The Sound and the Fury (1959)

Must See Movie...

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A great source novel, a fine director, a terrific cast and two very good writers so what could possibly have gone wrong? Something obviously did for at best Martin Ritt's film of William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" never rises above camp which is fine by me just so long as you don't expect anything more than a trashy piece of Southern Gothic.This was a Jerry Wald production and was aimed at an adult audience or maybe just an adult American audience who took these shenanigans for granted, (its Deep South setting has always been a source of fascination). It's a family saga, (naturally), and set on some kind of plantation, (naturally), though perhaps the most interesting aspect is that the black servants are much more forward thinking than their white employers.A miscast Yul Brynner, (with wig), is the head of the household; Joanne Woodward, (too old for the part she is playing), is the rebelious young girl whose mother, (Margaret Leighton), abandoned her as a baby but who has now returned to the fold; Ethel Waters is the 'Mammy' character, Jack Warden is the 'idiot' uncle, Francoise Rosay is Brynner's mother and Stuart Whitman, the carny with an eye on Woodward. With such a disparate cast you could say they are a very strange family. On the plus side it certainly looks good; Charles G Clarke shot it in Cinemascope and it is certainly lush. It might have been better if it had been even trashier; as it is it's somewhat po-faced. If you must have Faulkner go with "The Tarnished Angels" or even "The Long Hot Summer".

Rather benign or shall I say trashy version of the William Faulkner novel.Margaret Leighton comes across as the inevitable mix of Blanche DuBois and Scarlett O'Hara. An alcoholic southerner, Leighton is a woman caught up in the dysfunctional pattern of the Compson Family. Returning home after many years to find the family in complete disarray, Leighton, a wayward woman, is beset by problems.The head of this clan is none other than Yul Brynner, who is authoritarian as the stepbrother to Leighton. He runs the family with a firm hand and gives orders out at the beginning as if he is talking to Moses in Egypt.Stuart Whitman thinks he is the drifter in the tradition of William Holden in "Picnic," but is ready to sell out for the all-mighty buck.Ethel Waters in the family maid. She thinks she is sly in the tradition of Mammie in "Gone With the Wind,"As Leighton's frustrated and oppressed daughter, Joanne Woodward's character really never develops, as is the case with Leighton.Jack Warden, as the mute, never utters a word here in the tradition of Boo in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

My all-time favorite Southern movie! Highly underrated! I saw this film one summer afternoon as a teenager and spent the next several years searching for it in the local TV guide to no avail--nor was it available on video (still isn't!). Despite the PBS host who referred to it as "more sound than fury," I was knocked for a loop by the whole atmosphere created in this movie, which is very loosely based on the William Faulkner novel and the Compson characters in general. A couple years ago the True Stories movie channel (?) played it and I grabbed it on tape! My only complaint is that it is a Cinemascope feature and should be played in letterbox format to display the fine '50s-style clear-as-crystal cinematography to its maximum advantage. This is a movie that clocks you over the head with the soundtrack immediately, and the music defines the settings and characters throughout. Bear in mind that this is NOT a slavish interpretation of the mind-ripping book (not even close) nor could it be given its original release date! However, some of the characters are well-represented and even a few lines spoken word-for-word, and the production does an excellent job of capturing the heated Southern intensity of the original story. Joanne Woodward plays young Quentin Compson and the movie revolves around her teenage compulsion to connect with her mother (tall Margaret Leighton wonderfully cast as the wornout, dragged-down Caddy returning home after seventeen years' absence) and escape her cold, sarcastic, pitiless uncle, the "keeper," to a life she imagines will be flavored with love and freedom. Yul Brynner, cast as Jason Compson (not the book version--that guy was nearly insane), is perfect in the role of Quentin's enemy uncle. He captures the character's seething anger, always on the verge of rising to the surface and exploding. At the same time he is a person with a powerful sense of responsibility, and it is truly enjoyable to watch him struggle to keep his highly dysfunctional family in some semblance of order. A few familiar faces from the book include Dilsey (Ethel Waters in a superior performance), strong, softhearted and stressed by the Compson downfall, and little Luster, always put to taking care of huge half-witted Benjy (Jack Warden, who works to capture a very intense and disturbed personality behind a blank expression). Quentin's other uncle, Howard, keeps his father's drinking tradition alive as well as the eternal unhealthy fascination of the Compson boys for sister Caddy; Jason's Cajun mother just stays in bed most of the day, longsuffering and tiresome to all. I love the way this movie features vignettes of the individual lives these people lead, and the way they intersect without ever fully connecting. Anger, passion, frailty, loyalty--all against this wonderful backdrop of decrepit mansions and closeminded small-town malice. I refuse to complain about the way it strays from the novel because as a movie it stands on its own, a separate work, and tremendously enjoyable. Recommended!

Personally, I thought Yul Brenner may have been miscast for the role of Jason. However, all in all, I thought the performances were superb and I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I would like to know if anyone knows where I can get a copy, as it is no longer in print.