The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974)

“I want my children to be black and proud of it.” – Ned

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Apr 2016)

Brief Synopsis – During the height of the civil rights movement during the 1960’s, a reporter interviews a 110 year old women who can tell him stories of racial oppression over the last century.

My Take on it – This is yet another movie recommended to me by my good friend SG of Rhyme and Reason who quite often does a good job of picking movies that I will like for me.

I had never heard of this film before watching it and was surprised by everything done here.

This was a groundbreaking and monumental achievement for Network TV 40 years ago and as good as it is now, I’m sure it had an even more profound and greater impact on the world back then.

This was the first TV movie to discuss slavery and civil rights from the perspective of the persecuted.

This movie went on to win 9 Emmy Awards in so many diverse categories; The star Cicely Tyson even won 2 Emmy’s herself for this.

Whenever Tyson appears here it is great, because she does such a wonderful job in every time period that she appears in.  She seems believable at every age that she portrays, most noticeable as the Centenarian plus.

The stories related to us are all interesting and profound in their own way, but I felt that this movie was hampered by its running length.

It only runs a bit less that 2 hours with is usually a normal length for a featured film, but here the information seems so rich that it’s unfortunate that they felt that this could only be a maximum of 2 hours.  had they made it into a miniseries like they did with Roots (1977) a few years later, this could have felt even more complete.

To take a hundred year period and truncate it to less than 2 hours and still try and include The Civil War and The Civil Rights Movement just isn’t enough.

Bottom Line – Groundbreaking Made for TV movie that had a much greater and profound  impact 40 years ago than it does now.  Tyson is great in every time period that she is featured in and does an unbelievable job acting here.  The stories told are very important ones, but they each feel to be too short in order to keep it all under two hours.  It’s too bad this wasn’t a longer miniseries like Roots (1977).  Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Originally shown on US TV with only one commercial break. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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