Review of Tomorrow

This story was panned by some IMDb readers and most notably by the critic Vincent Canby. I, personally, found the story riveting. Faulkner likes to refer to himself as a humanist and emphasizes the "eternal verities" of the human spirit that endure beyond what common sense would deem rational. Love is Faulkner's theme in "Tomorrow". Jackson Fentry's seemingly irrational behavior towards the pregnant woman and his behavior in the jury room twenty years later are good examples of Faulkner's "eternal verities". Robert Duvall does his best at a thick southern drawl and it isn't entirely authentic but it is certainly better than Vivian Leigh's southern accent. The minimalist dialogue and music score emphasize the simplicity of the lives of these rural poor. The story is glum and that will turn off many people but the characters' very miserableness creates a contrast between their sorry condition and the most noble of human emotions, namely love. What makes this story uplifting, in the end, is the strength of Jackson Fentry's love in the face of his world's bleakness. That is Faulkner's main point.

One other thing that has to be said is that IMDb made an error in the trivia section for this movie. IMDb claims that the character of the pregnant woman was Black in the original story. This is not correct. She was White in the original story. The mistake is likely due to the woman being described as "black complected" in the story. That phrase means dark haired, not dark skinned. In the South of the early 20th Century, it was against the law for a White man to marry a Black Woman and no local preacher would have married them.