MOVIE TITLE: Roots (Episode 4)

GENRE: Historical Drama

RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes

RATING: Five stars

WHO'S IN IT: John Amos, Richard Roundtree, Chuck Somers, Scatman Crothers, George Hamilton, Carolyn Jones, Robert Reed, John Schuck.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Episode 4 of Roots, which starts on May 26, 1806, is more about pain of the emotional than the physical kind. There is a whipping, as Noah, who was sweet on Kizzy (daughter of Kunta Kinte and Belle) runs away, but is caught.

But the howls that come from the barn are nothing to those that Belle lets out when, after it is found out that he had a travelling pass forged by Kizzy, she is sold to Tom Moore. It begins from when she begs Dr. William, the owner of the plantation, to reconsider his decision, actually going on her knees - not an easy thing for such a proud woman. Kunta, by now an old man, restrains her as Moore takes away his new property all tied up, slapping the whip and even drawing his pistol as Belle and Kizzy holler.

Telling remarks

When the wagon pulls away it is the last time they see each other, becaus Moore's plantation is only four hours away it might as well have been in outer space. Missy Ann, Dr. William's daughter, makes some telling remarks in her supposed friendship with Kizzy, saying "You all grown up, you not my little nigger doll no more," when they are reunited after many years. And as Moore leaves with her Ann sneers and says "She is no different. She is just as stupid as all of them."

There is more pain to come for Kizzy, as Moore rapes her with monotonous regularity, resulting in Chicken George, the nickname coming from his love for the fighting fowls.

Skip to 1824 and George is tight with Moore (who he does not know is his father), making Kizzy's pre-pregnancy promise that she would have a son to exact vengeance on Moore ring hollow. George is an animated clown, unlike his grandfather Kunta, but he has learned from Kizzy some of what her father has passed on to her of the African way of life. "Ain't nobody go cut off my foot," he says. "You slave down to your bone," his mother scoffs, but the two are very close. Enter the dapper driver Sam Bennett, visiting with a chicken buyer. Bennett takes a shine to Kizzy and, before he gets the break, she gives him a classic line: "... Nobody get it free or buy it cheap." And, when they do get together and he says "fetch me some water" she pours it on him. "Just because you bedded me don't mean you can abuse me. I slave enough in my life without being slave to you," she says.

Double separation

The week he spends brings double separation, though, as Kizzy gets Sam to take her back to the plantation she was born on. There she finds out that Belle had been sold and her father is dead. In an act of defiance she scratches 'Toby' from his wooden headstone and writes 'Kunta Kinte'.

But when they return and Sam gets on his knees to his master, begging for a break, Kizzy looks at him differently, literally and figuratively, and refuses to marry him. "Nobody told him where he come from, so he did not have a dream of where she is going," Kizzy says. Chicken George, despite appearances of clowning around, does. He dreams of freedom and the hat he gleefully dons as new head chicken trainer is a part of the plan.

LONG STORY SHORT: It is a matter of choices and pride, separation and loss and a determination to keep the memories of Africa and the dreams offreedom alive.

- Mel Cooke

DVD courtesy of CariHome DVD.