Beginning during the racial turmoil of 1960s Louisiana, 110-year-old ex-slave Jane Pittman (Cicely Tyson) grants an interview to a persistent journalist and relates the remarkable story of her life. Orphaned early, she toils on a plantation until a chance meeting with a white Union soldier named Brown changes her outlook. Jane’s emancipation marks only the beginning of an arduous and heartbreaking odyssey, framed by the horrors of slavery and the justice of the civil rights movement.
This highly acclaimed drama, based on the epic novel by Ernest J. Gaines, eloquently covers the story of the Black Experience – from the Civil War to the civil rights movement – all told from the memories of a fictional 110-year-old slave played by Cicely Tyson. Ms. Tyson’s tour-de-force performance, her most memorable, earned her an Emmy. All total this incredible made-for-TV film earned nine Emmys, including one for director Korty and one for Tracy Keenan Wynn’s intelligent script.
One of TV’s all-time best. -Leonard Maltin
Starring Cicely Tyson, Eric Brown, Richard Dysart, Joel Fluellen, Will Hare.
Rated TV-PG.