The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974)

Story of a black woman in the South who was born into slavery in the 1850s and lives to become a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Director:

John Korty

Writers:

Tracy Keenan Wynn (screenplay), Ernest J. Gaines (novel)

Stars:

Cicely Tyson, Eric Brown, Richard Dysart

Won 9 Primetime Emmys. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cicely Tyson	...	Jane Pittman
Eric Brown	...	Jimmy Age 7
Richard Dysart	...	Master Bryant (as Richard A. Dysart)
Joel Fluellen	...	Unc Isom
Will Hare	...	Elbert Cluveau
Katherine Helmond	...	Lady at House
David Hooks	...	Colonel Dye
Elinora B. Johnson	...	Mary
Warren Kenner	...	Job
Dudley Knight	...	Trooper Brown
Derrick Mills	...	Little Ned at age 5
Michael Murphy	...	Quentin Lerner
Valerie Odell	...	Ticey (as Valeria Odell)
Odetta	...	Big Laura
Rod Perry	...	Joe Pittman

Storyline

Beginning during the racial turmoil of 1960s Louisiana, 110-year-old ex-slave Jane Pittman grants an interview to a persistent journalist and relates the remarkable story of her life. Orphaned early, she toils on a plantation until a chance meeting with a white Union soldier named Brown changes her outlook. Jane's emancipation marks only the beginning of an arduous and heartbreaking odyssey, framed by the horrors of slavery and the justice of the civil rights movement.

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Plot Keywords:

civil rights | slavery | interview | journalist | deep south | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 January 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

Filming Locations:

Ashland-Belle Helene Plantation - State Highway 75, Geismer, Louisiana, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tomorrow Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the wide shot of the plantation scene, you can see a station wagon driving in the back.

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Quotes

Ned Age 42: I want my children to be black and proud of it.

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1997)

User Reviews

Good Film

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.