June 3, 2016
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The 2016 "Roots"
I well remember the "Roots" miniseries of four decades ago. It was an unsettling, but entertaining, cultural event that told the story of slavery through the eyes of Alex Haley, and I found the time to record and watch the 2016 remake.
It was painful, but rewarding in the last 40 minutes of the 8-hour remake, to bear witness to what happened to Africans as a result of being transported to America into lives of slavery.
I said to Barbara just today, "I neither encourage you to or discourage you from watching the four episodes." I don't know if she'll have the patience to endure the many hours of depiction of the horrors that African-Americans endured as slaves. The catharsis that I experienced during the satisfying final 40 minutes were just barely worth the torture of watching unremitting cruelty.
I've just read about what the critics think, and predictably, the reactions correspond to the political leanings of the reviewers. My take, and I'm trying not to be influenced by my biases, is that the remake is more realistic, which is why it was so painful for me to watch.
We're still in terrible shape in this country. But progress is being made.
Barack Obama is the president.
Donald Trump is about to become the Republican nominee for president.
Hmm. Progress will still be the defining noun, as long as the voters reject Trump in November.
Comments (4)
Graphic realism seems to be the trend. I fear however that we will become inured and all the violence will slide off our psyches without generating a gut reaction. The man who inserts profanity every other word loses the shock factor, however when the man who never cusses spits out a single profane syllable will cause the entire room to drop into silence.... I am praying very hard that the collective conscience of the electorate is able to make a just and compassionate choice.
In California, we still face the primaries -- Bernie and Hillary are said to be in a dead heat, though more realistically Hillary is likely to gain way more delegates than is Bernie. Hopefully they'll be able to bring the party together before the General election!We are in terrible shape, as you said, and this primary season has made it very clear to anybody who thinks about what is happening! Hopefully, that will, in itself, be a positive occurrence!
I have avoided watching Roots, simply because I cannot watch the torture and the inhuman way of treatment of people by other people. It makes me cry, and am not sure if I can sit through that.
I cannot make a comment about the political season. I am too saturated with the racist and prejudicial remarks floating through and the so called heads of businesses supporting and giving their thumbs up to such nonsense. I think I just commented about the political season, didn't I ?
Thanks for your comments, dear friends. It's hard for me to find time to post anything these days. If I can manage, I want to post a poem by William Ellery Channing called "I Call That Mind Free." If you wanna read something great, feel free to look it up, because I don't see any free time coming up for me in the foreseeable future!