A lonely sawmill operator in the Mississippi Delta, Jackson Fentry, assumes the responsibility of caring for a fleeing pregnant woman. He falls in love with her and pleads with her several times to marry him. She finally relents after the baby is born. He then cares for the baby as his own child and they become very attached. When the child is three or four years old, his unsavory uncles and mother's family come and virtually kidnap him. Fentry is devastated but goes on with his life. Years later he refuses to vote guilty while a member of the jury in murder trial, and this story explains why.
Faulkner is so tied to place that most attempts at filming his works fall short of conveying his intent. Tomorrow, however, really does look right, and only The Reivers has conveyed as much sense of place. Duvall's sensitive performance is played off perfectly by Olga Ballin's Sarah. She is whimsical without being fey and tragic without being lugubrious. Duvall's accent is a little trying at first, but once you listen for a few minutes, it resonates as the only possible way his character could express himself. The grinding poverty of the rural South from 1865 until after World War II comes across vividly. The tableaux depict the stark dignity of these sharecropper's lives as eloquently as Let us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans. Duvall has a right to be proud of this performance.
Faulkner is so tied to place that most attempts at filming his works fall short of conveying his intent. Tomorrow, however, really does look right, and only The Reivers has conveyed as much sense of place. Duvall's sensitive performance is played off perfectly by Olga Ballin's Sarah. She is whimsical without being fey and tragic without being lugubrious. Duvall's accent is a little trying at first, but once you listen for a few minutes, it resonates as the only possible way his character could express himself. The grinding poverty of the rural South from 1865 until after World War II comes across vividly. The tableaux depict the stark dignity of these sharecropper's lives as eloquently as Let us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans. Duvall has a right to be proud of this performance.