Cicely Tyson's Performance In "Sounder

Cicely Tyson was an American actress with a career spanning over seven decades. She was known for portraying complex and strong-willed African American women. She garnered widespread acclaim for her performance in the 1972 drama film 'Sounder', in which she played the role of Rebecca Morgan, a sharecropper. Tyson's performance in the film earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress, and she won the NSFC and NBR Best Actress Awards.

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Cicely Tyson's role in Sounder

Cicely Tyson was an American actress whose career spanned more than seven decades. She is known for her portrayals of complex and strong-willed African American women. She received several awards, including three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and a Tony Award. She was also awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2018.

In 1972, Tyson played the role of Rebecca Morgan in the film Sounder. She was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work in the film. She also won the NSFC Best Actress and NBR Best Actress Awards. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of her performance, "The mother is played by Cicely Tyson, and it is a wonder to see the subtleties in her performance. We have seen her with her family, and we know her strength and intelligence. Then we see her dealing with the white power structure, and her behavior toward it is in a style born of cynicism and necessity. She will say what they want to hear in order to get what she wants to get."

Sounder is a 1972 drama film about an African-American family living as sharecroppers in rural Louisiana in 1933. The family consists of Nathan Lee, his wife Rebecca, and their children, including the oldest son, David Lee. David loves to hunt with his father and their dog, Sounder, but he is only able to attend school sporadically as he has to help his mother on the farm. One night, Nathan and David lose the raccoon they are hunting, leaving the family without meat to eat. However, the next morning, they find a ham cooking and happily eat it. When they return home after a community baseball game, the sheriff and his deputies arrive to arrest Nathan for stealing the ham from a nearby smokehouse. As they take him away, Sounder runs after their wagon, and one of the deputies shoots him. The injured dog runs away, and despite David's efforts, he is unable to find him. With their father gone, David and his siblings must help their mother on the farm. Rebecca shares her faith with David that Sounder is alive and will return home eventually.

Sounder was the first film to feature Oscar-nominated performances by two Black actors, with Winfield nominated for Best Actor and Tyson nominated for Best Actress. The film received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising it as a welcome antidote to the contemporaneous wave of films starring African Americans, many of which were considered low-quality or "Blacksploitation" features. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

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Her character, Rebecca Morgan

In the 1972 film Sounder, Cicely Tyson played the role of Rebecca Morgan, a sharecropper and the mother of the Morgan family. The film is about an African-American family living as sharecroppers in rural Louisiana and struggling with economic and personal hardships during the Great Depression.

Rebecca's son, David Lee, is a bright boy who loves to hunt with his father, Nathan Lee, and their dog, Sounder. However, David is only able to attend school sporadically as he has to help his mother on the farm. One night, Nathan and David lose the raccoon they are hunting, leaving the family without meat to eat. Despite this setback, the children are happy to wake up to the smell of ham cooking the next morning.

When Nathan is sentenced to a year of hard labour, the family is restricted from visiting him in jail. Only David is allowed to visit, and he brings a chocolate cake that Rebecca baked for Nathan. Despite their worries about not knowing where Nathan will be taken, Rebecca maintains her faith that Sounder is alive and will return home eventually. With the help of a sympathetic local woman, Mrs. Boatwright, Rebecca is able to find out the location of the distant Wishbone prison camp where Nathan has been taken. Despite the sheriff's threats, she tells the Morgan family and helps Rebecca plot the route on a map.

Sounder received critical acclaim, and Tyson's performance as Rebecca Morgan was particularly well-received. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of her performance, "The mother is played by Cicely Tyson, and it is a wonder to see the subtleties in her performance. We have seen her with her family, and we know her strength and intelligence. Then we see her dealing with the white power structure, and her behavior toward it is in a style born of cynicism and necessity. She will say what they want to hear in order to get what she wants to get." Tyson was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Rebecca Morgan, and she also won the NSFC Best Actress and NBR Best Actress Awards.

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The plot of Sounder

The 1972 film Sounder is an adaptation of the 1969 novel of the same name by William H. Armstrong. The film was directed by Martin Ritt and starred Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, and Kevin Hooks.

