Rating: 
Summary: Racisim illuminated
Review: I remember when The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman first aired on broadcast television in 1973. I was a freshman in College and memories of civil unrest were still fresh in the minds of many Americans. Although the production gets off to a bit of a slow start with some stilted acting by a few of the actors, it soon warms up and becomes very real. Ms. Tyson gives one of the most moving and real performances that I've ever seen. I remember that the movie was shown in the evening and, as far as I know for the first time in TV history, the network received so many phone calls as a result of its showing that they pre-empted their programming the next day to show it again. It remains just as moving today. Once you start you will not want to pause or stop until the end credits are rolling up the screen. Incredible.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable
Review: I saw this movie when it was first released with my brothers and cousins. I was the youngest at six years old. I had nightmares for that summer expecting men in white hoods to leap through my window and I was a six year old white child. Now that I have grown up and am knocking on 37 years of age, I have been wanting to see that movie again. I was too young to see it when I did, but it is an exceptional movie, one that I believe blows Roots out of the water.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent - but not for children
Review: I saw this originally when it was on TV. I don't see an age range listed, but I would make sure children don't slip into the room while watching it. I still have nightmares about the lynching scene. I think I was 10 or 12 at the time. It is an excellent story, just too much for kids to handle in parts.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most outstanding historical dramas ever made.....
Review: I'll tell you a story... so please pull out your tape recorder and listen carefully... This is how this story of an 110 year old slave begins as she starts to enlighten a magazine reporter with her life story. This story covers everything from the end of the civil war to the turbulent civil rights of the sixties. Cicely Tyson is magnificent as the story teller who carries a scar on her back as a memory to her plight. This is one movie you have to own, or at least rent, for your children and your children's children. It's a classic for the ages......
Rating:
Summary: Better than the Book
Review: It is not often that a movie is better than the book based upon. But this is one case where even a great book is surpassed. I needn't add to other reviews. It is an absorbing movie, very moving to those sensative to human rights. Even though the movie concerns Black Americans, it speaks universally to the injustice usually found in the heart of the human race.But I will mention one thing about the movie that I believe definitively places the movie above the book. I will not describe this thing so that those who have read the book, but haven't seen the movie, will have it spoiled for them. The book ends at a particular point, I believe an unfortunate point, resulting in a dead ending. But the movie continues where the book leaves off, and the sequence of scenes is wonderful, truly pulling together the movie in a truly powerful ending. Finally, I believe the movie is better than Roots (the series). And if you are interested in Roots, the book is better than the series.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the Book
Review: It is not often that a movie is better than the book based upon. But this is one case where even a great book is surpassed. I needn't add to other reviews. It is an absorbing movie, very moving to those sensative to human rights. Even though the movie concerns Black Americans, it speaks universally to the injustice usually found in the heart of the human race. But I will mention one thing about the movie that I believe definitively places the movie above the book. I will not describe this thing so that those who have read the book, but haven't seen the movie, will have it spoiled for them. The book ends at a particular point, I believe an unfortunate point, resulting in a dead ending. But the movie continues where the book leaves off, and the sequence of scenes is wonderful, truly pulling together the movie in a truly powerful ending. Finally, I believe the movie is better than Roots (the series). And if you are interested in Roots, the book is better than the series.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful!
Review: the way this movie has always struck a chord with me is unbelievable.Cicely Tyson gives a lifetime outstanding job in this heartfelt film.her character lives for 110 years thru all the pain&resentiment due to racism.she is a true Inspiration to all in her lifetime battles.
Rating:
Summary: Good film
Review: This film is very rare to find. I saw it with a friend at her house. The picture looks very old, looks like it was made a thousand years ago, but I just found out it was made in 1974. This is a very good film. It tells the tale about an ex-slave woman named Jane Pittman who is 110 years old; at the time it was 1962 Louisiana, so she must have been born around the 1850s. She is as black as night and coal, and her skin is mighty wrinkled. It's hard to believe they put make up on her, I assumed the woman who played her would be long dead by now, but she isn't. The woman playing her is Cicely Tyson, (who was about 30-something at the time) who also played "Harriet Tubman" four years later. She tells a New York reporter about her life as a slave and when she turned eleven in 1865, all the slaves were set free. Whoever played young Jane did an excellent job as the bold, sad looking waif girl. Jane Pittman narrates this story sitting down in a chair. It has flashbacks, such as if she'd be telling one incident in her life that happened long ago and then they'd go back to that incident, then the screen would black and and go back to her sitting on the chair with her black, coal self. Good script, acting, everyone did well, underrated, it should show on TV and have people know of this movie, but oh well.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: This is an awesome movie! Cicely Tyson is wonderful as Jane. I loved this movie from the first scene to the last. Definetly a must-see!
Rating:
Summary: Fiction Was Never This Real
Review: This is one of those works of fiction that is so realistic that the viewer can only assume that this is the story of a real American heroine, not a composite of the many unsung greats of the past. Cicely Tyson is magnificent as both the young and aged Miss Pittman. Her performance should go down as one of the best ever done for the small or the big screen. Every minute that she is in view is a major glimpse into the talent of a great actress. The excellent script that traces the 110 years of the title character includes many of the critical points in the life of African-Americans from Reconstruction on to the Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960's. This is history that is informative as well as entertaining. As an educator by profession, I heartily recommend this film to be a staple in every media center's video library. Timeless and relevant, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" is an undeniable masterpiece!
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