In our coverage of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, one of the highlights toward the end of the Fest was Thursday night’s preview of the remake of Roots. Based on the book by author Alex Haley about his ancestry, beginning with his ancestor Kunta Kinte from the Guinea coast in 1750, Kunta’s bondage and enslavement in America, and then his family’s journey through slavery until Emancipation, the original 1977 eight-episode television miniseries was groundbreaking in establishing for so many the lineage of African-Americans (then just called Blacks or even Negroes), back to Africa.
Television ratings-wise, it was an unprecedented blockbuster and still holds significant episode ratings records. It also introduced actor LeVar Burton, who played Kunta Kinte, to the world, and increased the profile of several of the other actors involved including Louis Gossett Jr (as Fiddler) and Olivia Cole (Mathilda), who both one Emmy Awards for their portrayals, as well as John Amos (adult Kunta Kinte) and Madge Sinclair (Belle), and furthered stardom for Leslie Uggams, who played Kizzy.
But this here is about the present future, so practically 40 years later Mark Wolper, son of original executive producer David L. Wolper, along with superstar movie producer Will Packer, have brought back Roots and updated it for a new generation to air on The History Channel beginning this Memorial Day.
And boy, is it good! But even more than that, it’s totally necessary.
So with that, a few thoughts:
This is in no way a review. What was shown was a work-in-progress with scenes that still needed inserting and other production elements the needed tightening. In good measure, a review now would taint the production’s vision.
That said, so far, it’s amazing. I won’t be giving anything away here, but this ain’t your father’s (or grandfather’s) Roots. As promised by Wolper in the post-screening talkback, after showing the original to his teenage son, the kid could dig it but was unimpressed – the style didn’t appeal to his modern sensibilities. And lil’ Wolper is right, though still powerful, the original is dated. This right here, so far, is action-oriented and suspenseful, even though I knew (most) of what would already happen.
Kunta Kinte is badass. (See action-oriented in prior section). You’ll have to see it to fully understand, but series star Malachi Kirby (who some may know from director Destiny Ekaragha’s first feature Gone Too Far) is bold, sensitive, and a true warrior. In the talkback, he was extremely humble, and seemed to feel the weight of this new Roots series on him, stating that he wants for young Black men to take from this that, “…our history does not begin with slavery.”
West Africa is beautiful and complicated. This is no revelation for any region, much less one embroiled in colonialization and chattel slavery, and the results of that, for over 400 years. Still, its not as if they laid down and allowed themselves to be captured. Still, the dynamics that play out between Kunta’s people and their ‘neighbors’ are disheartening, while being a reality of life. And while Kunta’s father Omoro Kinte, played perfectly by Babs Olusanmokun (you probably know him best from 2012’s Restless City), is wise in his service to his people and his king, the consequences of his actions have severe repercussions.
The sisters are gangsta. While the ladies played a very significant part in the original Roots, there was not much of them in the Guinea coast section. In this version, while they do play their roles in village, naturally, but they also do much more and have true and actual agency. And don’t get me started on the slave ship…
The cast. I already mentioned Malachi Kirby as Kunta, but in this preview we also have a very impressive Derek Luke (Antowne Fisher) as Kunta’s Uncle Silla, Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Hotel Rwanda) as Mandika village warrior Samson, and impressive newcomer Simona Brown as Kunta’s love interest (but she doesn’t just stand around looking pretty!). And of course, there’s Forest Whitaker as Fiddler, young Kunta’s slave plantation mentor and friend, whose reinterpretation of this classic character is at first jarring, then soon thereafter makes perfect sense (especially thanks to superstar costume designer Ruth Carter). We still have Aniki Noni Rose (Half of a Yellow Sun) as (yes!) Kunta’s daughter Kizzy, Erica Tazel (Justified) as Mathilda, who at the talkback was humbly overwhelmed by the first episode and ecstatic to be part of this project, Zimbabwe-born actor Regé-Jean Page as Chicken George, and Emayatzy Corinealdi (Miles Ahead and Middle of Nowhere) as Kunta’s eventual wife Belle (though we get a glimpse of her here), as well as Mekhi Phifer, Chad L. Coleman, and many more supporting actors to look forward. Not to be undone, Laurence Fishburne plays Roots writer Alex Haley.
And Ed Asner as… I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the how uncomfortable I felt since childhood that the original puts extreme emphasis on the white cast members, even though they’re all slavers. I came to find that it was to make white audiences comfortable. My hope is that the 1970’s sentiments aren’t repeated today.
I’m ready for more. The writing, the cinematography, the direction, the acting, the action (again)…all of it…is on point. If it wasn’t for the talkback, I would have walked out of the theater angry…and I’m already someone well aware of this existing story and more on the history of slavery in the Americas and the issues still surrounding it. People went buckwild when the original came out, and others got more serious about studying themselves and their people. I’m cynical at times, and hope people actually just pay attention in 2016 to this series.
Seriously. Even in this unfinished version, it’s so well done that you shouldn’t be ‘live Tweeting,’ no, you should be watching and be engrossed. Tweet all you want during the commercials.
