Posted on 02/24/2008 11:48:31 AM PST by dickmc
And some of the Founders DID have slaves (even the ones up north), so the mere mention or display of that fact is not hyperbole after all.
But, thanks for your warning and the posting of the review.
But this is the Hollywood Left we're talking about here.
Wanna place a bet on whether or not there's at least an episode devoted to the question of the divinity of Christ?
Heck, I'm willing to bet that it'll be a recurring theme in the series.
Seriously? You think that HBO is going to make a miniseries about an 18th Century theological debate? I'll take some of that action.
No doubt indeed. But, I'm sure the violence and racism will be the story, with the founding of our nation and Adams' inexhaustible contributions to it as a backdrop! :-)
Yes, I would be shocked if the screenwriters for this miniseries didn't take every opportunity they could to question the divinity of Christ.
Sure. How much you want to bet?
BTW, have you ever read McCullough's John Adams?
He probably drank most of the Bordeaux on the long boa ride over the Atlantic... ;-)
He probably drank most of the Bordeaux on the long boat ride over the Atlantic... ;-)
I’ve had it sitting here for a year. My mother has asked me over and over “Have you READ IT YET??!!” Now I’ve got to rush through it before the series starts.
Looking forward.
YouTube has some excellent clips of 1776. Was just watching some of them yesterday. “For God sakes, John....SIT DOWN!”
I still appreciate it as a part of my childhood, but I guess my adult masculinity as depreciated the value of a musical, along with some other things that I interpreted as slams on conservatives (the minuet to the "right, always to the right.")
None were cardboard cutouts. All had virtues as well as warts, but what they accomplished, both individually and collectively was amazing. McCullough manages to capture the people and the times.
Interesting note on this. McCullough initially set out to do a book on Jefferson but in the course of his research naturally came across much correspondence from Adams and realized he really didn't know much about the man. McCullough switched topics and spent nearly a decade reading every letter written to, from, or about Adams in that time. In the end, he abandoned the Jefferson book because he found Adams to be the more interesting of the two men.
HBO happens to be one channel I don’t get...
My macho hubby just took me to see “Wicked” and he loved it every bit as much as I did!
Never occurred to me that the minuet was a slap at conservatives....... hmmmmm
Apparently, that minuet wasn’t in the original cut of the movie. The story goes that the producer of the movie screened it for Nixon, and he asked it be cut. It was restored to the DVD version.
Very interesting.
My mom was overwhelmed at the constraints of distance and how these men put duty first against all odds.
I’m going to try and tape the series for the rest of my family who don’t have HBO.
You have two weeks to order HBO!
I have to go google that now!
some trivia on the movie 1776:
The Broadway musical was conceived by a history teacher.
President Richard Nixon was given a private screening of the movie before its release by his friend Jack L. Warner, the producer. The song “Cool, Considerate Men” offended Nixon, so Warner removed it at his request. The song was restored on the Deluxe Widescreen Presentation Laserdisc (and was included on the DVD).
The final shot required the camera to pull back to show the entire Congressional chamber; however, there was not enough room on the set for the camera truck to pull back far enough. As the studios being used were slated to be demolished after production ended, and this was the final shot being done, a large hole was made in the wall - with the camera truck protruding outdoors after pulling all the way back. As it turned out, however, the studios were never demolished after all and the wall needed to be rebuilt.
Thomas Jefferson’s wife, Martha, died ten years after their marriage, 19 years before Jefferson occupied the White House. The Martha Jefferson listed as First Lady was the couple’s daughter.
During the filming of “Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve”, William Daniels sucked on ice cubes, as not to give away the fact that the night was freezing cold, rather than a humid Philadelphia evening
Many of the characters’ lines were quotes attributed to these historic men. Including Hancock’s justification of his own signature and Franklin’s, “Those who would forfeit liberty to obtain a little temporary safety...” as well as his saying, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Ron Holgate did all of his own riding - except for the trick mount at the end - in “The Lees of Old Virginia”, despite his never having been on a horse before.
The song “The Egg” was written very late into the writing process for the Broadway show. So late, in fact, that promotional material had already been printed and it was upon seeing a poster depicting an eaglet coming out of a British eggshell and holding an American flag that Sherman Edwards came up with the song.
In the song “Is Anybody There”, sung by John Adams, the lyric “Yet, through all the gloom, I see the rays of ravishing light and glory” were from a letter by the real-life Adams to wife Abigail the day after the Declaration was adopted.
All of the exchanges between John and Abigail Adams are based on the real letters they wrote to each other while John was away. He called her his “dearest friend” and their letters ended with “Til then”.
Many of the outdoor shots were filmed at what is now the Warner Ranch just north of the main studio. At the time it was part of the new Columbia/Warner merger. The water fountain seen during the number with Franklin, Adams, and Lee is best known to current television viewers as the fountain seen at the beginning of the TV show “Friends”. This fountain still exists directly across the street from the Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie Houses. Most of the other colonial sets were destroyed by a devastating fire in the mid-’70s.
During filming, Blythe Danner (Martha Jefferson) was 5 months pregnant with Gwenyth Paltrow.
John Adams was played by actor William Daniels, who later stared in the television show “St. Elsewhere” (1982) in which he played Dr. Mark Craig...a descendant of John Adams. The series was filled with references to “1776” and quotes from the movie.
Although the “Cool Cool Considerate Men” number was cut from the original print as a favor to Richard Nixon by Jack L. Warner, it was not destroyed as Warner had done before in similar circumstances, because he was no longer a studio head. For that reason only, the excised segment was found and could be restored to the DVD. Nixon asked the writer Sherman Edwards to cut it out after seeing the play at the White House, but the author steadfastly refused.
On the laserdisc commentary, director Peter H. Hunt says that originally he had not planned to cast Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin in the film version, because of how difficult the actor had been during the Broadway run of the musical. However, he relented and let Da Silva reprise his stage role in the film when the actor promised to cooperate and begged to play Ben Franklin in the movie as a legacy to his grandchildren.
Daniels also later starred in the show "Boy Meets World," in which he played a teacher who became a principal.. at John Adams High School.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.