| Alex Haley's Queen | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | John Erman |
| Written by | Alex Haley (novel) David Stevens (Teleplay) |
| Produced by | David L. Wolper |
| Starring | Halle Berry Danny Glover Tucker Stone Jasmine Guy Tim Daly Martin Sheen Paul Winfield Raven Symone Anne Margaret |
| Edited by | James Galloway Paul LaMastra |
| Music by | Christopher Dedrick |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates | February 14, 1993 (US) January 5, 1997 (Finland) |
Running time | 282 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Alex Haley's Queen is a miniseries adaptation of Queen: The Story of an American Family, directed by John Erman. It aired on CBS on Febraury 14, 1993. The film tells the life story of a young slave girl, Queen and shows problems faced by bi-racial slaves in America. The audience follows Queen throughout her life as she faces the struggle of trying to fit into the two cultures of her heritage. She is at times shunned by both. Rejection and hate are no match for her unconquerable will, however.
Plot edit
The series begins with the friendly relationship between James Jackson Jr (Tim Daly), the plantation owner's only son, and his slave, Easter (Jasmine Guy), daughter of an African house slave, Captain Jack, and his true love, Annie, a Cherokee Native. It is revealed that Easter and James grew up together, and gradually, their feelings for each other develop into romance.
Just minutes after the death of his father, James Jackson Sr. (Martin Sheen), James retreats to the comfort of the slave cabin where Easter lives. James and Easter make love, and it is only when they are alone months later, that Easter reveals she is carrying his child. In the meantime, James is being pushed by his widowed mother, Sally Jackson (Ann-Margaret) to marry the respectable and pretty Elizabeth Perkins (Patricia Clarkson).
On April 8, 1841, Easter gives birth to a healthy baby girl. Excited about his new granddaughter, Captain Jack announces to James' family during dinner that a slave child has just been born. In his announcement, he assures James that "Easter's doing just fine". This worries Lizzie, James' soon-to-be fiancée. Excusing herself from the table when she realizes the baby Jack is speaking of was indeed fathered by James, Lizzie vows to never marry him. Her mother convinces her otherwise.
James proposes to Lizzie the next evening, and the two are married four or five years later. While Easter tends to the white ladies, a young Queen is shown being carried around by an African American maid.
During his engagement to Lizzie, James continues to visit Easter's cabin, leaving books for his daughter, whom he has named Queen. Since it is illegal for slaves to read, James does this in secret. He also convinces Easter to let Queen live in the Big House, where she can be trained as a Ladies' Maid. Easter and Lizzie are both opposed to the plan, but James' word is final, and five-year-old Queen (Raven-Symone) is taken to live with her father. While living at the Big House, Queen is tormented and teased by the slave children because she looks white. The children tell her that she is just like them, and does not have a father. James, seeing his daughter in trouble, chases the other children off and hands Queen over to Captain Jack. He goes to Easter's cabin and leaves children's books there for his daughter to read. Although it is illegal for slaves to be educated, James comes though for Queen in the only way possible.
Meanwhile, Lizzie learns that she is pregnant. She and James welcome a daughter, Jane, whom Queen is ordered to care for and serve. Although she is Jane's half-sister, no one dares think of Queen as part of the family because she is Easter's child.
The film fasts forward to 1860; Queen (Halle Berry) and Jane are two young ladies growing up in the South. There is talk of a civil war breaking out among the North and South because of the slave trade. While no one wants war, James tells Easter, that if war does come, he will fight in the Confederate Army.
Later in the year, the Union Army invades, and James leaves for battle. As he rides away, Easter, Queen, Jack, Lizzie, Sally and Jane, stand watch. It is at this moment that Easter reveals to Queen who her father really is by saying, "Pray for him Queen. He your Pappy."
While James is gone, Queen serves the ladies of the house, Lizzie and the now elderly Sally Jackson, as does Queen's mother, Easter. During a diphtheria epidemic, both Easter and Jane come down with the disease. Lizzie sends for the family doctor, but he tells her there is nothing to be done about Jane's deadly condition. Jane dies, and soon Easter becomes ill. Just as James returns from the battlefield, Easter dies with Queen at her side.
