Queen

There are two sides to every story, the saying goes. For Alex Haley, one side was ROOTS, the towering chronicle tracing seven generations of his mother's family. The other side comes to the screen in QUEEN, the remarkable history of the paternal side of the author's family. David L. Wolper is executive producer of this acclaimed adaptation of the story Haley was working on when he died. Halle Berry plays Queen, daughter of a slave and a plantation owner. During the turbulent decades of the antebellum South, the Civil war, Reconstruction and beyond, she searches for a home in the two cultures of her heritage-and at times is shunned by both. Rejection and hate are no match for her unconquerable will, however.

I feel this is an excellent movie/miniseries,because not only of the cast itself but,also due to the impact it causes on the viewer.It is very appropriate for all ages (in my book any way).It opens and shows many real life sagas from an era gone,but still existing in todays society.The cast was well picked for the movie and the plot is great. It's the kind of movie one could watch more than once and never loose interest in due to the plot/moral and simple outcome of pore-civil and post civil war life and time.The whole movie is long,but well worth the time it takes to watch it.I'm glad I didn't miss this one and more glad it is available as an online movie.Any who has watched I am sure enjoyed it and for those who haven't yet seen it I really encourage you to.

In the book, Annie's father was a white man; therefore Annie was a mulatto. Her daughter Easter was fathered by a white man, which made her a quarter white. Easter's daughter, Queen, was fathered by Jas. the young "massa". therefore Queen was only one eighth black. Halle Berry is half white which made her far too dark complexioned for the part and as a result, unconvincing, no matter how hard she tried. The whole theme of the book was that Queen looked white and was not accepted by the black people because of it. She was able to pass for white as long as she did not admit that she had been born a slave.

Another miscast role was Martin Sheen butchering the Irish accent. Were there no Irish actors available? I kept waiting for Mr. Sheen to deliver an Irish joke.

MOST annoying of all was the grammar - no plurals and missing verbs. "I black" "I with chile". Perhaps they spoke like this 150 years ago, but for modern audiences it would have been better to have modified the speech a little. As it was I found it irritating. I would recommend the book instead of the miniseries, which begins half way through the book.

The miniseries was good but Berry's performance was not one of a disadvantaged poor black slave, but rather like a slave that is slow, or mentally retarded. It would have did her well to read the Slave Narratives in preparation for her role. Yes slaves weren't educated and couldn't speak the white man's English well but they were smart, clever and intelligent. It was painful watching Halle Berry in this role and it took away from what could have been an excellent story. The other actors made up for this, but I kept wondering if the character of Queen was supposed to retarded. Great performances by Jasmine Guy who played the role with authenticity and Danny Glover was great, as was the actor playing Abner.

Enjoyed the miniseries very much, especially the excellent cinematography, score, clothing design, landscape scenes, etc. The historical era is also excellent to explore. The drama does not try to gain converts, but is even-handed given the sensitive topics. I lowered my score because, even though it is a drama that is trying to appeal to a broad television audience, the actors were always far too well-dressed for 1850s. They were always mostly clean-shaven, with the women having clean, beautiful hair. Slaves wore dirty, tattered and wrinkled clothes but you never saw any dirty, worn-out clothes in this film. Lastly, the plot for the first half of the film before the outbreak of war is far too synonymous with the plot in the movie Mandingo (1975); practically an exact copy. I was shocked. Overall, Queen is very good.