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Poster for Sounder

Sounder

1972 · 1h 45m · G Drama
Directed by Martin Ritt

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Overview

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 trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
88%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Director Martin Ritt soaks us in the heat, the beauty, the racism and the buzzing cicadas of Louisiana.

Michael Booth, Denver Post
Rotten

Ritt's film must respond to the needs of an entertainment industry, and in its desire to be uplifting, leaves its characters one-dimensional without ensuring that the one dimension is heroic.

Derek Adams, Time Out
Rotten

If Sounder, an inteligent enough movie, avoids all the major pitfalls of its type, it also lacks the excitement that may have come from plumbing greater depths and discovering a few tougher, less accessible insights.

Roger Greenspun, New York Times
Fresh

It is one of the most compassionate and truthful of movies, and there's not a level where it doesn't succeed completely.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh

Painfully honest, unpretentious, and blessedly simple.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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