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?
Paul Giamatti has a big ole Italian schnozzola, while John Adams had such a thin nose Ben Franklin had to specially make spectacle frames for him.
Was scared when they took artistic license in the first 5 minutes of the first episode and had John Adams witness the aftermath of the Boston Massacre while the British Redcoats were still on scene. But it’s been a good balance between dramatic artistic license and historical facts since.
I just know it’s being made, and it’s based on McCullogh’s book and not an update of the Broadway musical from 1972. IMDB.com has very scarce info on it, if you search for ‘1776’.
Yes it was. Adams was no 'radical' and his views on direct democracy were shown in a scene of he, Jefferson and Franklin during their stay in Paris.
Jefferson at that time was a radical who did not moderate until the French Revolution turned into a bloodbath and then a dictatorship, as Adams said it would.
It's a lesson I have tried to teach my children. Pure democracy is not a desirable form of government. Our Framers understood that which is why they developed a Constitutional Republic to restrain both the government and the whims of any given majority.
Well it is possible to speak in perfect diction with a Southern accent. The problem with the Shelby Foote analogy is that he was from Mississippi and grew up in different parts of the Deep South. Those sorts of accents would’ve obviously been unheard of until the 19th century. I was commenting that there are some vestiges of the likely Virginia accent of the time left in isolated pockets such as Tangier Island in the Chesapeake, where the inhabitants have a very unique style of speech.
It was probably the Scottish/Scots-Irish that came in and enhanced and augmented the “Southern style” we hear today. Of course, as we see today, even in many parts of the South (in the cities and suburbs with folks moving in from the North or West) the accent is vanishing. I could imagine 100 years from now, only rural areas of the South with native inhabitants will still have the “Southern” accent.
Actually, Washington was one of the wealthiest Founders (but no John Hancock), even though a lot of his Virginia holdings actually belonged to the Custis estate.
The irony is that Washington made far more money in service of the Crown than he did in the service of the United States — for his service in the French and Indian War, Washington received land grants along the Ohio river, which were extremely valuable by the end of his life.
That’s something I’ll see. I have the book and audio disc.
Alas, I don't believe you can depict an honest horsewhipping on tv anymore...
the infowarrior
I don’t get HBO but may buy this series when available. Interesting, I am slowly reading David McCullough’s “John Adams”. It is really one to savor. I almost feel like I am there. I don’t want it to end. Right now, I am at the point where Adams is in England.
Click here for sound from this great miniseries!!! (no spoiler)
Jefferson was the President who discontinued the practice of delivering the State of the Union Address in person. He simply submitted them in writing.
Woodrow Wilson revived the practice of giving the SotUA in person.
While the actor playing Jefferson has a fairly good look to him, that adds up to his accent and speech not being properly portrayed (though, of course, we don’t know for sure exactly how they sounded with no audio recording).
His father, Peter Jefferson, was quite a guy himself. He was a member of the House of Burgesses, Justice of the Peace, Lieutenant Colonel of the Local Militia, and Sheriff of Albemarle County.
It’s a bit revisionist about race....actually that is an understatement..and exaggerates all of it a bit.
They make Washington DC look like a concentration camp and the blacks dare not speak to whites...utter hogwash.
The guy playing Jefferson nails it.
Adams is way way miscast though I love the actor playing him.
Can anyone not make an historical piece not burdened with modern PC sensibilities that always distort the context to make their point.
Accents regardless of where they are have much more going on than simple economic class distinctions.
For whatever reason, most southern accents have more in common with English accents both historically and Modern which has most to do with the fact that the South is rather homogenous and UK descended amongst whites that is.
Like a lot of other folks here, I am amazed at the use of computerized backdrops. After knowing how and where the scenes were filmed and seeing how well they meshed the live action with the computer stuff, it's really eerie.
I always thought so but after watching Adams I think that Hamilton et al would feel right at home. The onset of greed for power as protrayed in the series is pretty sudden.
Starting at 1:00 PM this coming Sunday, April 20th, HBO will be showing all 7 episodes back to back, culminating in the final episode at 9:00 PM.
HIGHLY reommended!
Just about everyone seems to have a British accent, when they don’t have a Scottish accent.
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.