Coming home to ‘Sounder’

Other films won more awards, grossed more money, featured bigger stars, had more memorable music in 1972. It was, after all, the year of “The Godfather,” of “The Poseidon Adventure,” of “Cabaret.”

But probably no film released that year is regarded, even now, with as much affection as “Sounder.”

An unheralded film about a poor, black, sharecropping family in Depression-era Louisiana -- starring such then-unknown actors as Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield and a 12-year-old named Kevin Hooks -- its heart-tugging story of family love resonated loudly in a contentious year. And it remains a film people remember with fondness and affection.

But not Hooks. Like many actors looking at their earlier work, he has, at best, mixed feelings about the first major success in his show business career.

“It’s very difficult for me to look back on that. I used to be able to look at it. But I haven’t been able to watch ‘Sounder’ for at least 10 years.”

Even so, Hooks is returning to “Sounder”; he directed a new version of the story premiering Sunday on ABC’s “The Wonderful World of Disney.”

For the last three decades, Hooks has been one of Hollywood’s busiest director/producers, bouncing between feature films -- “Fled” and “Passenger 57” -- and television -- “NYPD Blue,” “ER” and “City of Angels.”

But Hooks, son of actor Robert Hooks, made his initial Hollywood splash as an actor. He played one of the basketball players in the 1978 series “The White Shadow,” and even starred in the short-lived comedy, “He’s the Mayor.” His first significant -- and most acclaimed -- role was the quiet, courageous boy in “Sounder.”

The film scored with black and white audiences alike, just before the birth of the blaxploitation era, which featured African Americans in violent, urban adventures such as “Shaft” and “Superfly.” Hooks was at the center of the film that won Oscar nominations for best picture and its two lead actors, Winfield and Tyson, who played his parents.

Fans of the film praise Hooks’ poignant and sensitive performance, but when he watches the film, he sees a 12-year-old actor on the edge of losing his innocence.

“That film represents for me a place that I can never get back,” Hooks said last week. “So much of my adolescence is wrapped up in that experience. I see a young man who hasn’t a care in the world, a boy filled with naivete, enjoying himself in this hobby called acting. He hadn’t yet discovered what it means to make a living as an actor.”

Hooks says the new “Sounder” is much closer to the novel by William H. Armstrong that inspired director Martin Ritt’s original film. Michael Jaffe and Howard Braunstein, the remake’s executive producers, approached ABC several months ago about a new version of “Sounder,” and Hooks was called to work behind the camera this time.

In revisiting “Sounder,” Hooks said he was determined to pay homage to the original but also wanted to shed new light on the material.

“There’s no way to improve that movie, and the only way to approach it was not to duplicate it,” Hooks said. “I wanted this to be a new experience. And by my directing the project, it was my small way of protecting the integrity.”

His preparation did not include watching the original “Sounder.” In fact, he stayed far away from the film: “I knew it would be a mistake to watch it. I knew I ... would find myself trying to measure up to it.”

Carl Lumbly (“Alias”) and Suzzanne Douglas (“The Parent ‘Hood”) take on the characters played by Winfield and Tyson. Newcomer Daniel Lee Robertson III plays the role originated by Hooks. The project also reunites Hooks with Winfield, who plays a small role as a schoolteacher who befriends the young boy.

Said Quinn Taylor, the network’s senior vice president of movies and miniseries: “Kevin was our first and only choice, for obvious reasons.”

“Sounder” is the latest in ABC’s strategy of remaking classic films such as “Brian’s Song,” “The Miracle Worker” and “The Music Man.” Taylor said he respects the earlier film, “but people don’t walk into a video store and ask for ‘Sounder.’ We can expose the story to a new audience.”

The two versions of “Sounder” share the same basic story: A sharecropper’s family experiences hard times, prompting him to steal food to feed his family. The theft is discovered and he is arrested, leaving his young son as provider for his family. While the father is being taken off to hard labor at a far away prison, his young son’s dog and constant companion Sounder is shot by one of the lawmen, and disappears into the woods.

The boy embarks on a long journey to locate his father. Along the way, he finds friendship with a schoolteacher who encourages his love for books. Eventually, the family is reunited, but their lives have been forever changed.

The new “Sounder” also has some key differences from its predecessor. The original was filmed on location in rural Louisiana, while the new “Sounder” was filmed in Toronto. The racism of the white characters is more pronounced now, and the young boy is a bit more defiant than the character played by Hooks. Like the book, the characters don’t have names, and instead are referred to simply as the Father and the Boy. Death makes a crucial appearance. “We’ve really gone back to the source material,” Taylor said. “Our version is much darker than the original movie.”

He added that the new version is perhaps more realistic in terms of the depiction of poor blacks and prejudice. The 1972 “Sounder” approached the period with positive nostalgia.

“Not to be disrespectful of the earlier film, but it was not a fun thing to be living in that time frame,” said Taylor. “We think we’re truer to showing what it was like during those days.”

The differences between the two versions is illustrated in one crucial scene in which the young boy takes a cake lovingly baked by his mother to his just-jailed father. In the earlier “Sounder,” the jailer, saying he is checking the cakes for files, pokes it several times with a knife. In the new version, the jailer takes the cake and breaks it into pieces, effectively destroying it while the boy looks on with helpless rage.

“One of the things the original never dealt with is the idea of how young black males had to suppress their anger when presented with life conflicts,” Hooks said.

Hooks said about filming that scene: “It was just beyond words. I knew it was going to work on my psyche, and bring up things that I hadn’t thought about or dealt with for years. My mother and father were in the midst of separating when I did the first movie, and I was a 12-year-old frightened of divorce. Then I’m put in a film where a family is torn apart by circumstances. I was doing scenes where I couldn’t be with my father.

“To re-create those scenes was very difficult. There were occasions when I would set up a shot, then have to walk away. It’s like being in a therapy session for 30 years.”

But he believes that the new version is a credible update of the earlier “Sounder”: “It’s a beautiful story, and the message resonates and transcends the years, so it deserves to be told again. There will be those who want to compare, but it really is apples and oranges.”

Winfield said he was skeptical about the remake, but agreed to participate when he heard that Hooks would direct.

“ ‘Sounder’ is my first film, and it will be my last,” said the 65-year-old Winfield. “Going out with this seems right. I feel like I’ve been part of something worthwhile.”

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‘Sounder’

When: 7-9 p.m. Sunday

Where: ABC

Rating: TV-PGV (may be unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for violence)