Writers: William Blinn, M. Charles Cohen, Alex Haley, Ernest Kinoy and James Lee
Directors: Marvin J. Chomsky, John Erman, David Greene, Gilbert Moses
Cast: LeVar Burton, Maya Angelou, Edward Asner, Louis Gossett Jr., O.J. Simpson, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Moses Gunn, Thalmus Rasulala, Hari Rhodes, William Watson, Ren Woods, Ralph Waite, Robert Reed, Lorne Greene, Cicely Tyson, Lynda Day George, Vic Morrow, Paul Shenar, John Amos, Madge Sinclair, Gary Collins, Lee de Broux, Tanya Boyd, Beverly Todd, Thayer David, Sandy Duncan, Leslie Uggams, Carolyn Jones, Ian McShane, George Hamilton, Richard Roundtree, Ben Vereen, Georg Stanford Brown, Lloyd Bridges, Austin Stoker, Sally Kemp, Todd Bridges, Burl Ives, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Paul Koslo, Avon Long, Lynne Moody, Greg Morris, Marc Singer, Richard Thomas, Fay Hauser, Carrie Barden, Brian Mitchell, Debbi Morgan, Kathleen Doyle, Ossie Davis, Hal Williams, Pam Grier, Dorian Harewood, Ruby Dee, Kristoff St. John, Andy Griffith, Diahann Carroll, Marlon Brandon, James Earl Jones, Michael Constantine, Damon Evans, Al Freeman Jr. and countless others
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: October 9, 2007
The impact of the miniseries Roots and its sequel Roots – The Next Generations can still be felt 30 years after they originally aired on network television. Never before had a story touched the lives of the multi-generational, multiracial worldwide population. From Europe to the United States back to Africa and beyond, there wasn’t a person who wasn’t touched by this moving and inspirational story about the generations that came before famed author, Alex Haley.
While Roots – The Complete Collection is said to be primarily autobiographical, Haley did have to settle a plagiarism suit, and some of the top genealogists in this day and age claim the author was lying about the stories he wrote on some of the earliest generations in his family, which Haley claimed he traced back to Africa. With Haley unable to answer the claims (since he has passed on), a reviewer cannot look at the criticism of the Pulitzer Prize winning author and his book. Rather, it is the impact the book had on the world and the powerful message the story presents, whether it is fact or fiction. With that in mind, Roots – The Complete Collection is one of the most amazing stories ever told both in book and miniseries form.
Release Information:
Roots – The Complete Collection aired on television as two different miniseries’, Roots and Roots – The Next Generations. Roots, based on the faction (partly fact, partly fiction), historical novel by Alex Haley, was unlike any other miniseries to ever air on television. Roots, the first miniseries, first aired on January 23, 1977 as eight, one and two hour episodes. Is featured on three, double-sided discs in a six part series in this collection.
Roots – The Next Generations premiered on television on February 18, 1979. It is presented in the Roots – The Complete Collection box set on four discs with three of them double sided. The made for TV movie, Roots: The Gift, which aired on December 11, 1988 is also a part of the Roots – The Complete Collection set.
This entire box set was put out with ten DVDs in a large, rectangular box, by Warner Bros. on October 9, 2007. You should be able to purchase Roots – The Complete Collection at all major retailers. It can be found on Amazon for $85.99. While I’ve heard some complaints about the packaging by a few patrons who purchased this mega-box set, my review copy didn’t have any flaws. It was packed nicely, neatly, and everything seemed to be absolutely perfect from the box to the discs.
The Roots – The Complete Collection Plot
Roots is the beginning of the collection. In this story, we’re first introduced to a young boy from Africa. More specifically, the boy, Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) is from a small village in The Gambia known as Juffure. On a side note, there are tours in The Gambia today, where you can meet the Kinte family and view the home where Kunta lived. Alex Haley traveled to The Gambia when researching his family history. Despite the fact that some genealogists believe Kunta Kinte did not exist, or if he did, he wasn’t related to Alex Haley, The Gambia and the Kinte family both believe that the main storyline for Roots is true.
Kunta Kinte lives with his father, Omoro (Thalmus Rasulala) and his mother, Binta (Cicely Tyson). At the very start of Roots, Kunta is being born. This part of the movie shows the rich history and tradition as those in the village wait eight days until Omoro decides what to name Kunta. The film quickly advances to show the teenage Kunta, who is on his quest towards manhood. By this time, Kunta has a younger brother. Kunta is told by his friend about a secret meeting place. Boys are kidnapped from their homes, with bags over their heads, taken to the secret place and whatever is done in this place makes them men
Sure enough, one day, Kunta is kidnapped and taken with all the boys around his age to the secret place. There they are either forever kept as boys, which means they are essentially shunned by their village, or they return to their village as men. Part of this ritual involves circumcision. The boys must have courage, be strong, and be self-sufficient if they want to return to their village as men. Kunta tries to be strong, but it isn’t always easy, especially when he’s given the task of catching a bird without any type of weapon.
