Black & White World
You can tell by the lines I'm reciting, I've seen that movie too.
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Wednesday, July 04, 2007
1776 (1972)
“For God’s sakes, John, sit down!” It’s May 1776, and there is only one thing that the Continental Congress in Philadelphia can agree on (other than “it’s hot as hell in Philadelphia")—that John Adams should sit down and shut up.
I have my obsessive-compulsive holiday traditions and this is one of them—Independence Day isn’t complete without my annual viewing of 1776. Despite the singing and dancing, it’s a pretty faithful retelling of the events leading up to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. Poor old John Dickinson, though—a staunch supporter of American Independence, he’s portrayed here as a villain, interested only in protecting his own property and economic interests, and fighting the move for Independence at every step. It’s true that he didn’t sign the Declaration (and that he joined the Revolutionary Army after stepping down from Congress), but it wasn’t that he wasn’t in favor of the measure—he just didn’t think Congress had thought far enough ahead as far as states’ rights and other issues.
William Daniels can barely be contained on the screen. Damn, what I wouldn’t give to go back in time and see him do this live on the Broadway stage. I think it sucks that Adams has the worst song in the show, that “Does Anybody Care” number—it’s almost 100% unsingable, but what it lacks in melody, Daniels makes up for in gusto.
On the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams said: “All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it...live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence forever.” This line didn’t make it into the screenplay of 1776, but Daniels’s performance embodies that Revolutionary spirit.
