Let me first commend the three or four brave IMDB reviewers below who risked being buried in dislikes, as indeed happened, to point out the obvious fact that the work under review is a well intentioned, groundbreaking bore with an astonishingly good performance from the actor in the title role.
Is it too outrageous of me gently to point out that all the acting beyond Cicely Tyson is either stiff or over the top, and that it seems as if director John Korty's attention was so focused on his Emmy meal ticket that there was little left over for Thalamus Rasalala, Rod Perry, Will Hare, Katherine Helmond and, especially, Michael Murphy who has rarely if ever been this dull onscreen? Or that Tracy Keenan Wynn's vaunted screenplay fails to provide any dramatic buildup or tension whatsoever, so that key scenes, like Joe's death at the feet of a white horse (heavy symbolism there, wouldn't you say? But that's novelist Ernest Gaines' department, not Wynn's) and Jane's son's murder at the hands of a racist Cajun, for me at least, lacked the requisite emotional impact? You intellectually note that what is happening is horrible but you do not feel the horror. As for the famous, climactic water fountain scene it is well handled, to be sure, but since it occurs near the end of the film the viewer has had to endure nearly two hours of dramatic thirst before drinking it in.
Bottom line: Glad that Ms. Tyson was not jobbed out of an Emmy like she was an Oscar (for the much, much better"Sounder") but a great performance, with an immortal makeup job, does not automatically equal a great film. Give it a C plus.
PS...Supporting my contention that Korty was a rather inattentive director is that automobile speeding in the background of a plantation scene, circa 1865! Talk about not suspending one's disbelief.
Is it too outrageous of me gently to point out that all the acting beyond Cicely Tyson is either stiff or over the top, and that it seems as if director John Korty's attention was so focused on his Emmy meal ticket that there was little left over for Thalamus Rasalala, Rod Perry, Will Hare, Katherine Helmond and, especially, Michael Murphy who has rarely if ever been this dull onscreen? Or that Tracy Keenan Wynn's vaunted screenplay fails to provide any dramatic buildup or tension whatsoever, so that key scenes, like Joe's death at the feet of a white horse (heavy symbolism there, wouldn't you say? But that's novelist Ernest Gaines' department, not Wynn's) and Jane's son's murder at the hands of a racist Cajun, for me at least, lacked the requisite emotional impact? You intellectually note that what is happening is horrible but you do not feel the horror. As for the famous, climactic water fountain scene it is well handled, to be sure, but since it occurs near the end of the film the viewer has had to endure nearly two hours of dramatic thirst before drinking it in.
Bottom line: Glad that Ms. Tyson was not jobbed out of an Emmy like she was an Oscar (for the much, much better"Sounder") but a great performance, with an immortal makeup job, does not automatically equal a great film. Give it a C plus.
PS...Supporting my contention that Korty was a rather inattentive director is that automobile speeding in the background of a plantation scene, circa 1865! Talk about not suspending one's disbelief.