Editorial Review

From the moment the young Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) is stolen from his life and ancestral home in 18th-century Africa and brought under inhumane conditions to be auctioned as a slave in America, a line is begun that leads from this most shameful chapter in U.S. history to the 20th-century author Alex Haley, a Kinte descendant. The late Haley's acclaimed book Read more

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Reviews (74)

A Picture Is Worth A Million Words!
Words alone cannot describe the effect this made for tv movie had on me when I watched the original showing on tv (1977).I was taken aback at how realistically they were allowed to portray this man's (Haley) story, which in effect was the story of the entire Black race and, to a large degree, the White race in this country!For Blacks it was like reliving their history.For Whites it was a serious enlightenment (and in some cases a rude awakening).It managed to open the door for dialogue between the races, and inspired a whole nation to get involved with genealogy too.Most importantly, it inspired most of this nation to say "never again."I have to agree with D. Hammork though in that I'm shocked and appalled at Amazon for leaving LeVar Burton and John Amos (who both played the MAIN character)off of their list of people who STARRED in this movie! This movie launched Burton's career; and John Amos had already been a star in his own right! Please get your act together!

Roots
Take me back to the Motherland...I Cried...I Sighed...I Hoped...Never could I Joke...Insightful Plight of Africans Forced into Slavery, Stripped of Everything, Except Their Hearts...Their Unwavering Faith, and In spite of it All, Overcame Tremendous Obstacles Heaped Upon Them with Grace and Dignity...

Makes you think!
This one stays in your system a while after watching.
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Editorial Review

The only one of August Wilson's plays to be filmed (and for television, at that), this 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winner is an amazing piece of work. Adapted by Wilson and directed by Lloyd Richards, who staged it on Broadway, the play deals not just with racism and its effects but with the ongoing legacy and curse of slavery on modern blacks. Set in 1920s Pittsburgh, the story deals with the arrival of Boy Willie (Charles Dutton) from Mississippi, to claim a family heirloom from his sister Berniece (Alfre Woodard): the piano, carved by their ancestors with symbols of slavery. He wants to sell it to buy the land his grandfather worked as a slave; Berniece refuses to give it up because it represents a horrifying episode from the family's past. Add in ghosts, superb performances, and Wilson's poetically charged writing, and you have a startlingly solid piece of theater that works well as a film. Read more

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Reviews (11)

"As long as Sutters had thatpiano, they had us as slaves."
Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, August Wilson's lively domestic drama focuses on a black family in the 1930s and their piano, which dominates the living room of Doaker Charles and his niece Berniece in Pittsburgh.The piano is adorned with the faces of their slave ancestors, carved by a distant relation who was owned by the Sutter family in Mississippi before Emancipation. Berniece's brother Boy Willie, recently released from a prison farm, has come to Pittsburgh from Mississippi with his friend Lymon, determined to sell this ancient piano in which he claims half-ownership.
A battle between the historic past and dreams for the future
If you are seriously into dramatic theatre plays, you may agree that re-creations made for movies or televisions are often substandard to the book!In this case, the re-creation was geared toward television/movie quality rather than a reproduction of a stage theatre performance.
Hallmark censorship
An already posted review claims that this TV version is true to August Wilson's play.Only partly--and the differences are almost certainly attributable to Hallmark.Wilson adapted his own original stage script, but this version is shorter than the original (which may be a good thing--Wilson does like to let his characters gab) and the language is very different.For example, the nice, politically correct folks who want to sell greeting cards at Hallmark no doubt forced Wilson to remove the numerous instances of the word "ni____" from his play.Some other "rough" language (which can now be heard on the evening news, much less TV fiction) also failed to pass Hallmark's censors.Read more

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Reviews (21)

Great Movie
This was a great movie all the way thru. It was a little long but worth watching. I loved the cast, many of the great actors are in this movie. Even though this film was not based on any one persons life, you will find a bit of history and a bit of a reminder of how close our black families can be.

