Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

I've sat here and waited and hour seeing if I could watch it. I can't watch it it's not giving me the option. If your going to put something on here at least make it possible for people to watch it.

No spoilers... brilliant story, brilliant actors, and well worth watching. We live in an era now where quality script writing is hard to find. Over the years it seems that motion pictures have traded substance for high tech cameras and lackluster storylines or regurgitating and repackaging the same stories have been told fifty million times. I'm tired of having to shield my children from films because the directors or producers decided to force feed some sort of agenda into the plot that's has no reason being there. With the way the masses have rated this film you'd think it was Gigli part 3 or something.

This film is a very faithful adaptation of Mildred Taylor's adolescent novel. The problem with this VHS is that it is out of sequence from its original three-part miniseries format. Probably because they wanted to profit from Morgan Freeman's fame, and to attain a 95 minute run time, they took part of the second episode and put it in the middle (!) of the third episode. Plot lines from the first episode are unresolved, and one of the most dramatic sequences is only seen as a recap that starts the third episode. Needless to say, with the sequence so far out of whack, it is difficult to watch and make any sense of it.

But if you have the VHS and you want to watch it in sequence, start it about 25:00 in, with the headlights in the dark and Cassie crawling out of her bed to see what's going on. Watch until Cassie "befriends" Lillian Jean (about 1:12:00 in). After that, watch the first 25:00 and then skip back to where you left off around 1:12:00 and watch to the end.

One day, they'll remake this film or at least release it in its original form. There are many classrooms that would love to have it!

The movie stinks!! I love the book. All of the books as a matter of fact! But this movie is nothin' like the book! The scenes are all out of order and it looks like it was shot on a home video camera!! If ya like the book don't watch the movie!

It's a disgrace that a novel that is so beautifully written and rich was turned into this sorry movie adaptation. This is a core novel used at my school and my students and I were eager to see the movie and compare it to the book we so enjoyed reading. Instead, the movie is told totally out of sequence, has gaping holes in the plot, and for some inexplicable reason, makes Lillian Jean the daughter of Mr. Wallace! It was such a disappointment that we didn't even bother to finish watching it. I really hope that someday "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" is given better treatment and made into the fine film it deserves to be.