Cicely Tyson is great. That's the first thing to say about this TV film. She believably plays the part of Miss Jane Pittman from a young girl held in slavery to a 110-year old woman living in 1962 recounting her life experiences to a magazine reporter (Michael Murphy.) Tyson's performance covers up for what I thought was a bit of a disappointing story, though. It's very heavy on the period from the Civil War to the turn of the century, and yet even there I thought that it soft-soaped a bit on the question of the challenges faced by enslaved and then freed black Americans. Instead, it really did focus more on the personal experiences of Jane - which, given the title, is what you should expect, but I thought it did so at the expense of the more powerful story going on around her.
What was really missing, though, was much reflection on the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's. Once you get past the turn of the century, you skip almost immediately to 1962. There's literally nothing about the period from say 1900-1960.) There's some material about the Civil Rights movement in the early 60's (indeed, the movie begins with the arrest of a young girl in 1962 for drinking at a "whites only" water fountain, and ends with Miss Jane thumbing her nose at the local authorities by doing the same thing) but in all honesty there really isn't much about the Civil Rights movement, and what there is is largely fictionalized, since this is based on a novel rather than a recounting of an actual person's life (although, in fairness, Miss Jane is certainly meant to be a composite character representing blacks.)
The subject matter of this and its public reception probably cleared the way for the TV mini-series "Roots" that was broadcast a couple of years later, and in all honesty, this struck me as a condensed version of the last couple of episodes of "Roots" and the first couple of episodes of the later "Roots: The Next Generations." They're very different productions, of course - both "Roots" were large-scale mini-series with much larger budgets, and yet it's still hard not to compare them, if not in production quality (which would be unfair) than at least in story. If you're interested in the story of a fictional woman's experiences from slavery to freedom to the Civil Rights era, then this will be fine. If you want a little more of an in-depth look at the Civil Rights era though, this will be a bit disappointing. Still, either way, Cicely Tyson makes it worth watching. (4/10)
What was really missing, though, was much reflection on the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's. Once you get past the turn of the century, you skip almost immediately to 1962. There's literally nothing about the period from say 1900-1960.) There's some material about the Civil Rights movement in the early 60's (indeed, the movie begins with the arrest of a young girl in 1962 for drinking at a "whites only" water fountain, and ends with Miss Jane thumbing her nose at the local authorities by doing the same thing) but in all honesty there really isn't much about the Civil Rights movement, and what there is is largely fictionalized, since this is based on a novel rather than a recounting of an actual person's life (although, in fairness, Miss Jane is certainly meant to be a composite character representing blacks.)
The subject matter of this and its public reception probably cleared the way for the TV mini-series "Roots" that was broadcast a couple of years later, and in all honesty, this struck me as a condensed version of the last couple of episodes of "Roots" and the first couple of episodes of the later "Roots: The Next Generations." They're very different productions, of course - both "Roots" were large-scale mini-series with much larger budgets, and yet it's still hard not to compare them, if not in production quality (which would be unfair) than at least in story. If you're interested in the story of a fictional woman's experiences from slavery to freedom to the Civil Rights era, then this will be fine. If you want a little more of an in-depth look at the Civil Rights era though, this will be a bit disappointing. Still, either way, Cicely Tyson makes it worth watching. (4/10)