Two years after her Oscar nominated role in Sounder, Cicely Tyson got her second career role in The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman for which she won an Emmy and the film itself gathered a flock of same. It is ironic that Cicely Tyson is now 91 and evolving right into the age bracket of her character Jane Pittman, originally called Ticey by her slave master.
During the course of her lifetime Ticey who is given the name of Jane by a passing Union soldier she's seen it all. Among other things she meets and marries Joe Pittman played by Rod Perry who found work as a cowboy in Texas and was killed breaking bucking horses. Tyson sees the history of black slaves, hopes cruelly dashed by a bungled reconstruction, go into a system of peonage in the Old Confederacy controlled by an unchecked racism.
She also sees the slow birth of the Civil Right movement and it is in 1962 in Mississippi Delta Louisiana that the 110 year old Jane Pittman. Even by the whites in the area Miss Jane Pittman is seen as one remarkable institution.
In the supporting cast Thalmus Rasulala stands out as her friend Ned whom she goes back with in slave days. From a kid who could hardly utter a word, Rasulala develops an articulation that those in the Populist Era south regard as downright subversive. His death scene will shatter you emotionally.
So completely does Cicely Tyson as the ancient Jane Pittman and in her flashbacks to younger days disappear and dissolve into her character that you really think you are watching a 110 year old former slave tell us of her life and travails. Helped in this is her incredible makeup. Now she wouldn't need it as she reaches those Pittman years in real life.
This is a film not to be missed. One of the best made for TV films ever done and one that makes Civil Rights history come alive.
During the course of her lifetime Ticey who is given the name of Jane by a passing Union soldier she's seen it all. Among other things she meets and marries Joe Pittman played by Rod Perry who found work as a cowboy in Texas and was killed breaking bucking horses. Tyson sees the history of black slaves, hopes cruelly dashed by a bungled reconstruction, go into a system of peonage in the Old Confederacy controlled by an unchecked racism.
She also sees the slow birth of the Civil Right movement and it is in 1962 in Mississippi Delta Louisiana that the 110 year old Jane Pittman. Even by the whites in the area Miss Jane Pittman is seen as one remarkable institution.
In the supporting cast Thalmus Rasulala stands out as her friend Ned whom she goes back with in slave days. From a kid who could hardly utter a word, Rasulala develops an articulation that those in the Populist Era south regard as downright subversive. His death scene will shatter you emotionally.
So completely does Cicely Tyson as the ancient Jane Pittman and in her flashbacks to younger days disappear and dissolve into her character that you really think you are watching a 110 year old former slave tell us of her life and travails. Helped in this is her incredible makeup. Now she wouldn't need it as she reaches those Pittman years in real life.
This is a film not to be missed. One of the best made for TV films ever done and one that makes Civil Rights history come alive.