Excellent Movie!
I must have cried or come close watching this movie about a dozen times.This is a great movie about a strong lady who has survived so many upheavals in her life as a poor black woman who never loses her sense of self worth or the importance of integrity.Cicely Tyson is wonderful as always, and Erika Alexander has the ability to act well without saying a word as the young Flora.It takes a great actress to speak with her eyes the way Alexander did!
Mama Flora`s Family
I very disappointed because I saw the movie on TV and wanted to add it to my video collection.But the video I ordered did not have the whole movie on it and I think you should have made it clear that I was not getting the whole movie and then I would have ordered the cd if it had the whole movie on it.This was not good business, I wll never order anything from you again. And I told my friends and family not to order from you either.
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Editorial Review

Laurence Fishburne helped shepherd this Emmy Award-winning exposé from American medical history books to the small screen. Anchored in the 1973 Senate inquiry into the infamous Tuskegee Study, the film uses a flashback structure to take us back 40 years as Nurse Eunice Evers (played with honest conviction by Alfre Woodard, who also earned an acting Emmy for her powerful performance) describes how a program designed to treat syphilis among blacks in the South was twisted into an inhuman study. Evers's conscience is torn between leaving her position on principle or remaining to give the dying menwhat comfort she can while they are systematically refused life-saving medicine atevery turn. Fishburne costars as Caleb, a easygoing but ambitious young fieldhand who discovers the cold reality of the study while courting Miss Evers. Adapted by Walter Bernstein from a play by David Feldshuh, the film rises above the TV Movie of the Week mold with a complex moral structure that eschews (if you'll pardon the expression) black and white polarities for shades of gray as the doctors' initial compromises become a lifetime of lies. Ultimately that tone becomes the most disturbing facet of the drama: doctors and nurses so enmeshed in what is tantamount to a conspiracy they can find no way out, and a government that searches for scapegoats for its own cold-blooded research. Read more

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Reviews (9)

A Shameful History
This movie is a great teaching tool for anyone. The events that occur and how they were enacted were an amazing, sad and shameful thing to wacht. It was use to teach me about laws that govern the medical field and why they are in place. My daughter use it to show the abuse that can occur when people are ignorant about STD's or any disease.
Blaming the Victim
Overall, this is a film worth watching, but to be honest I am extremely irritated in the fact that they bind a black woman up in all the evil, prejudice, racist, and other wrong doings of the U.S. government.Although, it is Miss Evers who calls the groups of men "her boys," its more self-inflicted labeling and a defense mechanism to fight off the nonsense the men encountered at the hands of the government.The subject is touchy and very heartbreaking yet, its still worth buying because it sheds a certain amount of truth to the history of brutality experienced by African-American men and women.

An American Tragedy
This is a made for cable drama based upon true events. As such, historicity takes a back seat to drama. That being said, there is no real reason to complain about this film. It depicts a despicable human experiment that took place near Tuskeegee, Alabama, beginning in 1932 and continuing for several decades. In a government study, black men with syphilis were offered treatment and records were kept on their progress. They got better. Suddenly, the funding for the program was cut. Some time later, a new program was begun. In this one, the black syphilitic men were studied and treated but the treatments were placebos. They served as a control group. Originally, the promise was that, upon completion of the program, the patients would be given the real treatments. In actuality, so much data was derived from these men that the program continued and continued for years with no real treatment. Eventually, the men began to die off and their minds an bodies succumbed to the devastation of the disease.
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Reviews (46)

Deserves a big, fat zero!
This movie was made by someone on a diet of white bread and packaged vegetables - bland, blander, blandest.Whereas the book is moving, if a bit over-reliant upon the narrator Cassie overhearing everything and all the children getting into the action, yet again, the movie makes you want to yell obscenities.One example will do.The book is set in the Depression-era Deep South, rural Mississippi - it didn't get any worse for blacks - and the sharecroppers are desperately poor.Yet the characters all look as though they're just shopped off the rack at the country store.There's no fire, no emotion, no tension.
Very disappointing
I have just finished watching this book at school because we have been studying the book. The book is very good; it is gritty, down to earth and tells it like it is (in some parts it is quite violent). But the film is very disappointing. The acting is wooden, the children all look wrong (Cassie is supposed to be 9 but she looks 15) and constantly have cheesy grins on their faces. The film is too sentimental and cheesy. The film also cuts out a lot of the swearing and violence as well as other parts of the story. For example, John Henry Berry is badly burnt and in the book he is still alive and the children see him badly burnt but in the film he is buried under the rubble of his house and you do not see him.
This movie bites the big one
easily one of the worst movies i have EVER seen. They played things that happened at the end of the book in the beginning of the movie. it was hard to see. Cassie is supposed to be a third grader and she's taller then Stacey(13). this movie had so many problems i hated it! :( don't bother watching this movie! Mr.Lock if u ever read this you shouldn't have made us finish watching it :P it was a waste of class time and we should have just stuck to the book. ... Read more

