How sad is this?

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

When talking about Roots it's good to keep in mind Woodrow Wilson's praise of D.W. Griffith's Birth Of A Nation. "History written with lightning" were the words of the 28th president for a ground breaking film reflecting his southern upbringing. Something similar should be said about Roots which gives the history of slavery as seen through the eyes of the descendants of Kunte Kinte of which author Alex Haley was one. Every black male player of the time in 1977 whose name wasn't Sidney Poitier seem to participate here and those who didn't make it to the original production made it to the sequel. The females did just as well. Levar Burton who played the teenage Kunte Kinte was given his first big break and this became one of two career roles for him, the other being Geordi LaForge on Star Trek The Next Generation. Favorites of mine included John Amos who played the adult Kunte Kinte renamed Toby by his owners. He never forgets his Roots which is the whole basis of the mini-series. But he does become a father. His daughter is played by Leslie Uggams and she's a standout as well. So for me is Lou Gossett, Jr. who played The Fiddler who tries to teach Kunte Kinte aka Toby how to survive. Amos is not a willing pupil to say the least.The white players here in southern society have some juicy roles as well. My absolute favorite here is Sandy Duncan who is the quintessence of the empty headed southern belle brought up when push comes to shove to regard her slaves as property.One thing that is rarely discussed about Roots is the tradition in many cultures of oral history. It is his African tradition of that that keeps the generations in touch with the African past. Slave owners were quite specific about not teaching their slaves how to read and write. Illiteracy is a powerful weapon, but it need not be invincible as Roots demonstrates. The story of Kunte Kinte's descendants takes us to shortly after the Civil War in the Reconstruction Era. This is as much history written with lightning than Birth Of A Nation was in its time. In fact back in 1915 it would have been impossible to conceive of something like Roots being written and performed. That in itself is a testament as to how far we've come as a society.

Let me start off by saying I don't hate this series. In fact, it is actually quite good. The problem is Roots has become somewhat of a black culture idealization of what slavery was like, and it is not even historically accurate.In the 18th century, the West African slave trade was a seasoned machine, and other than the Portuguese, "white men" rarely set foot on the continent for more than a few weeks, as they lacked the immunities to fight off many of the diseases that were prevalent in the region. As such, the slave trade was really conducted at the auction block, after the slaves were captured. "White men" didn't often go and capture their slaves themselves, they bought them from tribesman and other more prominent African slave traders. The concept of owning slaves has existed well before the invention of the boat, so until the invention of the boat and then the pressures from the Catholic church and other churches to stop enslaving its own people, slavery was a way of life that rarely migrated beyond the immediate reaches of that particular countries borders.It is only in recent centuries that slavery crossed oceans, a time when everybody was purchasing slaves. Half the population of Ireland was wiped out, lots of poor European countries were wiped out, the Philippines even up until the early 1900's, West Africa, East Africa, China, Russia, etc. There is obviously an agenda with Roots as the writer has personal feelings of animosity however I feel the historical inaccuracy for the beginning of this mini-series seriously hurts the amount of respect I can give to the show as a whole.Like I said its good if you are looking at it as a fictional show and nothing more, but if you ever use Roots to combat someone who actually knows history, you will lose every time.Roots trivializes the slave trade for the black community and creates a slanted view at the atrocities that existed far before a black man was ever enslaved.

Back in 1977 the miniseries Roots told the story of Kunta Kinte, one of many young people kidnapped from the west coast of Africa and transported across the Atlantic to be sold into slavery in the southern US states. While this was perhaps a brave subject for TV in 1977, such tales had been sensationalist popular fiction for some time. But Roots went further: it went on to recount Kunta Kinte's life, and followed the lives of his descendants up to the point where his modern day descendant Alex Hailey, author of the book from which the TV series was developed, went to Africa in search of his ancestral roots, and tracked down his far-distant family in the village from which Kunta Kinte had been kidnapped.This inspiring story - extremely well told in the TV series within the standards of the time - was then damaged by the revelation that Hailey had blatantly copied large chunks of story material relating to Kunta Kinte's life in Africa from a work by another author: the plagiarism suit was ultimately resolved with an out-of-court settlement, but the damage had been done.This is an enormous shame because the importance of this series cannot be underestimated. The impact on TV in general was vast, but the impact on the viewing public was even greater - it brought a degree of awareness to a relatively ignorant western world as to exactly what the forebears of the black population had been through (albeit somewhat softened for TV consumption). And notwithstanding the specific untruth of Hailey's plagiarism, the fact remains that the TV series told a wider truth, and in a way which was accessible to a wider public.The adaptation was excellent, the casting and performances were, for the most part, first rate, and Quincy Jones' theme was memorable.

Roots (1977) is still the best mini-series. This highly watched drama set the bar for all of the epic television dramas. The series follows the life of Kunta Kinte and his descendants from the coasts of West Africa to the plantation fields of the American south. This show pulls no punches when dealing with the sad truths about how many slaves were shipped from their homelands and (if they survived the horrific overseas trip) forced to work in the fields. Even though Kunta was a slave, he never lost hope about one day his ancestors would once again have the freedom he once had. He also vowed that his ancestors would never forget their roots, old ways and customs.Kunta always tried to head for freedom whenever the chance came. Even when the slave catchers cut off a piece of his foot, that never deterred him from running. But his marriage and child kept him from running when he had the opportunity. He named his only daughter Kizzy (Mandinka for staying put). Years later, Kizzy is sold to Tom Moore who uses his slaves not only for workers but for "comfort women: as well. She has a mixed child named Chicken George who like his grandfather also dreams about freedom and does whatever he can to make sure that he's a free man.Awesome show and it still holds up well, The one thing I really got a hoot out of was seeing some of the well known liberal actors in Hollywood play some of the most despicable characters you'll ever want to see (Ralph Waite, Lloyd Bridges, Vic Morrow). The story and acting is top notched and it's definitely a heart string puller.Highest recommendation possible.