This Disney release is based on William H. Armstrong’s novel by the same name and takes place in the south during the Depression. Our main character is Boy, the oldest son of a family descended from slaves. Even though the Civil War has been over for a while, the racism and bigotry are as strong as ever, and it’s hard for this family to get a decent meal, let alone a large-enough house or a good job. Scrambling for every single thing they get, they make ends meet, somehow.
One day, Boy’s father comes home with a hunting dog found wandering lost. Boy immediately takes a shine to the dog and names him “Sounder,” for his mournful howl. Soon Sounder proves his worth to the family by helping them hunt game, but when winter comes, there’s very little game to be found.
At work one day, Boy’s father gets in trouble for stepping in when the owner of a bull whips the poor animal, who then thrashes so much he breaks a leg and has to be put down. Boy’s father is blamed for the loss of the bull, and isn’t paid for that day’s work. Hungry and desperate, the father heads off into town, returning with a ham. The family eats well that night, but dinner’s not even over when the sheriff comes to arrest the father for stealing the ham, leaving Boy, his mother, brother and sister alone. Sounder goes chasing after the paddy wagon, only to get injured in the chase.
At first I thought Boy was a bit too consumed with Sounder – he seemed more worried about the dog than his father. But as the movie went on, I realized that Sounder was Boy’s distraction, the thing he could focus on to keep himself from thinking about his father.
This movie was very well done, if a little disjointed here and there. You can feel the sorrow of the family as they are put through injustice upon injustice, and their silent rage at being treated like less than people. A look into how things were in our nation’s history, it doesn’t glorify the poor treatment of blacks, but shows how they were treated and how they managed to deal with it, and that was with lots of faith. Boy’s mother was truly a faithful woman throughout the movie.
I would recommend this film for children age 10 and up. Some of the themes were a bit much for a younger viewer, but a powerful lesson for the rest of the family.
This film is rated PG.
Related Blogs:
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book