Le bruit et la fureur

Watching this adaption of William Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury I can only wonder he must have thought of this abortion of his work. This film seems to have been influenced by Harold Robbins more than Faulkner.

For one thing the novel is a far better subject for a mini-series as it takes place over a couple of generations and is written from several points of view, not the straight linear narrative we get here. Secondly the novel was updated to present day meaning 1959 Mississippi. The civil rights era was on in Mississippi in 1959 and the attitudes expressed here would have been lost in 1959. The novel came out in the late Twenties and some of the action went back a generation earlier.

These Compsons are one dissolute bunch and the only one of the family holding them together is Yul Brynner as Jason because heaven forfend he realizes they're not rich any more and that big mansion has gas and electric bills that need paying. He actually works for a living. The hope of the family may be Joanne Woodward as Quentin who is the illegitimate daughter of the most dissolute of all the Compsons Margaret Leighton.

Leighton has been living away from the family and the genteel Mississippi folks she's been brought up with because of her disgrace with Woodward's birth. But she comes back and that sets off a whole chain of events that causes everyone to reevaluate how things are going for the Compsons.

Ethel Waters did her last role in The Sound And The Fury as the family maid. Her family even in the servile position that blacks had in Mississippi in those days is still stronger than the Compsons even Yul Brynner. Too bad no musical number got worked into the script for her.

The cast is a superbly talented one and they do their best with a hard to recognize Faulkner work, but the film as a whole comes up way short.

Leonard Maltin describes this film as a "strange adaptation" of the rather dense and difficult William Faulkner novel of the same name. Perhaps the lesson here is that the book is indeed unfilmable. The movie takes numerous liberties with the novel and generally omits large portions of it. I can't help but feel that Yul Brynner, with his peculiar accent, was miscast as Jason Compson. In the book, Jason is the youngest sibling of Caddy and Benjie; here he is described as an adopted son, and not "blood" kin. We also have a completely made up sibling named Howard, who does not exist in the book. The novel takes place in the late 1920's with many flashbacks, here the present day is the mid 1950's. Despite its shortcomings, including a rather overbearing and jazzy music score which doesn't really fit, The Sound and The Fury does have its merits, starting with the always watchable Joanne Woodward as young Quentin Compson, presumably around 18 years of age and still in high school. The photography was fine and the ambiance, both inside and out, of the deteriorating Compson mansion was spot on. The small town atmosphere of Jefferson, MS was captured nicely. I would recommend this film to Faulkner buffs and Joanne Woodward fans. Just don't expect too much.

I came across this movie one afternoon on the FOX channel. There seemed to be well known and respected actors and actresses in it, so I decided to watch it. I was a bit disappointed in the development of the plot. There were times when I was confused as the movie went from one scene to another; from one character to another. I was left scurrying to figure out who was who and what their part was in the overall plot. I also felt that the movie moved a bit slow. A few times I actually became a little bit bored. Yul Brenner played his deep dark part to a "T". Joanne Woodward's character was a little bit ditsy for me, and I was surprised to find on this website that she was 29 years old when she made this movie. Kind of old to be playing a "school girl" who had to go to summer school. That part was not believable to me at all. She did look much younger than her 29 years but not that much. I wished that they had developed Quentin's (Joanne Woodward) relationship with her mother a bit earlier, since the character she played in the movie was affected by the absence of her mother while she was growing up. The ending was good, and I am glad that Quentin learned a very important life lesson about men and love at an early age. A lot of woman do not learn that lesson until it is too, too late. I was also glad to see in the last moments of the movie that Jason (Yul Brenner) was more softhearted than I had thought when he gave Quentin what was due her.

"The Sound and the Fury" from 1959 is based on the novel by William Faulkner, and from what I understand, it's pretty loosely based.

I can't speak for the book, but the film is certainly derivative, reminiscent in some of its themes of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and even "Gone with the Wind," as it deals with the idea of the old, gentile south versus the new south.

Yul Brynner is Jason Compson, head of the Compson family, and guardian of Quentin (Joanne Woodward), whose mother Caddy (Margaret Leighton) took off years earlier. As a result, Quentin is a troubled young woman, looking for love in all the wrong places and trying to break from her family. The rest of the family is your typical southern dysfunctional - Ben, the slow brother who doesn't talk, and Howard (John Beal), the alcoholic brother. I had a little trouble putting the family together - Ben, Howard, and Caddy are all siblings, and Quentin is Caddy's daughter; I guess Jason is a half-brother or stepbrother, evidently from Russia. Anyway, Jason is the brains of the outfit, determined to drag the family kicking and screaming into the 20th century and providing for them.

Caddy returns to the house with Jason's permission, and Quentin, who has needed a mother and waited her entire life for her mother to return, finds she's not much use. Caddy as played by prominent Broadway actress Leighton is Blanche Dubois, dragging herself home to Belle Reve. She is either a nymphomaniac or just promiscuous; my money's on the former.

The story seems to have been reduced to stereotypes and follows along with several films made at that time, including "The Long Hot Summer" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Except for his accent, Yul Brynner gives a solid performance - mysterious, magnetic, and a dominant presence, and Woodward is excellent as Quentin, a young woman trying to find herself. Ethel Waters gives a wonderful performance as the housekeeper, Dilsy, who has seen all the children grow up and is smarter than all of them.

Just okay.

This movie is only loosely inspired by the William Faulkner novel. The character of Jason has undergone a complete rewrite and here he is the angry yet well-intentioned, and somewhat misguided, head of the Compsons, desperately trying to pull the family up by their bootstraps.

As a movie, The Sound & The Fury stands on its own quite well. Yul Brynner and Joanne Woodward turn in powerful performances. As the strict guardian to young Quentin, Brynner plays the role with equal parts of anger and determination, with a touch of sizzle thrown in. Woodward, as the young Quentin, is both desperate and vulnerable, but tough. You can't deny the underlying chemistry between these two characters. Their scenes together crackles in the summer heat. Interestingly, Woodward was already expecting her first child while filming this movie. Brynner's southernized Russian accent is an entertaining distraction. This is a must see but leave your expectations of an adaptation at the door. Hopefully they'll release a DVD soon!