Reel History 5: 1776: A Musical!

I've been reading a lot about the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution, and am currently in the middle of David McCullough's 1776 (of absolutely no relation to the musical). What I find so interesting s is that these books reveal so much about the humanity of the men who crafted the United States. It sounds silly, seeing as they are essentially human beings (except for John Dickinson, who was actually an Illuminati lizardman), but the way people talk about them, it's like they were divine beings sent from above to make a holy republic for the people. Look at how George Washington was portrayed in The Patriot, or how people talk about the Founding Fathers (heck, look at how I capitalize Founding Fathers)- refrains of "it's not what they intended" or "they're spinning in their grave" or some such nonsense whenever there are debates about what the Constitution says.

Reading biographies of the Founding Fathers paints a far more interesting picture than what's summarized in textbooks because it reveals the Founding Fathers had lives, not just brains in the service of creating the world's greatest democracy. Some of it was sad- John Adams' daughter Nabby underwent a mastectomy before the age of pain killers. Some of it was silly- Thomas Jefferson broke his wrist trying to impress his French mistress. Some of it was really cool and kind of perverted- Ben Franklin was an unofficial member of the Hellfire Club, though he could have attended as a spy. But the more you read about it all, the more context is formed around their intellect. And this is what I like about 1776: it's a summary of not just the debate surrounding the Declaration of Independence, but of the lives of those who debated it.

And yes, I generally liked 1776 for the songs too, even though it's a supremely silly and slightly inaccurate depiction of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence; the characters, those people now immortalized on money and with statues and large memorials and all that, are fallible, crass, loud, annoying- they are, in a word, people.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iiiy8GnBNI

1776 is a 1972 movie version of a 1969 Tony Award winning Broadway show, focusing on the battle within the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to formally declare independence from Britain, an act of treason. John Adams, the main character and chief supporter of this treason, is played by William Daniels, aka Mr. Feeny, and along the way- the three hour long way- he and the rest sing some songs, get into fights, the delegate from Rhode Island drinks himself stupid, and finally they come together and unanimously sign the Declaration of Independence. It's essentially a microcosmic tale of all the circumstances surrounding the debate; because there are no known records of what transpired in the debate, it had to make due with guesses based on the participants' known stances.

Of course, in the service of story, someone has to take the fall. The 'villain' is John Dickinson, a representative of Pennsylvania who lobbies vehemently against John Adams and his crusade to declare independence from Britain. In real life, just like at the movie, Dickinson did not sign the Declaration, but 1776 makes him seem like he wants to stay under the King's thumb. Dickinson actually just abstained altogether because he thought the Declaration would make peaceful resolution and reconciliation impossible; when he 'lost', he still fought for the Continental Army. Thomas Jefferson said he was "among the first of the advocates for the rights of his country when assailed by Great Britain", hardly the bad guy the movie makes him out to be.

The version on Netflix Canada is nearly three hours long, longer than the theatrical version because the movie is intact. When it was about to be released, it was screened for Richard Nixon by his friend, producer Jack L. Warner. Nixon apparently took issue with a song sung by the villains in which they extol themselves as 'cool, cool, conservative men' and go on about going 'always to the right'; Nixon saw it as an insult that these villainous characters within a completely different political context sang about being conservatives. Warner chopped it out and wanted it shredded, but the editors preserved it and it was put back in decades later. It's a pretty catchy song, though it sounds like it's trying too hard to be catchy (if that makes any sense).

Ben Franklin sums up the whole ordeal towards the end of the movie: "What will posterity think we were, demigods? We're men, no more, no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous god would have allowed." Unlike much of the film's dialogue, there is no evidence that he said this; it's a quote that benefits from hindsight and the actual knowledge of what posterity truly thinks, as true today as it was in the 1970's.

Also, Franklin had some interesting thoughts about birds (and he really thought this about the turkey):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4dv4IS0PM

NEXT TIME: The Devil versus one of the greatest orators in American history, and a man of a different political era than today.