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Roots

Malachi Kirby impresses as Kunta Kinte in the rebooted miniseries about black slavery, coming to SBS.

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When Roots first aired in 1977 you had to cancel all your social engagements because there was no chance anybody else would leave their couch. The 8 part miniseries was appointment television, before the term had ever been invented.

Now a new version, also based on the Alex Haley novel, has been produced by A&E, screening in Australia later this month on SBS.

Australian Phillip Noyce directs the first of 4 episodes (Bruce Beresford will direct another).

Starring as young Mandinka warrior Kunta Kinte is UK actor Malachi Kirby. In his West African home of Juffure in 1750 he wants to impress his father, marry a local girl and study. The opening episode devotes considerable time to establishing culture, fighting spirit and the family unit. Confusingly, some English dialogue spoken with a heavy African accent is subtitled -but not all of it.

Village life is disrupted when Kunta is captured and traded to westerners, branding him with a hot iron and imprisoning him on their slave ship, bound for the US East Coast.

Scenes on board the ship are grim, as the incarcerated young warrior wonders how to escape.

“How will my family find us?” he asks. At this point I recall a scene from the original, in which Kunta (then a young LeVar Burton) assured his friend they would swim to the river bank as soon as they got on the ship’s deck, only to find himself at sea. “Where’s the earth? The earth is gone!” he declared. It was a scene that conveyed so much, but it isn’t replicated here.

For 2016 things turn particularly violent on deck during a mutiny before the arrival in Maryland where he discovers fellow Africans working alongside white men. Identified as a strong young male, Kunta is sold to a tobacco plantation in Virginia, headed by John Waller (James Purefoy), ‘re-named’ as Toby and assigned to Fiddler (Forest Whitaker), who is expected to teach him slave labour rules.

But Kunta Kinte is still defiant, faithful to Allah, and plots to escape his oppression. Those who recall the famed whipping scene, in which his spirit is broken by an overseer, can expect to see it again.

With the original series being such a classic, one doesn’t attempt a remake without putting money on the screen, and for the most part Roots delivers (I wasn’t entirely sold on African scenes accompanied with genuine landscape). But it has a hefty cast both in terms of numbers and credentials, including Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys Myers and Matthew Goode.

Malachi Kirby is a stand-out as a muscular Kunta Kinte, representing a race that is strong and proud. The role demands plenty of physical action, and Kirby is in just about every scene. Forest Whitaker represents an older, more subservient African whose loyalties are challenged by the young arrival.

Roots opens with a warning of “intense language, violence and sexual violence” in order to remain accurate to its setting. This includes occasional use of the “N” word, and graphic scenes usually associated with cable TV. The opening instalment carried the odd cliche, both in filmmaking and dialogue, but not enough to detract from the overall impact.

If you’ve never seen the original, this 2016 Roots is an excellent way into Alex Haley’s epic tale. If however, it remains a miniseries memory, then works as a highly-recommended companion piece.

Roots premieres 8:30pm Wednesday July 27 on SBS and continues July 28, August 3 & 4.

4 Responses

  1. The original series had a huge impact on the rise of African-American consciousness and pride. It will be interesting to see what impact the remake may have, given current racial tensions in the US.

  2. Actually Roots: The Next Generation was a seven part miniseries that filled in the rest of the story where it ended in the original miniseries. There was also a telemovie Roots:The Gift in 1988 with Levar Burton.
    There has never been an ongoing series.

  3. The 1970’s mini series was spun off into series in 1979. Here is a a channel 0 station ID for those that are interested featuring a voice over from the late Bruce Mansfield.

    youtube.com/watch?v=wZYE0J4TUPY

    Thanks for the heads up David. I was a little young for the original series so certainly interested is this remake.

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