Thoughts on the 2003 Remake

Since the remake which aired on The Wonderful World of Disney doesn't have its own entry, here are my impressions of it. I kind of want to say the same thing I said about the remake of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, that if you ignore the book and the first movie, this film would be a fairly good excuse for a movie, I guess well maybe anyhow. It wasn't as bad as I expected based on an unfavorable review I read years ago and now can't find asserting "this puppy stinks on ice." In the 1972 movie, the main characters were the Morgan family and the boy protagonist was David Lee Morgan. (As for his "real" name, it is revealed in the sequel book Sour Land to be Moses Waters.) This film follows the book in not naming any of the main human characters, only Sounder. The actors are adequate but no one is as good as in the 1972 film. The main character boy lacks the cuteness and charm of Kevin Hooks. Also the 1972 film shows something I believe to be inaccurate. In the white school, David Lee is one of about three black children allowed to sit in the back of the classroom as long as they are unobtrusive. During segregation, very strict laws forbade black children to be educated with white (or the other way around) and if any school in 1930s Louisiana (where the film is set) had allowed this they would have been in very serious trouble. The 2003 film never says where it was filmed. To its credit, it doesn't look like California, but can't be Louisiana as the state is divided into counties, not parishes. In the book and the 2003 movie, the boy has not attended school and cannot read. In the 1972 movie he can read well enough to read The Three Musketeers to his younger siblings. This movie follows the book in having the father transported after his arrest in a wagon rather than a truck, but later on 1930s era cars are shown. My impression of the book was that it all took place during horse and wagon days. In the 1972 movie, Sounder gets more screen time as he accompanies the boy on his journey to find his father. In the book and the 2003 movie, Sounder is too seriously injured to make such a trip. In the 2003 movie, the teacher the boy meets is a wise old man as in the book, not an attractive young woman as in the 1972 movie. The wise old man is played by Paul Winfield, who played David Lee's father Nathan Lee Morgan in the 1972 movie. Kevin Hooks, who played David Lee Morgan, directed this well-meaning film. The characters are obsessed with the Biblical story of Joseph, which I don't remember from the book or the 1972 film. The tone of the two movies is entirely different, right down to the color palette. The earlier film is done in light and bright colors while the later one uses somber muted earth tones. The 2003 movie might move someone to tears, I guess, if they were in a sad mood already and looking for an excuse to cry, but it lacks any of the 1972 film's emotional impact. The 2003 movie also follows the book's incredibly sad ending. The only way neither film is as sad as the book is that the time frame of how long the boy looks for his father is much shorter in the movies. I'm sticking to my original assessment: 1972 film, better than the book, 2003 film, closer to the book but not as good as the book.