John Adams on DvD

A number of my readers (both family & friends) are American History buffs. To them, I say rent John Adams!

Of our founding father's, none is more perfectly simultaneously praised and vilified as our first VP John Adams. This is the man who worked with Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson to get the Declaration of Independence written. He's also the fool who signed the alien & sedition act. A one-term lame-duck who tried to honor Washington's wishes to remain neutral in the war between France & Great Britain even in the face of saber rattling inside his own cabinet.

HBO did a mini-series on the life of John Adams which is now available on DvD. For anyone with a passing interest in the Revolution, the founding fathers or the early years of our great nation, this is a must see.

As a person who grew up fed on the "perfection" of Washington, Jefferson, Adam, Franklin...well, Franklin was the "odd" "eccentric" grandfather in the room. We were taught to laugh at his antics & admire him even more. Instead, HBO humanizes these men. He paints a deeply flawed Adams, a hopelessly idealistic Jefferson, a Franklin who knew "the game" of politics and enjoyed it a bit too much. Only Washington remained the larger than life figure I remember from history classes. Yet, even Washington was painted a pawn to Hamilton's federalist ambitions.

This HBO series is the kind of dramatic interpretation that rekindles my curiosity and makes me want to dig through my college books.

Watch it. Love it. Note that the minor historical inaccuracies or simplifications mean nothing. They have captured the time, the events and the emotions to make them more real than real. HBO films did such an incredible job casting Paul Giamatti that I forgot thinking about him as the actor.

You will learn to simultaneously love and despise John Adams by watching this film.