During his bird hunt, he runs into (literally) the daughter of a traveler, Kadi Touray (O.J. Simpson). His daughter, Fanta (Ren Woods), is someone Kunta will have interactions with in the near future though he has no idea of the circumstances under which they will meet.
After apologizing for running into Fanta and spilling the family’s dinner, Kunta runs after his bird. However, just as he catches it, he’s forced to hide behind a tree as a group of slaves on a chain are guided by two white men with guns. As they pass, the bird gets away and Kunta almost gets caught. Once the white men pass, he runs back to the secret place and tells them he couldn’t catch the bird because of the white men. The leaders guiding the young men warn the soon-to-be men that they must be careful. The white man is one of their greatest dangers.
After Kunta returns to the village his life has changed. He lives in his own home now. He is guiding his own life with little to no guidance from his mother and he will soon find a bride of his own to marry. One day, when he is out finding wood to build a drum for his little brother, he is captured by some black men working for white slavers. During his capture, he fights and even wounds the men, but he is ultimately chained up and taken to a pen where a group of other Africans, both men and women, are being kept. In the pen, he encounters Fanta, who has also been captured. Though Kunta Kinte has hope someone will come for them and so does Fanta, it becomes obvious that nothing can be done to help them.
It isn’t long before the Africans are boarding a slave ship. Most of them speak different dialects and though Kunta does have a few friends on the ship with him, including Wrestler (Ji-Tu Cumbuka), who was at the secret training place where Kunta learned to become a man, the situation is serious and dire. The first mate, Slater (Ralph Waite) is abusive to the slaves. He believes in raping the women and beating the men. The Captain of the ship, Thomas Davies (Edward Asner), as a Christian man, isn’t sure he believes in taking free Africans as slaves and he is uncomfortable throughout the entire journey.
During the trip, a slave rising leads to the death of at least one of Kunta’s friends as well as Slater and various other white slave handlers. Kunta is pretty much on his own and though he tries to protect Fanta and reassure her they will return home to Africa, it isn’t long before they arrive in Maryland, where they are to be sold to white plantation owners.
Kunta is sold to John Reynolds (Lorne Greene). It is up to Reynolds’ slave Fiddler (Louis Gossett Jr.) to get Kunta, now named Toby, to speak English and work as a proper field hand. This is a task that takes a considerable amount of time. The spirit of an African Warrior is ever present in Kunta. He refuses to go by the name Toby and he runs away whenever he can get the chance. This leads to continuous whippings at the hands of the slave handler, Ames (Vic Morrow). The only thing to keep Kunta from running away more than he does is the fact that Fiddler keeps getting punished for his actions.
Finally, Kunta is sold to John Reynolds’ brother to pay a debt, along with Fiddler. At the house of Dr. William Reynolds, the slaves are treated more humanely. This comes after Kunta has run away for the last time and those who have captured him have cut off his foot so he can’t run away again. During his journey, he saw Fanta, who now rejects her African heritage. Going by her slave name, Fanta refuses to run away with him. She makes such a scene that Kunta is able to be captured.
At the doctor’s house, he is nursed back to health by Bell (Madge Sinclair), who eventually becomes Kunta’s wife. She doesn’t understand his obsession with freedom or Africa and tries to make him hide that part of himself. Eventually, she relents, when they have a child, who he gives the African name, Kizzy. It means “to stay put” and he hopes that it will keep her with them forever.
As Kizzy grows, she is close friends with John Reynolds daughter, Missy Anne (Tracey Gold/Sandy Duncan). Missy Anne doesn’t know that she’s actually the doctor’s daughter since her mother has been having an affair with him for years. Kizzy (Uggams) is taught to read by Missy, a big no-no, and she even manages to get a travel pass to help a slave she’s in love with escape. After he is caught and confesses Kizzy gave him the pass, the betrayed Missy Anne sees that she’s sent away forever. Kizzy goes to the home of Tom Moore (Chuck Connors) as her punishment.
Tom rapes Kizzy throughout the first few years she has been on his farm. He raises chickens and roosters for cock fighting, which may be partly why he’s such an awful person. Kizzy, a child herself, gives birth to their son George “Chicken George” Moore. He is one of the best chicken trainers in the state and Tom, of course, has a soft spot for him. The miniseries ends on the life of Chicken George’s son, Tom Harvey, and the next miniseries, Roots – The Next Generations picks up where this one leaves off.
