Sick Product of a Sick System

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Alex Haley's 'Roots' and 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X.' are two of the most important and provocative works of non-fiction in twentieth century American literature. Bringing these essential books to film entertainment must have been a daunting task definitely.As most people know the result was entirely successful.The original mini-series 'Roots' was a phenomenal success and went on to become a television classic.'Roots:The Next Generations' reputation is less recognized which seems too bad because this is a powerful, well-acted series as well. I especially liked 'Next Generations' because it dealt with the life of the author and with the historical collaboration on Malcolm X.'s biography. This whole thing was a decade before Spike Lee and Denzel Washington made the brilliant and controversial film 'Malcolm X.'. There is also an amazing scene where Haley interviews American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Television doesn't get any more topical than this.The production is lavish and expensive for television. there are moments when the production reveals it's made-for-TV budget limitations, the final scenes in Africa are filmed on a studio backlot, some of the aging make-up is obvious,but effective, and the use of two different actresses to play Haley's grandmother in different stages of old age is not effective. But why quibble? This is great stuff. Informative history put in an entertaining way. Besides, how can you go wrong with Marlon Brando and Irene Cara.

As great as the original ROOTS was, this sequel was even better. Boasting more top-line established movie greats than the original, such as Marlon Brando (who received an Emmy), Henry Fonda and Olivia De Havilland, it was just better made. Of course the power this continuing saga had was based on the original's greatness, so without the original this could not stand. But the lives of Kunta Kinte's descendants depicted here, from where the original left off around 1870, to the adult Alex Haley (masterfully played by James Earl Jones)working on his incredible genealogical novel, was spellbinding and immensely touching throughout every chapter.Carrying over from the original, Georg Stanford Brown as Chicken George's son, Tom Harvey, Brown sets the tone for this sequel with his thoughtful performance as a man dealing with freedom for the first time in his life, and how it affected his daughters, one of whom would become the grandmother of Alex Haley. Irene Cara and Dorian Harewood would add to the roster of stellar acting as Alex's parents, and extremely notable too were efforts by Beah Richards, Bernie Casey, Andy Griffith, Howard E. Rollins, Richard Thomas, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Damon Evans (as a young adult Alex Haley), and many others. A thoroughly rich and rewarding experience made even more spectacular because of its important subject matter.

ROOTS:THE NEXT GENERATIONS-Produced by Wolper Productions for the ABC Television Network. Producer:Stan Margulies. Based on the novel "Roots" written by Alex Haley. Executive Producer: David L. Wolper,and adapted for television by William Blinn. Shown as a mini-series for ABC-TV that ran from 1979-1981.First Telecast of the Mini-Series: February 18,1979 Last Telecast of the Mini-Series: July 12,1981 NOTE: During the February 1979 broadcast,it ran each night for seven days,and was repeated as a weekly series from May of 1981 to July,1981.Two years after Alex Haley's "Roots" made television history,this sequel to one of the most highly watched programs of all time continued the saga,again attracting large audiences in which no one,not even ABC was expecting such a brilliant success. And again it was the talk of the town during the night of the Emmy Awards,winning more Emmys than any other show imaginable in the history of television. The story picks up where the first one left off,where it resumed from last time. The story begins in 1882,by which time Tom Harvey,the great-grandson of Kunta Kinte had established a marginal existence as a blacksmith in Henning,Tennessee. Relations between the races were strained,but the old prejudices and racial hatred of the past survived. Tom Harvey(George Stanford-Brown)forbade his daughter's marriage to a light-skinned negro because he is "too white";and town patriarch Colonel Warner(Henry Fonda)disowned his own son Jim(Richard Thomas)when he dared to marry a black schoolteacher. Before long "literacy tests" were being used to deny blacks their recently won the right to vote,and lynch law had reappeared. This was during the reconstruction period,and this was years after the Civil War and the story continues onward towards the beginning of the 20th Century.Tom's younger daughter,Cynthia(Bever-Leigh Banfield),married a hard working young man named Will Palmer(Stan Shaw),who,despite the oppression,had risen ownership of the local lumberyard. In time Will would succeed Tom as the leader of the black community,as the terror and violence of the Ku Klux Klan swept the South. Will and Cynthia's daughter,Bertha(Irene Cara),became the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to enter college. There,in 1912,she met an ambitious young Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood),son of a sharecropper,whose education was being sponsored by a philanthropic white man. After serving in a segregated combat unit during World War I,Simon returned to marry Bertha and began teaching agriculture at a black college in Tuskegee,Alabama. This was otherwise known as Tuskegee Institute also known as Tuskegee University. It was from there that the foundations of family lore were discoved by Simon's son Alex(played by Kristoff St. John as a child; Damon Evans as a young man,and James Earl Jones as a adult)who soaked up the family legacy that was told to him from the older generation about the stories and family history about the ancestors of Kunta Kinte.As the beginning of World War II approached,Alex enlisted in the Coast Guard,where he spent the next 20 years. When he retired in 1960 he turned to writing,interviewing such national figures as Malcolm X,whose autobiography he helped write. Haley also had candid interviews with American Nazi Leader George Lincoln Rockwell,and also was good friends with Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. But it was a visit to his boyhood home in Henning,Tennesee that reignited his interest in his family's past,all the way back to the "Old African" Kunta Kinte,and started him on a journey to Africa where the origins of his ancestors came from and from there begin his most greatest work of all time."Roots:The Next Generation",just like the first one,had a lot of brilliant talents which featured a superb who's who of African-American actors of their day,along with Hollywood heavyweights like Henry Fonda,Olivia DeHavilland,Harry Morgan and Marlon Brando is unusual role as a Aryan Leader of a Nazi Organization,whom Haley interviews. The "Roots" sagas are usually shown during Black History Month,but it is a must to see this special in all its glory to one of the most highly acclaimed specials of all time.

Sorry, but i can't accept the user rating for ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATIONS. 5.6/10!!!!. Is that all!!!. This is a brilliant series in it's own right not to mention being the perfect continuation of Alex Haley's classic saga, 'Roots'.I suppose the best part of NEXT GENERATIONS is the final part, the one we've all been waiting for. Alex Haley 'finding' Kunta Kinte in the African village of Juffaree where he was born all those years ago. James Earl Jones was an excellent choice to play Alex Haley. If you've seen ROOTS then you must see NEXT GENERATIONS without fail. It's just as good and just as touching.