cinephile-27690 A few years ago, my Grandma showed this to me on a DVD she got off of Amazon.It is a great movie. The only issue with the DVD is that every few moments it skips and has an image in the corner to see a commentary on the scene. Save that for the bonus features next time! Otherwise, this is a great look at American History. It has nudity, whipping, and D and N words, so it's best for preteens and up. It also has an all star cast with LeVar Burton, Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson, and many more. The movie is also 9 1/2 hours long(and is thus the longest movie I have ever seen) but the movie is broken into 6 parts. Roots is a document of our history, and therefore must be seen. The movie's title comes from the fact that it was the author's family,so it was his family ROOTS. However, since it's our country's past, it's really ours.

ShelbyTMItchell As we are still striving to make sense and harmony of racial relations. As this miniseries from the 1977 TV season that drew over 100M people and how it introduced the world to how racism really began about.It shows the struggle to be free and how it looks at the descendants of the late Alex Haley, author the book thinking that the word "free" would never, ever come.By showing the struggles that these people have. From Kunta Kinte the main protagonist to his line of family linage like Kizzy, Chicken George, etc.A great cast led by a then unknown Levar Burton and great writing. Shows us that this miniseries needs to be seen not just in the past, but present and future generations to come.No matter what race, color, creed, gender, religion, etc we belong in. For it is the fight to accept others like in the past that has since occurred in the present and in the future to come.Haley should take a bow for opening up 100M to the fight to remain free and accept others!

Joseph P. Ulibas 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.

Electrified_Voltage Back in 1999, not too long before I became a teenager, I got to see this 1977 mini-series on TV. I didn't catch the very beginning, but started watching at one point during the first episode, and then watched the rest of the episodes from start to finish as they aired weekly. I had no clue what "Roots" was about when I started watching, so I was in for some surprises, and it was one unforgettable experience! I've finally watched the hit mini-series again after eight years (all of it this time), but by this time, I had learned that it appears it's not what I thought it was for many years! This mini-series is an adaptation of the book of the same name, written by Alex Haley, which is supposed to be about his family history. It starts with Kunta Kinte, who is born in an African village in 1750. Sadly, as a teenager, he is kidnapped by slave traders and taken across the Atlantic Ocean to America, where he is sold into slavery and given the name Toby. From there, the story focuses on the life of Kunta as a slave on a plantation in Virginia, and then his descendants in the next several generations that follow.Haley has received a lot of praise for tracing back his ancestry so far and writing about it, but there seems to be a lot of evidence indicating that he didn't really do it, and his story is a fraud. Obviously, he would have had to make SOME things up for the story, but apparently, he plagiarized a lot of it from a book called "The African", written by an author named Harold Courlander, which he was sued for. It has also been revealed that the story is mostly fictional. Many have pointed these things out already, and I'm just trying to put them into my own words. I'm not going to say anything else about it, but you could easily find a lot more information elsewhere.The reason why I have given this adaptation of "Roots" a 6/10 is that despite what I've mentioned above, it's still an interesting story, with some very moving scenes! Some parts may not have been scripted as well as they could have been, but overall, it's a VERY memorable mini-series. For that, I give it an above average rating, but would give it a higher one if it weren't for the negative things I've learned about it. The fact that it was presented as a family history when it really isn't, and is still advertised as such today (like I saw on the back of the DVD set) just isn't right. It's common for films based on true stories to be very inaccurate, but "Roots" isn't even really based on a true story! So, it's not a bad mini-series, but don't watch it thinking it's what it says it is (like I once did).