In the second miniseries, the lives of Alex Haley’s grandparents and great-grandparents are explored. It starts around the time of the Civil War and slaves are now free. The story of Kunta Kinte has been passed down as a legend from one family member to the next. The family deals with their newfound freedom and then how both World Wars impact them. Alex Haley’s grea-grandparents, Tom (George Standford Brown) and Irene (Lynn Moody) have a daughter Cynthia (Bever-Leigh Barfield). Cynthia ends up marrying Will Palmer (Stan Shaw). They have a daughter, Bertha Palmer (Irene Cara) who becomes the mother of Alex Haley when she marries Simon Alexander Haley (Dorian Harewood).
As you might have guessed, the acting for both Roots and Roots – The Next Generations is outstanding. With a cast as diverse and talented as the ones who took part in both miniseries, the story would have had to have flopped to have been such a failure thanks to the remarkable cast involved in both projects. I found Roots to be much more enjoyable than the second miniseries, but both had their moments. I guess I found the life of Kunta Kinte so fascinating, and as my favorite character, it was hard to move on to new characters and new lives.
Roots – The Complete Collection contains two miniseries that evoke emotions many of us never knew we had until watching the material contained in these box sets. There is passion, which radiates from the standout performer of the series, young LeVar Burton. I grew up watching Burton on Reading Rainbow, so I did not know what an amazing actor he truly is. As Kunta, LeVar inspired a generation to believe and have faith. Though he never saw freedom again, he never gave up hope his life and the lives of his children’s children would one day be free.
**Note: I gave Replayability a lower rating simply due to the sheer volume of the material presented. It’d take forever to watch and re-watch this miniseries many times over, making it less replayable than solitary DVDs. Still, fans have been willing to watch and re-watch this miniseries in the past.
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Audio/Visual:
I was surprised by how beautiful the picture was for the vast majority of the DVD offerings in Roots – The Complete Collection. On occasion, some compression artifacts and film damage is apparent, but this is definitely a major step above any version of this mini-series I’ve seen played on television. It also is better than the previous release of Roots. Both of the miniseries’ were transferred at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. While the quality could have been a little better, the improvements made to this set truly added to the experience of watching Roots – The Complete Collection.
The audio is even better than the visual quality of Roots – The Complete Collection. The Dolby Digital Mono Soundtrack is available with closed captioning. There are subtitles available in French, Spanish and English on the Roots DVD and each of the sets has their own offerings for this. The audio for the miniseries sets are robust and the sound comes through beautifully. The improvements to the original tracks obviously upped the quality of the audio greatly without over editing.
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Bonus Features:
Included in Roots – The Complete Collection is a side-story DVD. This is a made for TV movie, Roots: The Gift. This somewhat heartwarming tale brings back LeVar Burton and Louis Gossett Jr. as Kunta and Fiddler. They accompany their owner to a plantation for the holidays. At the platation, they learn the plantation owner’s son helps slaves escape in an early version of the Underground Railroad. Though this deviates from the “real story” as told in Roots, it is nice to see the two team up again in this slightly more than mediocre flick.
Also included is Roots: The Legacy a two-disc set of bonuses. This offers multiple featurettes, which explore the filming of Roots as well as its worldwide impact. There is also a retrospective by Louis Gossett Jr., the original B&W screen test LeVar Burton gave when he was auditioning for the part of Kunta Kinte, and an interview with Alex Haley that was done by David Frost in the 1970s. This interview directly discusses how Haley researched his family, particularly in relation to the very few details he had about his ancestors dating back to Kinte Kinte.
Additional bonuses to this set include commentaries by LeVar Burton, Cicely Tyson, Ed Asner and many others involved in these monumental projects. The commentary includes an immersive picture in picture option to see the commentator while watching the DVDs. Finally, there is a booklet included with the set that is filled with pictures relating to the production of Roots and Roots – The Next Generations.
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Bottom Line:
You’re not going to find another collection quite like Roots – The Complete Collection. This box set features a set of two miniseries that are essential to any fan of well written, passionate miniseries. Roots is unlike anything that has ever been produced before or after it was released on television. Whether Alex Haley made the entire saga up or whether it is based on truth does not matter. It is the message of hope and faith from Kunta Kinte’s belief he’ll one day be free again all the way down to the passionate, driven heart of his great-great-great grandson, Alex that makes these miniseries worthwhile.
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Technorati Tags: Roots, The Complete Collection, Alex Haley, The Next Generation, Kunta Kinte, LeVar Burton, Cicely Tyson, Louis Gossett Jr., Ben Vereen, Maya Angelou, Edward Asner, James Earl Jones, miniseries, book, DVD Review