Regarding the plantation as her rightful home, Queen vows to stay with "her people". However, though Sally Jackson has been kind to her granddaughter over the years, she is also pragmatic in the aftermath of the war and Emancipation and makes it clear that Queen can expect no help or support from her white family. After a mishap and near run-in with Mr. Henderson (James' foreman) and his friends, Queen returns home, tired and hungry. When questioned by Lizzie as to where she's been, Queen accuses her mistress of treating "an old dog better" than her. When James finally comes back to the plantation for good, he finds that Queen is leaving.
Now on her own, Queen finds it hard to find a place in society. Because she is very light-skinned, Queen does her best to 'pass' as a white woman; sometimes it works, sometimes she is recognized as black. Along the way, she befriends Alice, a young woman in the same position. Teaching Queen how to not give herself away with "slave talk", Alice takes her new friend under her wing. While at a local dance hall (for white folk), Queen meets Digby (Victor Garber), a seemingly religious, ex-Confederate soldier who treats African-Americans as if they were animals. Digby falls in love with Queen and soon, the two become engaged to marry. When Queen tells Alice of the events leading up to Digby's proposal, Alice is horrified and tells Queen that she cannot marry him, but Queen ignores her warnings.
Making a nearly deadly mistake, Queen confesses to Digby that she is the daughter of a slave woman and Colonel Jackson. Digby is infuriated and tries to rape her. In the end, she is beaten and raped anyway. Fearing that she will be found out as well, Alice turns Queen away, leaving her to fend for herself. Desperate and starving, Queen seeks help from the black community, which takes her in. A job is arranged for her with two white women, Miss Mandy and Miss Giffery, who hire her as a housemaid.
Seemingly well-settled, Queen attends a local African church, where she meets an African-American man named Davis. The two fall in love, and Queen finds herself pregnant with his child. Promising her that they will run to freedom, Queen leaves for the train station, but Davis never shows. Obviously abandoned, Queen is taken under the wing of Doris, a woman from the church where she and Davis met. At first, Queen opts to abort her pregnancy. At the last minute, she changes her mind and returns to Mandy and Giffery's house.
Calling Queen a sinner, Miss Mandy, along with Giffery's help, plans to steal her child as soon as it is born and raise him as their own. When Queen gives birth to a boy, whom she vows to name for his father, Miss Giffery declares that Davis is the name of an adulterer and baptises the child as Abner. Feeling like an outcast, Queen asks for help from the preacher at her church. He says that there is nothing she can do to stop the women from stealing her son; they're white and she's black.
Convinced it's the only way out, Queen takes Abner and runs for her life, planning to move north and open a flower shop. She gets a job with an aristocratic woman, Mrs. Benson, nearby and eventually comes across Davis leading a Black strike. He is captured and brought before a judge, but manages to convince the man to let him and his followers go. He and Queen reconcile shortly thereafter. However, Mrs. Benson tricks her into leading the KKK, of which Mr. Benson is a member, to Davis' hideout in the woods. They approach his house and he comes out armed with a shotgun, but is forced to lower his weapon when he sees that they have Abner. He is then lynched and Queen finds his charred body the next day, with her child in a cage beside him. She sets out on the road again.
She soon meets Alec Haley, a widowed African-American farmer (who also runs the ferry), raising his young son, Henry. At first, Queen finds a job, again as a housemaid, with a kind, old man, Mr. Cherry. In the process, Queen and Alec fall in love and eventually marry. While each has a son from a previous relationship (Queen has Abner and Alec has Henry), the two have a third son together, named Simon. He will later become the father of writer Alex Haley, the famed author of "Roots" and of Queen's life story.
As their boys grow up, Abner wants to leave home to find his own place in the world and Simon wants to attend college. The family gives Simon fifty dollars so he can go to school, but that is all the money they have. Alec tells Abner he can go too, but Queen refuses to let her firstborn depart, telling him that Alec Haley is not his real father. Queen seems to lose her sense of reality, and a fear of fire overtakes her life. Shoving pieces of clothing into the stove, her skirt catches fire, and she runs out into the wilderness. It is only the next morning that she is found by a neighbor and his son. Queen is admitted to a mental institution, where she encounters Mr. Cherry, the man she'd worked for years ago. Queen asks Mr. Cherry to loan her fifty dollars so that Abner can go out on his own. He lends her the money, and the Haley boys leave home. The miniseries ends with Queen and Alex sitting on their front porch as Queen tells her story of growing up as a slave owner's daughter.
External links edit
Alex Haley's Queen can refer to:
- Queen: The Story of An American Family, the novel by Alex Haley.
- Alex Haley's Queen, a 1985 film directed by John Erman.