Product Details

• Actors: Sam Neill, Carmen Ejogo, Diahann Carroll, Mare Winningham, Mario Van Peebles
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hallmark
• VHS Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Run Time: 173 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1574928228
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,960 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Movie, August 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Sally Hemings: An American Scandal [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie dares to suggest that Thomas Jefferson might have loved his slave Sally Hemings. No one will ever know for sure if he loved her but if they had a relationship it would have lasted close to forty years. Can a man have a relationship with a woman for forty years and feel nothing for her, even if she was his slave and a black woman? Some people would suggest that but not this movie. Jefferson himself was a contradiction. He said slavery was wrong, yet he owned slaves. This movie focuses on the kind of relationship they may have had and the people they were. Sally is portrayed as a strong and educated woman. We know she went to France and she could have been educated while she was there. She is also the half sister of Jefferson's dead wife and she could have quite possibly looked like her. If Sally did look like Jefferson's dead wife, whom he loved dearly, could he have been attracted to her. Sally is shown as a woman that Jefferson could have loved. Jefferson is shown as a man wrestling inside with his public life and his private life. The relationship they have is tested many times but remains strong even after his death. It may be hard for some to believe that these two people loved each other but this movie suggests that they just didn't love each other but that they were devoted to each other. I like how it focuses on Sally's life because she is the one people know little about. It goes into detail about the kind of life she might have lived with her children and the joy and sadness she might have felt, living during this time. This movie offers a refreshing description of Sally Hemings and her life. If you are interested in history, Sally Hemings or Thomas Jefferson I recommend that you watch this movie. It might change everything you know about these two people. This is a great movie and I highly recommend it to everyone.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat fictitous, yet moving, August 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sally Hemings: An American Scandal [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I liked the mini-series "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal," however, I was put off by a few things in the movie that I felt should have been more realistic, such as the casting, or were rip-offs from other movies. I really liked Carmen Ejogo in the title role, however, I believe a woman who looked more like the real Sally Hemings, who not only looked Caucasian, looked like Thomas Jefferson's wife (Sally and TJ's wife were half-sisters) should have played Hemings. The same goes for the role of James Hemings, played by a wonderful Mario van Peebles. Given that we do not know that much about the real Ms. Hemings, the writers had to make up a lot of information to make the movie interesting. Sally was made a civil rights activist, of sorts, for her time (she helped slaves escape to freedom), there were no records of her being whipped or beaten, and she hardly talked to her children in the film about their heritage. I realize that the story had to be interesting given the little information we have about this woman, but it is an educational piece of work that should have been written with a little more discipline.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not good enough., August 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sally Hemings: An American Scandal [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Personally I'm tired of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, what's so shocking about a man taking a mistress whether they are white, black, purple or green. Why is Jefferson put on this golden pedestal? What's so shocking about finding out that this man ascending to heaven had flesh just like everyone else.

Personally, I came away feeling angry about the movie. Can't people to any more research than what they do? James Callender was scrupulous, yes, but he was a reporter and jailed under the Alien and Sedition Acts. He could have been reward a little from his trouble, after all Jefferson couldn't be happier when he was publishing his History of 1797 against the Federalists. If it wasn't for James Callender we probably wouldn't even be seeing this movie and the gossip that came of it would have died a gradual death. Next is Dolly Madison. Did any of those people actually look at a picture of Dolly Madison? She had black hair not red and that table scene when James Callender was asking her about her and Aaron Burr in New York. She wasn't even in New York; she was in Philadelphia burying a husband and a son from the yellow fever epidemic. There were other things I could point out as well but the average person doesn't realize the mistakes and that's what makes me so angry.

I see historical movies and how they botch things up makes me so mad and what I get angry over is the fact that people see these movies and believe what they see. They don't bother to look for themselves to find the truth.

Besides the great criticism I did enjoy Sam Neil as Jefferson I thought his manner seemed fitting, better than Nick Nolte in Jefferson in Paris. Mare Winningham was perhaps the best as Martha Jefferson constantly struggling between the duties of a mistress of the plantation, daughter to her father, and his relationship with Sally. When it was all over, it was entertaining and that is the number one motive behind this movie.