Sounder (1972)
Director:
Martin Ritt
Actors:
Rebecca
Nathan Lee
David Lee
Mrs. Boatwright
Ike
Rating:
(5’360 votes)
(5’360 votes)
Quotes:
« David Lee: Miss Johnson? Don't you teach in your school about folk who ain't dead?
»
« Camille: Sure! Here's one about a man who's very much alive. Dr. William E.B. DuBois.
»
« David Lee: What does he talk about?
»
« Camille: Here, I'll read something he said:
»
[reading from "Of the Training of Black Men"]
« Camille: "The longing of black men must have respect."
»
[pauses to explain to David Lee]
« Camille: Which means a man and a woman are human and must be treated that way.
»
[continues reading]
« Camille: "The rich and bitter depth of their experience, the unknown treasures 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. And to themselves in these days that try their souls, the chance to soar in the dim blue air above smoke is to their finer spirits boon and guerdon for what they lose on earth by being black."
»
« David Lee: You're a nice lady, Miss Johnson.
»
« Nathan Lee: You know, son: there ain't no dog as good as Sounder. In all the years we've been tracking coons and possums in these woods, he ain't never tore one of 'em up yet. No, he always brought 'em back whole and healthy. Now you see? Now that's the difference between a hound dog that's mean and dirty, to one that's great – like old Sounder here.
»
« Pastor: God works in a mysterious way. We brought nothing into this life and we carry nothing out.
»
« Rebecca: Is that a blessing, Reverend?
»
« Pastor: It's a blessing.
»
Trailer:
Sounder
Runtime:105 minutes
Plots:
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The journey becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey, he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher.
1933, Lansdowne Parish, Louisiana. The Morgans – mother and father Rebecca and Nathan Lee, and their three children David Lee, Josie Mae and Earl – are a loving, black, poor sharecropping family, generally well liked in their community. Nathan Lee realizes that especially during the lean non-cropping times, his family relies on him to put food on the table in the form of what, with the help of the family’s faithful hound Sounder, he is able to hunt generally in terms of small game. Nathan’s ability to provide that food has been difficult of late. When Nathan is caught, charged, convicted and sentenced to one year hard labor for stealing food for his family, David Lee is forced to assume the male head of the family responsibility, including anything having to do with his father, all without Sounder who has not returned after being injured. Through it all, David Lee is torn between his responsibility to the family versus his thirst for a formal education especially when he discovers there is much about black American history he doesn’t know. Being pulled in both directions becomes even more pointed with the return home of Nathan Lee.
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