Pauline Kael, in her review of Sounder, wrote: "The director, Martin Ritt, working from a scrupulous, unsentimental script by Lonne Elder III, based on the William H. Armstrong novel, avoids charging up the scenes [...] the movie earns every emotion we feel. And I think it will move audiences – move them truly, that is – as few films ever have." The film garnered four nominations at the 45th Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay.
He moved the family to Los Angeles to pursue an already burgeoning career writing for television. His first motion picture assignment was adapting William H. Armstrong's novel Sounder into a screenplay to be directed by acclaimed director Martin Ritt. The movie, a story about a poor family of Southern sharecroppers in the Great Depression, enjoyed instantaneous success.