Film Forum

(1972, Martin Ritt) Cicely Tyson entered the ranks of major American dramatic actresses with her bravura performance as a backwoods woman fighting to hold her family together. “[Tyson’s performance] is something that even the most fabled actresses might not have dared.” – Pauline Kael. With Paul Winfield, Janet MacLachlan. DCP. Approx. 105 min.

Reviews

“Sounder is a story simply told and universally moving. It is one of the most compassionate and truthful of movies, and there’s not a level where it doesn’t succeed completely. It’s one of those rare films that can communicate fully to a child of nine or ten, and yet contains depths and subtleties to engross any adult. The story is so simple because it involves, not so much what people do, but how they change and grow. Not a lot happens on the action level, but there’s tremendous psychological movement in Sounder and hardly ever do movies create characters who are so full and real, and relationship that are so involving.”
– Roger Ebert

“Stands out as an honest celebration of a strong family's triumph over poverty and racism.”
– Common Sense Media