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Editorial Review

Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine both received Emmy nominations for their performances in this made-for-TV movie. The plot follows Nelson Mandela's 27-year struggle to end apartheid. That segregation was abolished without bloodshed also had much to do with the political maneuverings of South African President F.W. de Klerk, played with convincing and tired resolution by Caine. Poitier plays the more powerful personality, and shines as the self-assured leader. Filmed in Cape Town, this extremely talky and sometimes static film is intriguing as a historical study. As a drama, it is a bit dry. Read more

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Reviews (3)

Great Showing
this Made for TV Movie truly Captures so many Elements within the South African Commnunity.MR.Mandala&Mr.Deklerk were Portrayed Very Strongly respectively by Sidney Poitier&Michael Caine.A Strong Performance.

When Vision Is Not Enough...Make It Reality!
This video is an excellent follow-up to the former video produced where Danny Glover plays Mr. Mandela.It takes up where the other video leaves off!Not only does it do an excellent job of portraying the struggle of a people but enables you to see all prospectives involved, namely those of the white South African community.My whole family is inspired by the life of Mr. Mandela and all those involved.And after seeingthis version of the circumstances, I was able to see the sacrifices of Mr. DeKlerk also!I am inspired to achieve those visions in my own life and not to fear what man or society may do to me!Thank God for men with a vision and a will to see it became a reality!

the best video i have seen
yyoui will love this version as it shows mandella in his 27 years sentanc ... Read more

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Editorial Review

On a bright sunny day in 1948, Jefferson (Mekhi Phifer) sets off down the road to go catch some fish; by the end of the movie's opening sequence, he is the one who's been caught, and wrongly accused of the murder of a white shopkeeper. Racial inequality, at the time, is so pervasive in Louisiana that the white defense lawyer's argument at Jefferson's trial is that his client is not worthy of conviction: "You might just as soon put a hog in the 'lectric chair as this," he declares.Outraged by this statement, Jefferson's godmother (Irma P. Hall) does not want her godson to die as a hog.To this end she enlists the reluctant aid of the black community's teacher, Grant Wiggins (Don Cheadle), to teach him to "be a man." As Grant and Jefferson get to know each other (and the viewer gets to know them both), it's not clear which of them needs the lesson more. As in Ernest J. Gaines's award-winning novel, the movie goes beyond the conflict between the races to explore divisions that splinter the black community: education versus religion, dark skin versus light.And, thanks to masterful performances from Cheadle and Phifer as well as a thoughtful screenplay by Amy Peacock, Read more

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Reviews (11)

A lesson for us all
A "Lesson Before Dying" is a powerful and passionate film, so beautifully written and so beautifully acted it is one of those rare exceptions where the film adaptation is better than the book.Mehki Phifer gives a powerful performance as Jefferson, a young man sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit. He truly brings honesty and humanity to a young man who is seen by white society as inhuman. And Don Cheadle brings compassionate and dignity to the teacher who must help Jefferson stand tall.
There are more important lessons to be learned than death with dignity
In Louisiana in 1948 a young black man named Jefferson (Mekhi Phifer) makes the fatal mistake of accepting a ride from another pair of young men.When they stop at a local store to get some beer the other men do not have enough money and the white storeowner will not give them credit.Guns are drawn and everybody ends up dead but Jefferson, who is arrested for the crime.Since this is a question of black and white justice in the South before the Civil Rights Movement, Jefferson is condemned to be executed.The fact that he is innocent of the actual killings is not important to this 1999 HBO movie adapted from the novel by Ernest J. Gaines ("The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman").Nobody is going to save Jefferson from his fate.The focus here is not on justice, but rather on death with dignity.
Hog of a story
During the first half of the 20'th century (and before) there were many injustices perpetrated against the negro. Those stories need to be told and understood. This movie tries to tell such a story but failed because it ignored the historical realities. I lived in a place much like the one in the movie in the 50's and was overwhelmed with the liberties the movie took with "the way it was."
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Editorial Review

This 1973 television movie about 110 years of American history as seen through the eyes of a black woman from Louisiana (Cicely Tyson) is a terrific achievement, a window onto racism from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement. Tyson gives a career performance as the title character, whose personal life is inextricably woven into the fabric of the African American struggle for equality. A mixture of the sentimental and the unflinching, this is the kind of educational experience that fully engages a viewer. Read more

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Reviews (30)

The Role God Wanted Cicely Tyson to Play
Much has been said about the role that network television news played in shining a spotlight on Bull Connor and the rest of the racists in the Old South of the Fifties and Sixties, and those observations are correct. By the late Sixties, with the passage of landmark Civil Rights legislation and grudging acceptance by some that change was here to stay, real barriers began to be broken and doors opened. But, like all seismic shifts in culture, change would have to be reinforced to make it complete.
Great To See It Again
Great to see it again after all these years and the DVD Extras were just wonderful. Five Stars to a well deserved release. Thanks.

