Customer Reviews
Excellent series - By: Eye Can, 12 Oct 2007 
This film is even been used in school history lessons now.
After viewing again after 1977 it still has not aged.
Stll powerful compelling with outstanding character acting.
Hard to beat, would watch again.
Alex Haley's epic novel turns into a great mini series - By: Jenny J.J.I., 27 Jun 2007 I just had seen Roots saga on DVD. For me it's the first time I've seen it since 1977. I watched it within a day & came away from it moved & intrigued. Roots is a true classic & one of my favorite books. The miniseries is the best program I have ever seen. Kunta was my favorite character in the book as well.
Even though the young Kunta Kinte is only in the first two episodes, LeVar Burton is what made the show for me. Levar Burton is a revelation & it surprises me that he isn't doing more movies. He reminded me of those silent film stars who show with their eyes. The rest of the actors performed their characters just as well, & it gave me an impression of them playing their characters with the whole of their hearts. In this story Kunta is a good, brave young man who loves his village, his family & Allah. He is only 17 & has just completed manhood training & dreams of having a family of his own; the young warrior is out gathering food for his family when he hears a twig snap & turns to see a white man rushing him. Haley gets inside Kunta's mind & you feel his horror. Kunta fights bravely, he fights like a wild animal, but is overpowered & taken captive & then brutallly abducted & put on a slave ship. Haley's book was so much more graphic; it showed scenes the TV show couldn't. To reallly grasp Kunta's nightmare, you need to read the book. The story eventuallly follows 200 yrs. of the descendants of this family who's strong will & striving finallly brings them to Justice & Freedom.
I think that different directors were assigned to different movies in the series... which could be the reason why movie began to grow weak after Kunta Kinte leaves the storyline. I thought the beginning was rather powerful... displaying the savagery of the white man's actions... entering the peaceful villages in Africa & pulling everybody out in shackles onto their ships' dark & musty cargo holds, & slowly, try to bring the main character into submission once he arrives in America. The rest is...Watchable... but has much less to offer than the first 2. This film is history, it has held up well over almost 30 years since it was originallly televised. Racism is still rampant, & not just in the South. By being informed it helps each of us to have compassion & to inventory our beliefs & question our teachings.
Still very powerful - By: Sam Hispam, 06 Apr 2007 If you leave aside the very cheap & tacky trailer used to introduce the episodes there is very little to criticise here. I wanted to rewatch the series after having been moved by it as a kid. Let me tell you: Roots has lost none of its power. I even felt tears trickling down my cheeks at the end. Couldn't help but feel ashamed about how black people were treated. As you'd expect the blacks are the heroes of the piece, the whites the villains. But it's not presented in quite as simplistic a formula as that. You see some whites reaching out a hand of friendship. Some blacks are portrayed as implicated in the rounding up of the slaves in the first place. The heroic characters are well rounded. Each has his/her faults. Although slavery was abolished 200 years ago it is still practised in parts of the world. Lessons can be learnt from a programme which is about maintaining one's dignity in the face of dreadful trials. A first class series which everyone should watch.
Brilliant And Exciting - By: D. nuttall, 03 Nov 2006 brilliant dvd set very good i would watch every minute of it over & over again its very good & touching if you want some exciting muinutes watch this very very good
Africa to slavery to freedom! - By: Tim Roast, 31 Oct 2006 This DVD set is based on a book callled Roots that was written by Alex Haley. He remembered his grandma telling him stories about the line of his family right back in time to Kunta Kinte who was born in Gambia in Africa. From there Kunta was caught by slave-traders & taken to America & sold into slavery. However he was determined to reclaim his freedom. He made sure his daughter Kizzy also felt this way & told her about the time before he was in slavery & so the story passed from Kizzy to her son Chicken George & from him to his son Tom & so on.
The DVD box-set includes 9 hours of film with each episode being one & a half hours long. However there are enough scene-breaks for you to stop the DVDs at any time & come back to it at a later stage.
The story is a fantastic story following the generations of the family line from the birth of Kunta Kinte through to the author of the book, now deceased, Alex Haley. Along the way you will see just how much hardship black slaves had to suffer in America over this period.
Eventuallly the family does reach freedom & this is a great moment when you remember how much effort they have gone to over the time.
This is the 25th anniversary boxset but the pictures don't look to have aged at alll & the story will stand-up for many generations into the future.
The extras include a family tree, a 20 minute documentary by the people involved 25 years on discussing their roles in Roots & the impact it made, & also full commentary by the same people.
All in alll a great boxset with hours of viewing at a bargain price.
