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‘Roots’ Remake to Air on History, A&E and Lifetime Next Year
- Thread starter mvcg66b3r
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The original Roots cannot be improved upon. Although some of the actors will be unknown to current viewers it would not matter. It is the story that is important and not the actors - after all, this is a docu-drama and not some cheesy exploit-o-flick or brain dead action piece. What possible improvement can be brought to a new edition - cell phones perhaps?
Stupid. Idiotic. Dumb beyond belief.
Stupid. Idiotic. Dumb beyond belief.
The original was shot in 35 millimeter film with an older color system that appears ancient when shown on today's HDTVs. And the audio is analog with lots of hiss. There's really no way to fix the technical quality from where it was then, other than to shoot it again.
And as you said, it's the story that's important, and this story will be presented to a new generation who are unfamiliar with the impact of the original. By shooting it again, with today's technology, the story will have more impact.
I have seen Roots on DVD and it is well within the quality parameters for viewing/listening. The story is so powerful that I think most people, unless they are viewing for the express purpose of evaluating the media itself, will be wrapped up in the story and the media won't make any difference at all. I do wonder how much chance it will have recouping its remake budget with the average seemingly disinterested person today. When it aired over ABC in 1976 it seemed the whole nation stopped to watch it - like the moon landing of a decade earlier. I remember being at a big party during one of the last episodes and the party completely stopped with everyone gathered around the TV while it aired.
I've often said if our educational system wanted to tell the story of American slavery in just a few hours all they would have to do is play Roots. It is one of the most powerful stories I have ever seen.
I agree. I would assume the rationale for the remake is that they want to bring the story to this generation's viewers - a generation that would probably resist watching a 40 year old mini-series. No doubt, we can expect it to be much more explicit in terms of violence and sexual content than they were able to do in the mid 70s.
By doing that they may make it unbelievable that people treated other people like that. I don't remember much sex in the original but the violence was sure there. Not sure it needs to be more graphic to get the point across. Anyway, how much money can three cheesy cable channels put into the new version? It will be a damn shame if it isn't at least as good and wrecks the original's reputation.
That fact that it's coming from the original producer's son and LeVar Burton is a good sign to me.
They're aware of the heritage and don't want to soil the reputation of the original.
BTW I've never seen any gratuitous sex or violence in any of the other dramatizations on The History Channel.
Another thing to consider is the time we live in now vs the 70's (when the original was made). The 60's were a very scary time in terms of racial equality and that hadn't evaporated by the time Roots came out. I suspect among people at that time there was a sympathy for Blacks that may not exist today in light of recent events.
From the white male public perhaps - many of whom have been convinced for years that racism is "dead." What's interesting to me is that recent events are dove-tailing with calls for the reform of the criminal justice system, including mandatory minimum sentences, and long sentences for drug crimes, which disproportionately target black men. This movement has been surprisingly bi-partisan, with support from the Koch brothers, and Republicans like Rand Paul and even Ted Cruz. Even more than police brutality, the imprisoning of a huge number of young African-American men is a real scourge in the country that imprisons more people than any other in the world.
El Hefe (Sheriff Joe Arpio of Maricopa County Arizona) says "If you didn't like it here, referring to his jails, then don't come back. Our soldiers live in far less comfort and they didn't do anything wrong."
Sheriff Joe is in deep doo-doo right now - having to apologize for his continued profiling of anybody who looks at all Latino despite the fact that the Feds ordered him to back down. His time in the limelight is just about over.
Jeez, the guy is 82-83 years old and didn't even take the sheriff job until most of us are retired. The problem for the feds is that the vast majority of Maricopa County voters, and I am one, support most of what he is doing - and he is one of the only sheriffs country wide to enforce the illegal immigration laws (and if you do that who other than Latinos do you profile?). The feds continue to harass him and the local illegals don't like him either but that doesn't take away from the good work his department has done (cutting, substantially, the cost of incarceration with Tent City, using male and female inmates to care for abandoned and mistreated animals and using an old jail no longer used for humans, etc.).
What a lot of people don't realize is that the MCSO patrols mostly far suburbs of the Phoenix metro area and most of these areas tend to have large Latino populations and a disproportionate amount of crime (and, specifically, illegal immigrants). As he has said many times "I simply enforce the law. If you don't like the law then change it."
I think the thing that bothers most critics is his big ego. He loves the camera and is not shy about goading the bad guys (or judges as the case may be). The bottom line though is that he does get results. The media love to flaunt him because he is good press.
He won't last forever but I would hate to try to fill his shoes.
A&E which owns History Channel et. al. is a joint venture of Hearst and Disney. Far from being "cheesy" this set of cable channels probably has larger budgets for mini-series productions than the OTA networks. Using new technologies such as digital shooting and the array of production effects not available, I'd anticipate a faster paced production with greater video and audio quality and much better editing and post production.
It will also be shot in the standard widescreen format used today; the original was shot for cathode ray screen proportions. Even the music on the original, like so much from the 70's, is very dated and of poor quality.
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Gee, since about a third of illegal immigrants are not Hispanic, it seem racist to the extreme to only go after one group.
And, since about 80% of the Hispanics in the US are legal, and the majority, now, are born here or are naturalized citizens (over 40 million out of a 50 million total), profiling is dangerous and discriminatory if applied just to people who "look Hispanic".[/SIZE][/FONT]
The worst thing about prevalent profiling is that it gives license to the non-Hispanic white bigots to be openly dismissive, rude and abusive towards anyone who seems to be Hispanic.
One of the many things that made me sell my home in Arizona was an incident where, while chatting in a Basha's checkout line in Spanish, a trashy white woman told us that neither of us wold ever get a good job if we didn't quit speaking "Mexican" and learn English.
(I responded that it was my decision, not hers, whether we spoke in the language of Shakespeare or the language of Cervantes or those of Voltaire or Dante and that it was, thus, none of her monolingual concern. She had no idea what I was talking about.)
Absolutely. I would bet that the "vast majority" of Maricopa County voters that landtuna speaks of are not Latino. I would not appreciate being stopped by police and required to show my ID constantly because my skin was dark. Fortunately for me, I'm a pasty faced white guy, so I guess I would be fine in Phoenix.
Also - I don't have statistics to back me up, but I'd bet that illegal immigrants as a group commit fewer crimes than most other ethnic or social groups. I live in an area of San Francisco where there are a lot of illegal immigrants standing around hoping to get work. In my experience, they are respectful and pleasant - never cause any trouble that I have seen, and are just trying to make a living. In my opinion, Police have no business detaining people who are not suspected of committing a crime. Yes, I know - being "illegal" is technically against the law, but that should be up to ICE, not local police.
And about the thread getting off track. I think threads here often get more interesting when they wander off the original subject. How many things can you say about the Roots remake, in any case.
Perhaps I am unique but to me the story is much more important than the presentation. I can still watch movies from the 1930's complete with their scratchy films and audio and enjoy the show. I have a Blu-ray player but have yet to watch a Blu-ray movie on it. I can listen to analog FM and enjoy the content and hearing the same exact thing on HD makes no noticeable difference. My kids will not watch black and white movies. It is their loss.
For people who want just the story, they can easily see the original. It's available everywhere. Or just read the book.
I wouldn't be surprised if History runs the original as well as the remake.
I am not defending illegal profiling but in my geographic area the vast majority of illegals have come from Mexico and countries south. And I do know what it is to be profiled. When I was in the Navy almost everyone of my buddies called me a Puerto Rican even though I am of European descent (although with a decidedly darker skin color). I didn't get all hairy about it.
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