I guess I need to explain my three stars as having nothing to do with the content of this movie. So I'll present the pros first,then the cons. Well obviously I watched this 70's TV movie (well on DVD that is) because I see Harriet Tubman as an often forgotten American hero who not only formed the "underground railroad" and personally led many slaves to freedom in the north but her later involvment in the Civil War and her later crusades for the early stirrings of woman's rights in the suffergete movement. I read books about her as a child and Harriet Tubman is even the subject of a painting I made a few years ago. Cicily Tyson does an incredible job as Harriet,who starts out a slave of course,bitter and angry at the injustices around her.She endures many of the humiliations accorded to slaves (including being used on one occasion as a human mule) and the equally demeaning concept of her and her husband having to "buy their way" to freedom. In her disgust against this system she turns her energy toward creating a system allowing slaves to escape to the northern states to be free people. The movie plays out her transition from a broken down slave into a confident woman "called moses". Orson Welles adds a narration to the affair.So the actual content of the movie is wonderful and I think everyone interested in any type of history and social injuctice being undone should definately see this. The minus side has to do with the reason this gets only three stars from me-the movie itself is five stars all the way but the presentation does in fact leave a lot to be desired. It's apparent that this DVD was transferred from a VHS tape and even that being the case it looks like it was taped directly off of TV as the series aired. There has been zero effort to enhance the quality of the picture let alone remaster the movie. And that does a great disservice to this classic.But nevertheless if you can overlook the poor quality of the production values this is something more then worth your time to check out.
Viewer Reviews I was so happy to find the movie, "A Woman Called Moses" on Amazon! It's for a Christmas present! Thanks Amazon!
