Martin Bradley 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".

bkoganbing 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.

Egarn88 This movie is horrid and how someone can even think that they can try to make a movie out of such an amazing book is beyond me. I believe that this adaptation was, at best, a weak attempt at trying to bring a book to the silver screen. People see this movie and then try to read the book but they expect a simple reading when in actuality it is a very complex book to read and requires a great deal of analysis while reading it. Anyone who turns this book away because of they believe it is too difficult, I ask that you give it one more time. The stream of consciousness that is present within the first two chapters is what makes the novel good, and I don't believe that you are able to accurately portray that in a movie. I will acknowledge the actors in their attempt to create this movie, but unfortunately it fell far short of the greatness of the novel.

zetes A surprisingly excellent adaptation of my very favorite novel, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. A lot of things are changed - and I mean A LOT - but I would much rather see something new than a slavish adaptation of a great novel. Besides, Faulkner's novel would probably be impossible to adapt as written. The book shifts back and forth in time without warning. It can do that. Literature exists in the mind, while a film exists before the eye.Like Ritt's other Faulkner adaptation, 1958's wonderful The Long Hot Summer, based on The Hamlet, the mood is changed from dusty, Southern tragedy to hot-blooded melodrama. I would have been upset to hear that said about The Sound and the Fury, but it works out nearly perfectly. The narrative is made linear, and many of the distant past events in the novel are either removed or adapted into the latest time period of the book. The girl Quentin Compson (Joanne Woodward) is a wild teenager, and her uncle Jason Compson (Yul Brenner), who is taking care of her because her mother, Caddy, ran away after she gave birth, is cruelly taking care of her. Jason is a little different in the film. Instead of being one of the Compson children, he is a stepson. Caroline Compson was the second wife of the other Compson children's father. She and Jason are now Cajun, which is kind of weird, but it works. The male Quentin is more or less cut out, except for a brief mention. In this version, true to its melodrama, Quentin shot himself instead of jumping into a river. His was always my favorite section of the novel, and I'm actually glad they set it aside. It's not very cinematic. Benji is still here, but his section of the novel is completely cut out. First person narratives are difficult to do in films, so I don't blame the screenwriter. Benji quietly watches his family fall apart and he seethes in silence as he watches his niece follow in her mother's tragic footsteps. There's also a new Compson child, Howard. He is probably the biggest mistake that was made in this adaptation. He's kind of a compilation of Uncle Murray and the first Quentin. He has become an alcoholic because of his obsession with his sister's sexuality. The problem is that he is only barely incorporated into the film. I was always wondering who the heck he was until they explained him more completely later on in the movie. I guess he doesn't harm the overall product that much.SPOILERSOne big change in character in the film is the second Quentin. She wasn't very sympathetic in the novel. Sure, we could feel sorry for her, but she's a rebel and she's heading for disaster, or, more correctly, non-existence. She vanishes at the end of the novel and is never heard from again. Here, though, Quentin is a more important character. She's the center of the film, and while she's bad in some ways, she's got potential. Jason is very mean to her, but it's not the jealousy and revenge that it was in the novel. He does care for his adoptive daughter, but he really doesn't know how to behave around women or children. His purpose is to prop up the decaying Compson family. There's also an edge of sexual attraction in the film. Caddy, in the film, comes back home to live. She reveals that when Jason first arrived in the Compson household, he had a crush on her. This crush has also fallen on Quentin. Did this exist in the novel? I never thought it did, but the film has made me reconsider some things about the book. We know the first Quentin is sexually obsessed with his sister. Benji is also obsessed, although I never thought it was a sexual thing. Is Jason also obsessed in the novel? I don't know, but I'll be looking for it the next time I pick it up. The ending has some problems. So did The Long Hot Summer. Both endings are happy, or at least partly so. I had said that Quentin originally ran away. In the film, she almost does, but Jason convinces her not to, that she has potential. It works well. However, the night before Quentin runs away in the film, Benji strangles her when he catches her being bad. For this, he is sent to the insane asylum. This doesn't happen in the novel. He does attack a high school girl when she walks past the gate because he thinks she's Caddy. For this he is neutered. And Jason does send him to the asylum, but not in The Sound and the Fury. Its just that the sadness of Benji's commitment still hangs over the film when it ends, but you wouldn't quite know it if you just saw the ending. 9/10