Friday, May 10, 2013

Classic Kids, or 100 films the kids in your life have to see by 13 or else!


Day 52:  Sounder (1972)

My friend Seth mentioned this film to me yesterday, and boy did it bring back strong memories.  I remember seeing this in 1972 with my mom at the Majestic in downtown Madison.  The film was adapted from William H. Armstrong's  1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder.  The book is more graphic and nuanced in its depiction of racism,  yet the film is still strong.   Visually and aurally, the film does a masterful job of constructing a story of a family of black sharecroppers living in the South during the Depression.   Sounder is a  beautiful, poignant story, of a young man (David) struggling to grow into manhood and also connect with his father.   The story builds upon the imprisonment of David's father, for stealing food.  
The film stars Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, and Kevin Hooks and was nominated for numerous Academy Awards.  

Themes:  Poverty, Racism, the Depression, Adolescence

Media Literacy Questions:  Why was the film version of this story less violent than the book itself?   What is the moral to the story?  How did the film makers reconstruct Louisiana during the Depression.

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