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John Adams

John Adams

February 6, 2019 10:25 pmComments are Disabled

I’ve been recently re-enjoying the John Adams miniseries on HBO. It’s based on the book by David McCullough, which of course is based on the life of John Adams.

When I first read the biography in high school, I related to the historical character, who, like, me, constantly tripped over himself in social situations, had a hard time connecting with people, had few close friends and many, many enemies, constantly doubted his own achievements and was often consumed by envy of others’.

The miniseries tries to do justice to the man, who only survives the ages through his diary and letters to his wife, Abigail, and of course the many portraits painted of him by his contemporaries. It also does a fantastic job of telling the story of the American Revolution, albeit somewhat truncated and taking some creative license. For example, it will often take quotes attributed to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and others through their letters and writings, and have the characters utter them on screen.

Paul Giamatti gives a masterful performance of this flawed, intemperate, brilliant, hard working and troubled man.

If you are interested in American history or history in general, I highly recommend watching this series. It’s probably the best dramatized rendition of historical events that has been produced about this period (arguably the musical Hamilton is better, and more educational, but certainly more abstract).

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