Television is My Patriotism
Oct. 2nd, 2008 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skywaterblueNo, really, I've never been patriotic except on rare occasions, and on Wednesday nights 1999 - 2006. So anyway, in search of a new hit, I started watching the John Adams HBO miniseries tonight. I meant to watch it via torrent live, but never got around to it despite really wanting to... and well, they've been advertising it like crazy mad on MSNBC.
Naturally since it has Paul Giamatti AND Laura Linney (all hail Laura Linney), it is basically the most amazing thing ever. I'm only at the end of the first disc and it's the greatest film about the Founding Fathers.
Some minor quibbles: while there are some scenes that are slashy as all hell between Adams and Jefferson, is it just me or is this some bizarro world Autistic Thomas Jefferson in this movie?
Abigail Adams rocks socks. Going in to any movie about the Adamses, you kind of have to gird yourself for the Abigail portions of the film, because either she'll be too shrill with the director deciding her resentment at her husband's absence is the key note, or she'll be ridiculously feminist beyond her time. Laura Linney's understated performance and a very well-rounded script keeps this from actually happening. (So far, anyway.)
What I like about Giamatti as Adams (and the script) is that if you know the plot, you can see where the paranoid obsession of laws and an orderly society has already well-established itself in his character. (He's the Founder what went a bit crazy, after all.)
I think the movie expects that you know the general course of events anyway; there will be a scene where you abruptly see the aftermath of Bunker Hill and the movie just expects that you knew it was coming rather than trying to fill in the importance of the battle. I like it, it's a smart move.
Naturally since it has Paul Giamatti AND Laura Linney (all hail Laura Linney), it is basically the most amazing thing ever. I'm only at the end of the first disc and it's the greatest film about the Founding Fathers.
Some minor quibbles: while there are some scenes that are slashy as all hell between Adams and Jefferson, is it just me or is this some bizarro world Autistic Thomas Jefferson in this movie?
Abigail Adams rocks socks. Going in to any movie about the Adamses, you kind of have to gird yourself for the Abigail portions of the film, because either she'll be too shrill with the director deciding her resentment at her husband's absence is the key note, or she'll be ridiculously feminist beyond her time. Laura Linney's understated performance and a very well-rounded script keeps this from actually happening. (So far, anyway.)
What I like about Giamatti as Adams (and the script) is that if you know the plot, you can see where the paranoid obsession of laws and an orderly society has already well-established itself in his character. (He's the Founder what went a bit crazy, after all.)
I think the movie expects that you know the general course of events anyway; there will be a scene where you abruptly see the aftermath of Bunker Hill and the movie just expects that you knew it was coming rather than trying to fill in the importance of the battle. I like it, it's a smart move.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-02 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-02 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-02 05:18 pm (UTC)It's not just you. I wasn't terribly fond of their Jefferson. :\
no subject
Date: 2008-10-02 06:48 pm (UTC)