IF Movies Were Gem's This ONE IS A Flawless Beauty
This movie moves me to tears everytime I am honored to see it.The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman ~ Cicely Tyson is as real as television or movies can get.The acting is so trueful and understated allowing the shear power of the subject matter presented to reach up and envelope the viewer.The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman movie can change the coldest of bigoted hearts if you allow it to do so.The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman teaches without preaching.This movie is a beautiful strong black woman's unflinching look at a lifetime of the most hiddious ugliness possible in the hearts of so many in her community. Fiction Mrs Jane Pittman defeated with charm grace and defiant dignity the most potent bile hate and evil people in her world could muster and yet she rises above it all with a humble quiet dignity lost to so many in todays world.
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Reviews (5)

Patty Duke's best TV movie
I have watched this tape about 5 times and I still enjoy it.BRING IT TO DVD, for goodness sake!My VHS tape won't last much longer.

My first understanding of what racism is
This is one of my favorite tv movies of the seventies which is about racism in the south. The performances of the two lead actors are excellent. Patty Duke won a richly deserved Emmy Award for her role showing that her Oscar for the 'Miracle Worker' was not just a fluke. Al Freeman Jr. should of have won as well but that's Hollywood. This film opened my eyes to the real world showing me how ignorant people can really be. Unfortunately, things have not changed much since its release, however, it's still a great film to watch and analyze!

The Best TV Film of 1970
Granted, I am biased in that I have been a long-time fan of Ms. Duke's, dating back to 1962.But I am objective enough in my observations as a student of film, and a video producer myself, to realize - and highly recommend - the excellence of this splendid television production, adapted from the novel by David Westheimer. Read more

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Reviews (2)

Rare story
This film provides a rare opportunity for you to get a peek into the life of suthor, James Baldwin.If you are not an ardent reader, you will know little of this wonderful writer.I only wish that there will be a biography on film of this man.Until that comes along, this is the only film that I have seen that gives you an inside of his life.

EXCELLENT ADAPTATION
John Grimes is a sensitive young teenager who bears the daily criticism of his step-father. As he endures the redicule, resentment and anger of this man, John tries to understand himself and the world he is to inherit.Read more

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Editorial Review

Made for HBO, this film biography of boxing promoter Don King is solid entertainment, thanks to a startlingly real performance at its core by Ving Rhames (who won a Golden Globe award for the role, then gave it away to Jack Lemmon on the TV broadcast). Rhames has the shuck-and-jive,but also the canny intelligence, as the film follows King from small-time numbers runner and concert promoter to ex-con to self-created fight mogul. The movie, based on a book by Jack Newfield, doesn't pull punches in outlining King's extralegal shenanigans and strong-arm tactics, bracketed by a device of having King address the audience from a boxing ring as he introduces episodes from his life. That could have gotten old, but not with the foxy, insinuating Rhames doing the talking. Read more

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Reviews (9)

