Posted on 04/17/2008 7:49:23 PM PDT by mkleesma
I don't know about you, but I'm amazed - amazed at the courage, fortitude and strength of our Founding Fathers. They put their lives on the line for an untested and abstract concept called America, not knowing if it would succeed or fail. We owe them everything. Sometimes I think we have squandered our inheritance. What are your thoughts?
Don't you just know how angry they would be if they saw what that bunch of traitors in DC have done to our beloved America? They would already have dragged them from their ivory towers and lynched them! Of course, John Adams would have been the first one to represent them in a court of law to make sure they got a fair trial, and then they would have lynched them.
We have squandered our inheritance and leave nothing but sorrow and hard times to our decendants. We are not the same caliber of people that they were. I am ashamed to admit that too. They gave their all to make sure America remained a free country.
I’ll need to be retired or bed-ridden for 5 years to catch up with my current backlog. (not to mention finishing a 10’ X 12’ built-in bookcase to hold them all....)
I’ve enjoyed it. Especially episode 2 which detailed the struggle John Adams had in securing support from all the colonies for the Declaration of Independence.
I’m pleased that an effort was finally made to shine the light upon one of the most important yet more overlooked of the Founding Fathers.
If you haven't, I strongly recommend reading James Flexner's The Indispensable Man. Washington, IMHO, was not some perfect saint. He had his share of faults and foibles. But he was no doubt a gift from God.
BTW. It was John Adams who first used the term "Indispensable Man" in referring to Washington --- and Adams and Washington had their differences. It was not a love fest by any means, but Adams fully understood Washington's greatness.
My problem with it is that they’re having to cover far too much too swiftly. Aside from two or three of the leads, it was hard to figure out who was who. And why does Jefferson have a basic English accent ? I would think by the late 1700s his accent would’ve been halfway between the typical aristocratic gentleman farmer of Virginia you hear today (such as that of John Warner) and the unusual throwback “Queen’s English” accent still found on some islands in the Chesapeake today, but still fairly Southern-sounding. Washington, too, would’ve also sounded similar to that.
It’s been pretty good. I learned several things that i didn’t know... like Adams was the lawyer for the British soldiers that were accused in the Boston massacre.
The acting is great. The realism is great. The CGI is... there isn’t really an adjective for the CGI... it’s that good.
The story line was (obviously) more exciting during the first three episodes. I understand them wanting to tell a larger story, but maybe they went a few episodes too far.
All in all, two thumbs up.
Part 2 of the John Adams miniseries covered Adams in the Continental Congress facing off against the elitist Tory Mr. John Dickenson of Pennsylvania who extended to olive branch to King George III even after hundreds of Massachusetts men lay dead on the field after Bunker Hill.
I wish we had John Adams to blow up at Congress these days. I've always thought that at least some of the Founding Fathers would just walk into the Senate and just start caning people within an inch of their lives if they were brought up to date on the whole story. Either that or they'd break down crying.
To mkleesma, I must say that I think that Paul Giamatti is just nailing the role of John Adams, at least as good as William Daniels ever did. He's a brilliant actor.
I like it. The portrayal of Alexander Hamilton makes it seem plausible that he he would do something to anger someone enough to challenge him to a duel.
I'd imagine they pretty much did have that accent then. They were 'Englishmen' after all.
I think one of the best parts of the film is that they have not made them speak like modern Americans. You notice that the New Englanders sound different than the Virginians, and the people from the Middle states sound a little different than both of them. That makes sense because for the most parts, they came from different parts of England and developed their own dialects here.
They have used the phrasing and syntax of the time very faithfully from what I can see.
Yes. And I think Mel Gibson did that extremely well with his film The Patriot.
Paul Giamatti really proves his acting range, from Sideways to John Adams.
Wait until the 2009 theatre release of ‘1776’, also based upon David McCullough’s book of the same name.
The detail of Washington is superb in David Morse, who plays Washington exactly how I've pictured him. He speaks through his gritted teeth because they were rotting out of his jaw at the time of the Revolutionary War. Washington was also seldom spoken because he knew his intellectual limitations and background of meager schooling around the lawyers and aristocrats who attended Harvard and The College of William And Mary. The diaries and letters of the Founders said that he wasn't the brightest, the smartest, well spoken, the richest, or the warmest, but none of them considered themselves his equal and in any room with him everyone just knew he was in charge. Truly a dominating presence even just sitting still and silent.
I am also impressed by the actor who played the role of Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, who was at the time the youngest man in the Continental Congress at age 26. Rutledge was courtly, icy, and an impetuous little mouse. The Irish actor Clancy O'Connor just nailed that role.
I’d think after a period of time and distance, the accents would’ve evolved behind how they’re portrayed by some of the English-heavy actors. Jefferson’s English accent doesn’t ring true (especially the difference between his and David Morse’s Washington when they hailed from generally the same region in VA) and is very distracting. I preferred Nick Nolte’s portrayal in “Jefferson in Paris”, although it was probably too modern an accent, but at least sounded Southern. Only Alexander Hamilton should’ve had a fairly strong English accent given where he was raised in the West Indies.
John Adam’s quote on government: “Democracy....while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
I haven’t seen the series but I wonder if Adam’s opinion of democracy is given expression.
Robert E. Lee's father signed the Declaration of Independence, and I've heard it said that Robert E. Lee had a courtly demeanor and perfect diction of the Queen's English. Not an erudite Southern accent like Shelby Foote, but more along the lines of a true British accent that had been Americanized. Even at the time of the Revolution, the Lee family had been in Virginia for almost 150 years.
I am impressed by the syntax used in the script. Having read their writings, I find the film to be accurate in those terms. The film makers didn't try to make them sound 'modern.'
For Hollywood, that is a plus, IMHO.
I have been very impressed with this series, and I think it helps us understand not only John and Abigail Adams, but it gives us a glimpse of the issues and decisions that affected the founding of the United States.
The generation of men of 1776 were put togther by God to bring forth an entirely new type of nation, based on the principle that they were inalienable rights of man that no king or government could abridge, but that were given by God Himself.
And these men put their very lives and fortunes on the line to see it through. The very act of signing the Declaration of Independence was an indictment for treason to the Crown.
All this happens without the telephone, fax, TV, radio, automobiles, computers, wridtwatches, light bulbs, HVAC,interstate highways,etc.
In spite of the crudeness of the times compared to the luxuries we enjoy today, they focussed on the essential points of law and liberty to create a great nation.
God blessed us with a group of men of such caliber that has not been equalled since.
To look at our Presidential candidates, and our Senators and Congressmen to day, you realize they can not lift a candle to the greatness of the Founding Fathers.
At least the Founding Fathers loved America.
Really? I hadn't heard there is a film being made.
Do you know anything else about it.
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