The story is set in rural Louisiana in 1933, during the Great Depression. It centres around the Morgans, an African-American sharecropping family who are struggling economically. The father, Nathan Lee Morgan, and his son, David Lee Morgan, go hunting with their dog, Sounder, but they are unable to catch anything. The family is hungry and poor, subsisting on biscuits, milk gravy, and fried corn mush.

One day, the family wakes up to the smell of boiling ham and happily eats it. However, soon after, the sheriff and his deputies arrive and arrest Nathan for stealing the ham. Sounder chases after them, and one of the deputies shoots him. David goes looking for Sounder but cannot find him. He later finds a part of Sounder's ear and continues to search for his beloved dog every day for weeks.

In the meantime, David's father is sentenced to a year of hard labour in a work camp. David is allowed to visit him in jail and brings him a chocolate cake that his mother, Rebecca Morgan, baked. Despite the family's worries about not knowing where Nathan will be taken, they eventually learn that he has been taken to the distant Wishbone prison camp.

David, accompanied by Sounder, sets out on a journey to find the camp and visit his father. He makes it to the Wishbone camp but is unable to find his father and is ignored by the guards. On his journey home, he comes across a school with all black students and stays with the kind teacher, Miss Johnson, who bandages his injured hand and has him attend classes. David longs to attend this school, but his dream seems out of reach.

Upon returning home, David resolves to stay and work on the farm to help his mother. However, Nathan wishes for David to escape the life of sharecropping and pursue an education. They eventually agree that David will attend the school full-time, accompanied by Sounder. The film ends on a hopeful note, with Nathan encouraging David to aspire to a better future.

The film's critical acclaim

The 1972 film Sounder received widespread critical acclaim. It was praised for its portrayal of a loving family, which was hailed as a banner accomplishment for Black filmmakers and audiences. The film was also noted for its depiction of the black experience in America during the Great Depression, with reviewers praising it as a welcome antidote to the contemporaneous wave of films starring African Americans, many of which were considered low-quality or "blacksploitation" features.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, stating that "there's not a level where it doesn't succeed completely." He also wrote that the film would resonate with both children and adults and praised Cicely Tyson's performance, noting the subtleties in her portrayal of the mother, Rebecca Morgan. Henry Herx, in his Family Guide to Movies on Video, wrote that "Sounder captures the humanity of [its] characters and a fine, distanced sense of its sleepy Southern locale." He added that the film "earns a deep emotional response from its audience because its [appealing] story and characters are believable."

In 2006, the American Film Institute ranked Sounder #61 on their list of the most inspiring movies of all time. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, which deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film was also a commercial success, with the National Board of Review ranking it as one of the top 10 best films of 1972.

Sounder was also notable for being the first film to feature Oscar-nominated performances by two Black actors: Paul Winfield for Best Actor and Cicely Tyson for Best Actress. The film itself was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Taj Mahal's blues-inspired soundtrack was nominated for a BAFTA and Grammy Award.

Tyson's personal life

Cicely Tyson was born on December 18, 1924, in East Harlem, New York City, and grew up in a religious household. Her parents, who were from the Caribbean island of Nevis, worked hard to support Tyson and her two older siblings. Her father, William, worked as a carpenter and painter, while her mother, Theodosia, was a domestic worker. As a child, Tyson sang in the choir and played the piano and organ at the Episcopal Church in Harlem.

At the age of 18, Tyson left her typing job and began working as a model. She was discovered by a photographer or fashion editor at Ebony magazine and quickly rose to the top of the modelling industry. In 1957, she began acting in Off-Broadway productions and made her television debut in 1961. In 1963, she became the first African American star of a TV drama, playing the role of secretary Jane Foster in "East Side/West Side".

Tyson was married twice. Her first marriage was to Kenneth Franklin in 1942, and they had a daughter named Joan in 1943. She left Franklin two years later. In the 1980s, she married jazz musician Miles Davis, and they were together for seven years.

Throughout her career, Tyson was known for her style and dedication to portraying strong, positive images of Black women. She refused to do "blaxploitation" films or take parts solely for the paycheck, carefully choosing roles that exemplified quality and depth. She was also committed to community involvement and co-founded the Dance Theater of Harlem after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

Tyson passed away on January 28, 2021, at the age of 96. Her memoir, "Just As I Am", was published just days before her death. She was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, with her former husband, Miles Davis.

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