THE PLANK MARCH 17, 2008
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For those who missed last night's premiere of HBO's seven-part miniseries on John Adams: Hope for
a replay! I watched, riveted, for two hours straight as director Tom Hooper
painstakingly followed the tracks laid out in David McCullough's fine biography of our second president. I reserve no particular
affinity for Paul Giamatti, but Laura Linney is probably my favorite actress working
today; her turn as the stoic Abigail Adams is more fuel for the fire. The period
sets and costuming (Wigs! Breeches! Dirty fingernails!), clearly the product of
some type-A, on-site historian, are also up my alley.
As for the politics--the biopic couldn't come at a better
time. The scenes inside the Continental Congress smack a bit of "Law and Order"--but everyone loves a legal drama. And in this modern moment, wherein real sacrifice, by real people, is hardly the
price of freedom, any reminder of how much was at stake at America's inception is
welcome. I had always thought the French Revolution was the "coolest"
(Since it's anniversary
time: I spent the eve of the Iraq war at the place de la Bastille, shouting
"Non
5 comments
Yeah, the Revolution was great.
I just wish fewer Americans would rest on our laurels, like some soccer game scraped from the dregs of the space-time continuum where, instead of obnoxious parents screaming at their tentative kids who are doing all the work, the loudmouths are cheering their great-great-great-great-great grandparents.
Spiritual materialists that we are, all humans, including Americans, put too much stock in nouns like "Revolution" and not enough in verbs like "revolt."
- williamyard
March 17, 2008 at 12:30pm
You're too harsh, williamyard. I can assure you that quite a few Americans are, in fact, revolting.
- ratnerstar
March 17, 2008 at 12:36pm
Maybe our word "Revolution" is not based around the word "to revolt," but rather, "to revolve," as in, the earth around the sun, year after year, same as it ever was.
- guyminuslife
March 17, 2008 at 1:05pm
If Shakespeare had thought along those lines, he'd never have written any of the history plays. It's not so much about revolution or reaction, but more about the electric tangle of desire and idea and risk and fear that brings some things (relationships, nations, works of art) into being, when the future is never certain.
- ironyroad
March 17, 2008 at 2:25pm
Yes that biopic was very riveting and informative. I especially like the insight that Jefferson was a mere bit player while Adams was forcing the issue of break-away from the motherland. Poor doubting-Thomas was assigned a term paper to write from Professor Adams-which came to be called the Declaration of Independence. Say how come Jefferson got a Memorial and not Adams?
Also I liked the rather vivid depiction of tarring-and-feathering. Makes the mind wander to Bush-Cheney
- lesserliz
March 18, 2008 at 10:44am