I really enjoyed the film. and I highly recommend it. It is a film the whole family can enjoy without being embarrassed. I think it is well written, well cast and well acted. I love stories set in small towns and this one is great. It isn't Mayberry, but there are the typical small town regulars. There is the small town rich guy who thinks he can get away with anything, There is the sweet lady in the diner who is "auntie" to everyone, Even the "poor" junk man who has his secrets can be found in a lot of small towns. To those who criticize the fact that Sammy fakes his deafness for so long, well, that is the whole point of the story! There would be no story if he had been caught out! It is a piece of fiction, not "reality". I say don't worry about it and enjoy it for what it is. A nice, funny, story with a twist to the end!

This movie starts in the 1940s, then after the establishing scenes mostly takes place in the 1960s. It examines the situation, what would people do and say if they thought no one was listening? It creates interesting outcomes. A worthwhile movie.SPOILERS are contained in all the rest of my comments. Matthew Modine plays grown up Sammy Ayers, who had been left alone as a child on a bus after his mother Helen (Bernadette Peters) stepped off at a rest stop to buy a soft drink. She was dragged off and killed, while the bus driver simply thought she abandoned her son. When Sammy arrived the next morning at the destination, and found his mother missing, he did not immediately talk, all the townspeople believed he was deaf and mute, and he played the part because it was convenient. He grew up that way, and was treated as inferior by some, became the town handiman, picked up chore slips each day from a box at the store. James Earl Jones plays Archibald Thacker, a junk hauler along with his sons, but secretly running illegal moonshine, and getting rich in the process. The big 'secret' of this story is not revealed until the end, but Sammy was born out of wedlock and his father was the rich man of the town, and in his will left his inheritance to his eldest son, Sammy. The other son was dishonest, embezzled money from the local church. Sammy spoke the first time during the trial, as he had witnessed the plans and transgressions of the bad son. The 'daughter' was actually adopted and, since she and Sammy never did live as siblings, we see as the movie ends she and Sammy are on a bus together, heading somewhere to start new lives. There is s small element of 'revenge' here. The bad son had always treated Sammy badly, and made fun of him. So, Sammy's testimony which led to the conviction took on a type of revenge. But it was not revenge in the sense that Sammy actually did something to get back. He simply obeyed the law and testified. As opposed to 'Dogville' in which revenge is specific and willful, and equally unlawful as were the acts which sparked her revenge.

It's really beyond me what people see in this movie! I enjoy all sorts of movies but this one is like a shell with absolutely NO SUBSTANCE! It was SLOW, UNREALISTIC, and the entire movie seemed to revolve around the moment when he spoke which wasn't very dramatic at all as the characters were NOT even near to convincing.TO ME IT SEEMS LIKE THE PRODUCER HAS MADE A MOVIE BASED ON THE FACT THAT A STORY LIKE THIS ONE HAS SOME SUBTLETY TO IT AND THEREFORE IT WILL BE AND BE PERCEIVED TO BE MUCH MORE THAN IT IS. IT'S WORKED, PEOPLE HAVE VOTED IT INTO THE 7'S BUT THE FACT REMAINS THAT THIS MOVIE IS VERY VERY BLAND...

For me, Hallmark Hall of Fames are like the Super Bowl, the main event is nice to watch, but the commercials are the real reason to tune in. What can I say, I like cheez. However, "What the Deaf Man Heard" is a rare exception. This is a movie that captured my attention. I laughed, I cried, it was better than CATS. I don't believe it's on video, but CBS plays it again every so often. Check it out.