A biographical film on the life of boxing promoter Don King
'Don King - Only in America' chronicles the life of the very first African-American boxing promoter in the history of the sport. The titular character is played by Ving Rhames and there are several other noteworthy performers here such as Keith David, Loretta Devine, and Larenz Tate, all of whom are interesting in that they would go on to star in the motion picture 'Crash' seven years later. I really liked Larenz Tate in this role. For the first and probably the only time, he is playing a character who is not a thug, a gangster-guy, or someone who is going to jail, or getting shot. I only wish that he would choose more roles like these and less like his characters in 'Dead Presidents,' 'Crash' of course, and 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love.'
Ving Rhames was wonderful as Don King
The only things I knew about Don King was that he's a fight promoter and that wild hair he has. I like fight movies even if I don't like the reality of it. Weird huh? Ving Rhames was wonderful as Don King. I can understand why he won a Golden Globe award (which he gave to Jack Lemmon). Don King wouldn't have been so gracious. He was arrogant, mean (he killed a guy, beat him to death), racist (but a reason comes up in the film) and generally unlikeable. But Ving made him three dimensional in such a way that I admired King. He's smart and savvy (even if he does butcher the English language). He has a lot of spunk and drive. If he could have been honest with himself and others, no telling what he could have accomplished.
easily, one of the best performances,best films,don't resist
it's been a long time, since i've bothered to write a review, seems these days, movies are all so, normal, nothing unique about them, it's sad really, this film, is unique, I relate this film to scarface, as well as blowing me away, ving rhames, makes you believe he is the great don himself, he took on the mob, and he lived, and he killed a man, and beat it, then he killed another, and he got misdeamanor, the man is a icon, one of the greatest showboats, to have ever lived, he's also very intelligent, and it's true, he shouldn't have got such a bad rep, but baby, that sells, violence, sex, crime, it all sells,the media, you know, this film is a 100 stars, if you don't see this, then I pity you, if you say this movie is ..., like reviewer number one, then your an ..., this film is brilliant, a masterpiece, this film is also almost out of print, obviously, like divinci, a true artist, isn't respected till he is gone, wan't a real world example? look at tupac shakur, when don is gone, no one will ever be like him again, so relish, his kinglyness, and buy this video, before it is, to late. ... Read more

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Reviews (2)

For Us, The Living-Dead
First of all, I would have appreciated being warned that this movie was in Extended Play Mode. CD Universe was kind enough to note that the copy it had for sale was in the EP mode and thus I did not buy it from them. I was optimistic that Amazon's copy might be in Standard Play mode because nothing was listed in the "technical details section." I had already opened the package before I noticed that it was in EP Mode. This copy of the movie had artifacts throughout the entire film. I tried it on two seperate VCRs. To to that off, the acting was uniformly horrible and the movie didn't even address the identity/landmark trial of assassin Byron De La Beckwith who was played superbly played by James Woods in "Ghosts of Mississippi" That is the movie you should see if you want to know about Medgar Evers and see outstanding performances at the same time including an uncharacteristically good one from Whoopi Goldberg. She was also great in "A Long Walk Home" which deals with some of the same themes. Lastly, I would have like to have seen someone like Denzel Washington in the title role.

Underrated, Overlooked and So Damn Good
For Us the Living, a movie that recently sneaked onto video after airing on national T.V.The story of Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader from the early to mid sixties who was murdered by the Klu Klux Klan.This movie tells us first hand how Medgar, took on racist politicians and came home to be a loving husband.Played beautifully by Holling Rollins, and the gifted Irene Cara.It is on my shelf right there by Malcolm X. ... Read more

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Editorial Review

This true story of the black flyers who broke the color barrier in the U.S. Air Force during World War II is a well-intentioned film highlighted by an excellent cast. Proud, solemn, Iowa-born Laurence Fishburne and city-kid hipster Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the hopefuls who meet en route to Tuskegee Air Force Base, where they are among the recruits for an "experimental" program to "prove" the abilities of the black man in the U.S. armed services. Fighting prejudice from racist officers and government officials and held to a consistently higher level of performance than their white counterparts, these men prove themselves in training and in combat, many of them dying for their country in the process. Andre Braugher costars as a West Point graduate who takes charge of the unit in Africa and in Italy (where it's christened the 332nd). The film is rousing, if slow starting and episodic, but it's periodically grounded by a host of war movie clichés, notably the calculated demise of practically every trainee introduced in the opening scenes (ironic given the 332nd's real-life combat record--high casualties for the enemy, low casualties among themselves, and no losses among the bombers they escorted). Ultimately the Emmy-nominated performances by moral backbone Fishburne and the dedicated Braugher and the energy and cocky confidence of Gooding give their battles both on and off the battlefield the sweet taste of victory. Read more

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Reviews (30)

Great Entertainment and view of American history
The Tuskegee Airmen was a very dramatic movie with great demonstration of fellowship, determination, honor, and patriotism. The actors captured your attention and pulled you in. You felt their anger, sorrow, pain and pride. It is well worth watching several times over.

The "Tuskeegee Experiment" is a great and informative film.
I tend to get very emotional about this film. I can never see the ending without tears of appreciation, joy and intense pride. HBO is by far the best at making original movies and shows. The film has technical flaws... every film does... but beyond them it tells a story that, by design or negligence, has been ignored by American history for almost a half century.
Enlightning.
This is a great air combat film and based on true history.
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