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Queen AKA Alex Haley's Queen (TV)
R1 - America - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (3rd February 2008). |
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The Film
 The story of writer Alex Haley's maternal lineage is a familiar story to readers of his book "Roots", or to viewers of the famous 1977 television mini-series based on the book. Sixteen years later, a somewhat less ambitious sequel was lensed, telling the story of Haley's paternal grandmother and her lineage. Our tale begins in the Deep South, circa 1840. Martin Sheen and Ann-Margaret play the parents of one James Jackson Jr. (Tim Daly). The Jackson's are plantation owners who immigrated from Ireland. Although they reluctantly own slaves, they are kind to the slaves, treating them humanely and allowing them to do things like learning to read. For this, James Jackson Jr. takes some abuse from the other wealthy plantation owners. James has had a marriage arranged for him, and although he doesn't particularly love the girl, he agrees to marry her. In the meantime, Jackson Sr. (Sheen) dies. While James is grieving, a pretty young slave girl about his age comforts him, and let's just say that she comforts him a lot. A baby soon arrives, and hence the next step towards Haley's career as a novelist is born. The baby is named Queen, and she grows up to be none other than Halle Berry. In her lifetime, she witnesses the Civil War, the Reconstruction, and the dawn of the 20th century. Berry doesn't show up until well into the first episode, so in the meantime the story's driving force is Daly. His southern accent is reasonably horrible, and his mannerisms are even more wooden than what a southern gentleman role would require. The good news is that he is surrounded by better talent, such as Sheen, Margaret, and Danny Glover. As the first episode closes, the civil war has begun, and this means that there are some rather dramatically changing fortunes for the Jackson family. The war also means that the slaves have been freed. At least under the Jackson's, Queen's immediate family were treated humanely. As free people, things might actually be more difficult. By the end of the second episode, Queen has found herself in a bit of a bad situation, and goes on the run with a baby son. As the newly free slaves struggle for acceptance in their difficult world, Queen gets a job as a wet nurse, and then becomes reacquainted with her baby daddy. He is now an educated activist who believes that fighting for black rights is more important than his family. He still manages to bed Queen again, and they end up together, at last. Her sons end up college material, but unfortunately, she is nuts, and ends up in an asylum. She begs the doctors for a chance to see her sons before they leave for college. By the end, she's in a rocking chair on a porch, holding her man's hand, as a text crawl tells us that her son Simon graduated from college, and then went on to spawn Mr. Haley.
Video
"Queen" is presented in the original television aspect ratio of 4:3. The two-disc set contains all three episodes, with a running time of about 95 minutes per episode. For a production shot just prior to digital home video becoming the norm, the transfer and preservation look pretty good. The print is clean and free of debris. Some of the darker interior shots are a touch grainy, but the exteriors look lovely, with a bright palette of colors and a soft focus capturing the lush southern landscape. The first two episodes are contained in their entirety on disc one and the third episode stands alone on disc two. In spite of this imbalance in running times, I didn't notice much difference in image quality between the two discs.
Audio
The only audio option is English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, although English, French, and Spanish subtitles are provided. I found that the sound effects track was a bit too present for my tastes, and the score by Michael Small could have used some more variation; after five hours, the themes begin to wear thin. The lush European-style orchestral score works well for the scenes of posh pre-war plantation life, but as Queen wanders around through poverty and the difficulties of life on her own, the music seems somehow inappropriate. Some sort of small ensemble folk music might have better suited the mood.
Extras
There are no extras whatsoever on this set.
Overall
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