Portland Observer Section II Thursday, February 22,1979 Page 6
tendance. Simon announces that he is going to Cornell
University to study agriculture, but W ill tries to talk him
out o f it. Cynthia argues that Simon and Bertha must
have their freedom. W ill relents and the two leave.
Months later, Simon and Bertha return to see her
parents. They bring their baby, Alexander M urray
Palmer Haley, and have hardly arrived when W ill takes
the child outdoors and holds him to the heavens as has
been done in the fam ily for generations.
1932
Simon Haley (Dorian Harwood) serves his hitch
in the Army during World War I.
hell. Later, Simon is gassed as he puts a gas mask on
Ten Eyck, unconscious from injuries. When he leaves
the hospital, the war is over.
Simon and Doxey, bound for home, stop in Knox
ville to see H ayw ood, his sister and her children.
Whites, including Earl Crowther, have been invading
the Black areas and Simon is asked to escort Haywood's
sister and her children to safety while Haywood and
Doxey guard the house with rifles. Simon barely escapes
as shots are exchanged. H aywood is cut down by
C rowther. Later, after the mob is dispersed, Doxey catches
Crowther in an alley and cuts his throat.
In Henning, Simon and Bertha are married at W ill
Palmer’ s house with Congressman Andy Warner in at-
Alex Haley is twelve years old. His father, Simon, is
qualified to teach agriculture, but in these depression
times he totes lumber for W ill Palmer. Alex’ s mother,
Bertha, says that Simon is lucky to have work in hard
times, but Simon is unhappy.
Old W ill is getting on. One Sunday W ill takes Alex to
the garage to see a section o f redwood trunk, five feet
across and hundreds o f years old. On the tree rings, W ill
has delineated the fam ily chronology all the way back to
Kunta Kinte, the A frican.
A t the end o f the summer Simon is hired to teach
agriculture at a Black college in N orm al, Alabama.
There he learns the realities o f academic life as weli as
those o f the te n a n t-fa rm e r system. The school
president, Dr. Huguley (Paul W infield), w ill sing a
spiritual or dance a jig to please the paternalistic whites
whose contributions keep the school going. Tenant farm
ers, both Black and white, are at the mercy o f their land
lords, who insist on raising cotton exclusively, though
Simon and the sympathetic white county agent, Lyle
P ettijoh n (Robert C ulp), know that rota ting crops
would bring more p ro fit. Simon urges the farmers to
take advantage o f President Roosevelt’ s new subsidy
plan. But the land owners want the subsidy checks for
themselves, and Pettijohn predicts trouble if the tenants
follow Simon's ideas.
W ill Palmer has died, and Bertha is quite ill although
Young Alex Haley (Christoff St. John) listens to
the tale of Kunta Kinte from his grandmother
(Beah Richards).
she keeps her pain secret from her fam ily. She wants to
make a surprise visit to Henning to visit her mother,
Cynthia. But when they arrive, the Haley’ s are sur
prised. Cynthia and Aunt Liz are working as field hands.
A fte r W ill’s death, there was little left fo r Cynthia. In
the evenings the old ladies, now joined by Cousin
Georgia, sit on the porch to recount stories about the
A frican. Alex, sitting behind his grandmother Cynthia’ s
chair, remembers every word. Meanwhile, Bertha tells
her mother that her illness is terminal.
In Normal, Black farmer Ab Dekker (Brock Peters),
inspired by Simon, refuses to sign his subsidy check over
to the landlord. Deputies sieze his property, but Simon
is able to save A b ’s first subsidy check, giving them
MOW A LEGEMD BECOMES A MAGNIFICENT NEW EXPERIENCE.
Marlon Brando
Olivia de Havilland
Henry Fonda
Andy G riffith
Dorian Harewood
James Earl Jones
Dina M e rrill
Lynne Moody
Georg Stanford Brown
Diahann Carroll
Robert Cylß_
Ruby Dee —
THENEKT
Alex Haley's powerful epic
continues with the story
of four more generations
of descendants of the
slave boy Kunta
Kinte. Beginning in
*
1882, the film
chronicles the
family s struggle to
*Jr
gain equality
i
through nearly 100
years of turbulent
American history.
7/
Debbie Morgan
Greg M o rris
S tan Shaw
M a rc Singer
Richard Thomas
if
r 7
Sunday Feb 18,8.00 10:00 pm
Monday Feb. 19,8:00 10:00 pm
Tuesday Feb. 20,9:00 11:00 pm
Wednesday Feb. 2 1 .9 0 0 11.00 pm
Thursday Feb 2 2 ,9 00 11:00 pm
Friday Feb. 2 3 .9 0 0 11:00 pm
Sunday Feb. 25,9:00 11.00 pm