In a move which surprised most of us, the History Channel announced that is would be remaking Roots, the 1977 miniseries based on the novel written by Alex Haley. My comments this morning are my reaction to this news. Often, we get angry when a film or television show we love is remade or rebooted. Understandable. We can purchase Roots on DVD right now if we wanted. Im also hearing that its on Netflix. Whether it holds up over time is debatable. Certainly there are moments in the original miniseries which as seminal to our understanding of slave narratives brought to screen. In particular, Kunta Kintes kidnapping, his mother Bintas response, and Kuntas savage beating, which led to Fiddlers emotional monologue and improvised There gonna be another day. You hear me? There gonna be another day! We, the generation who first watched it in repeats on cable, and the generation which watched it live in 1977 are understandably concerned about the news of this remake. So many remakes fall short (Footloose, Carrie, Ironside) and we dont want such a classic to receive the same treatment. But we also have to look at Roots critically and understand that the History Channel has an opportunity to present a miniseries with even greater historical accuracy and devoid of the story lines which were injected into the original series for ratings. From what I recall, the first two hours of the original miniseries had a subplot of the white slave ship captain who was only begrudgingly doing the job. He was played by Ed Asner, who everyone loved. [Sidenote: Many of the most despicable white villains in the original miniseries were played by the most likable white actors of the time.] Anyway, so this ship captain had this first mate who was terrible, encouraging him to rape the slaves, etc etc. So Ed Asner is all egads what kind of Christian are you? So there was basically this white near-savior figure who allows white viewers the chance to connect with one character who wasnt all bad. (Disclosure: I cant remember if this character was in the book, but I dont think so.) In the remake, I hope the filmmakers stick to the slaves side of the story and take more risks. The remake needs to be authentic, not safe. There needs to be violence. This was a fact of life for the slave. For a new generation, they need to know. They need to KNOW how terrible slavery was. A couple more observations. The original Roots was perhaps too long, but it still only hit the halfway point of the original novel. I enjoyed the structure of Roots: The Next Generations better than the original Roots. The stories were more self-contained. (My favorite installment was the one with Kristoff St. John playing a young Alex Haley.) Since this Roots will be 8 hours instead of 12, maybe they will take a similar approach. It would be nice to see each night focus on a different generation, from Africa to the civil rights era. Finally, a word on Chicken George. I love Ben Vereen. Lord knows I do. But theres no way a man his complexion could have been the offspring of a black woman and a white master. No way. DEAD GIVEAWAY. I hope the casting of the remake stays a little more true to how things would have panned out in real life. Find strong actors, of course, but find the actors who look the part. All in all, I can support this if they commit to getting it right! A part of me is still concerned, however, that this is a remake rather than a telling of one of the hundreds of published slave narratives which already exist. Why Roots? Why not take a chance on another story? Obviously the answer is money. Regardless of the advertising dollars, I hope they do right by this story. A new generation needs to understand slavery and I have no problems with slavery saturation in media.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 14:31:02 +0000
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