A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off the coast of South Carolina, populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
Acting
Voight's earnest fragility vs. Winfield's scene-stealing wisdom.
Direction
Ritt lets silence and landscape do the heavy lifting.
Writing
Conroy's autobiographical source keeps it painfully personal.
Director
Martin Ritt
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot on St. Helena Island, SC; locals were cast as extras, and some Gullah dialect wasn't subtitled to preserve authenticity.
Based on Pat Conroy's actual memoir 'The Water Is Wide'; he was fired from this teaching job in real life too.
US
