Blog 4 - John Adams

Tom Hank’s adaptation of David McCullough’s book John Adams was very intriguing. Besides the section that we read for class I have never read the book John Adams before, however, I have read David Mculloughs book 1776 and quite liked it. Because of this I was quite thrilled to watch the HBO mini series with Paul Giamatti. I have heard good things about the mini series and remember when I watched John Adams win award after award at the Golden Globes. Watching it, I thought that for the most part that it was historically accurate. I felt that Paul Giamatti did a great job portraying John Adams. As Dr. H mentioned in class Tom Hanks did not want a handsome actor like Brad Pitt, he wanted a plain man, because that’s what John Adams was. Usually, when making a book into a movie it is very hard to keep the movie historically accurate. I think that making a mini series makes it a lot easier to keep the movie historically accurate. A regular movie is about two hours and the John Adams mini series is nine hours. Because of the extra seven hours the mini series is far more accurate then a normal movie adaptation of John Adams could be. I have heard several times that John Adams was obnoxious and a little annoying. I have heard that he used to wake up at four in the morning and plan his whole day out and then follow that plan to great detail. Another thing I have heard that is on thanksgiving he said that the American people should fast and not eat plentiful amounts of food. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams in a similar fashion. Paul Giamatti’s portrayal of John Adams is obnoxious, however, when the viewer watches it he roots for him. Everyone who watches it is a little biased because they want American independence so of course they take John Adams side. But when I think back on the circumstances of the American Revolution it was quite the gamble. That is why I feel that it is truly amazing that John Adams and the other delegates were able to persuade the other colonies (or states) to go for independence. I know that had to have interfered for them to get a victory in the revolutionary war and become an independent nation. Their were only two things about the min series that I was surprised about was the portrayals of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. However, I feel that I was surprised was because I have never really learned too much about the personalities of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was a little shyer then I thought he would be but I really liked the scene with John Adams editing the Declaration of Independence. This scene is what we read in the book for class and I really enjoyed how the film crew directed this scene. With Ben Franklin what surprised me was how he didn’t vocally back up the idea of independence at first. I have just always assumed that he had been public about his support of independence. It was surprising to me that he was more secretive of his support, however, it definitely was a learning experience. From the John Adams movie I learned a great deal about the personalities of the founding fathers. I found the mini series very interesting and I enjoyed it a great deal. I am glad that I had the opportunity to watch it because I am not sure if I would have watched it by myself.