takes great risks to help the family find Nathan, loans David a copy of “The Three Musketeers”.  Later, Miss Johnson introduces David to an amazing world of books, especially those of essential black voices. 

The accomplished blues musician Taj Mahal co-stars as the good-natured family friend Ike, and also supervised the musical score, writing the song that opens and closes the film (“Needed Time”).  The music is an authentic mix of blues and spiritual, incorporating the lyric style and instrumentation of rural Southern blacks that gave birth to jazz.  The score uses banjo and guitar, and in key moments, a single flute.  Artfully, during “Sounder’s” most dramatic moments, there is no music.

Two of the most unforgettable scenes are reunions.  In the first, David and Sounder run toward each other, but unlike most films that might wring every drop of pathos, it is shot in an extremely wide angle, so it can barely be seen.  The camera moves to reveal that the moment is Rebecca’s, as she watches silently, with secret hope for another homecoming.

The second reunion is unforgettable.  Shot urgently and at a respectful remove, the emotions on display are raw and honest, from performers who are immersed in the moment.  This well-remembered sequence has rightly become a classic on its own.

Some may complain that “Sounder” is too slow, that it is too antiseptic a portrayal of black experience told from a white perspective, that it is too “feel-good”.  They are missing the point.  This is a story about human beings in a time and place that is, unfortunately, not too different from our own.

 It is meant to be a healing film, not an angry one; if it rouses anger, it is only to the extent that its characters are able to express it.  Instead, the film wants to inspire us, and connect us to the more loving and forgiving parts of ourselves. “Sounder” is accessible to the very young, who will understand its basic story, while appealing to those who want more substance under the surface.  It is also a gentle reminder of the value of learning.

Not only did “Sounder” address issues of race and injustice in 1972, but it continues to explore the foundations of those issues today.  It might stir up your anger, but it would rather open you to empathy.