Official Synopsis
Adapted from author, Alex Haley’s best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Roots: The Complete Original Series chronicles the expansion of Haley’s own family across many generations. The eight-part series follows the legacy of Kunta Kinte, (portrayed by Burton, who earned a Primetime Emmy® Award nomination for his role), a young, 18th century African warrior who is brought to the United States and sold into slavery. The saga follows the generations of his descendants in the United States through the Civil War and beyond, and shows the heartbreaking struggles they face trying to survive slavery and attain their freedom.
Back in 10th grade at Bryan Station High School in Lexington, Kentucky, a great man named Herbert T. Owens invited me to partake in a African-American History course. Up to this point, all of what I learned about African-American history had come from mostly from details of the Civil War and from inadequate social studies books from the 80s/90s that had glossed over slavery in its entirety. I knew up to that point that slavery was one of the reasons the Civil War had erupted in America, but before and after that War, nothing else really was clear from those books or from previous social studies classes. It was as if the school system, Bryan Station excluded (I had lived in nine states prior to old BS), had simply forgotten the details of how the slave trade industry worked, how it devastated lives and how absolutely cruel men could be who were profiting off the trade. Or the books simply didn’t want to throw it in there. Regardless, none of these details existed in that book, but Herbert T. Owens’ African-American history course was going to open up my eyes to such things.
Mr. Owens brought in a VHS set of Roots and for the next six weeks we watched the show, studied it in great detail and he added elaboration to everything that Alex Haley had written in his best-selling novel. We learned about where slaves came from, how they were captured, who captured them, what conditions they went through coming to America and what conditions they went through when they got to America. Roots and Mr. Owens laid out in great detail the real details that seemed to be left out of the social studies books and put into context how damaging slavery was for generations to come, even affecting African-American generations today. In short, it was one of the most impactful events of my lifetime. And I cannot thank Mr. Owens enough for that, nor can I thank Alex Haley’s Roots for putting the details on the television.
If you’re not familiar with Roots, then let me bring you up to speed on it.
The mini-series follows the journey of a captured slave named Kunta Kinte from his birth in Africa, his capture and delivery into America, the brutality of his ‘adaption’ into slavery, his life as a slave, his death and his grandson’s eventual freedom. The show consists of six episodes that are an hour and a half a piece (basically, six films), no details are left out, no language is omitted and no amount of cruelty to define the conditions of slavery is left at the wayside. When you go into Kunta Kinte’s journey, Roots and author Alex Haley want to make sure you feel every footstep of his losses and ultimate redemption. The show, which was made in 1977, holds up well today. It’s still incredibly powerful, impactful and revealing when it comes to the topic of slavery’s process. It still brings tension and a sense of injustice, which is impressive for something about to turn 40 years old.
What throws me for a loop and still wrenches my gut a bit is how nonchalant the slave trade industry was back in Kunta Kinte’s day. How pulling human beings from their rooted countries and forcing them into inhumane conditions seemed like an everyday occurrence to some people. I often wonder how humanity got to that point and how such cruel intentions could be accepted as the norm. It honestly just doesn’t seem real at times and thank God Roots brings it all to the forefront.
In a typical review, I usually break down the story, talk about the technical achievements and how the show or movie balances a standard three act play. I’m not going to do that this time around. I’m not going to tell you what’s wrong or right with the technical production of this series. That’s not the point of this review, nor is it the point of the show. Roots shows you the cruelty of men and what that means to those the cruelty was intended for on a day-to-day basis in the life of a slave. That part of the production holds true after 40 years and is the main focus of this review, as well as intention of the Roots production. Feeling the emotional pain of being stolen from one’s home and put into conditions that are inhumane, as well as having freedom stripped away from you is the reason you’ll feel Roots. A show like this that delivers a strong message in a most accurate way is how this show should be reviewed. In my book Roots is a perfect score in that category.
This series does what no other show, movie or history book has done before or after it — it shows you slavery as it was, a cruel part of human history that might no longer exist in the modern world as we know it, but a cruelty that will most certainly reverberate for centuries to come. Roots does a fantastic job of reminding us of that, as it should.
To end, I would like to thank Mr. Owens for opening my eyes to this show and to slavery as it was. Such a thing provides perspective to a high school kid, who hadn’t seen or fully understood what African-Americans had gone through over the centuries in America or what impact that had on African-American generations today, who are still recovering from the cruelty of the past.
Additional features on this release include:
· Roots: The American Story Continues
· The Cast Looks Back
· Crossing Over: How Roots Captivated an Entire Nation
· Connecting With the Past
· The Struggle to Make Roots
· LeVar Burton: Original Screen Test
· Alex Haley Interview by David Frost
· Roots: One Year Later
