Who else watches 1776 every year?- Page 3

[halyiaganitefiz]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 1:35pm

This film is such a shining example of how a movie musical should be done.

WELL SAID, H. Higgins. I deeeefinitely agree. It's such a beautiful show in such surprising ways. It's not typical Broadway. It's not typical history, though it's mostly factual. It's not dark, it's not a sob story, it's not heartbreakingly romantic, it's not wet-your-seat funny... but it is shadowed, stirs tears, makes you sigh a little, and there is much laughter to be had by those who get the jokes. I'd like to think of it as an intelligent musical. It is what it is, and it doesn't need our help to be fabulous.

I'm glad there are lots of others out there who think the same way about it... so many of my friends hate it after having to watch it for a class in middle school.

[NYLG]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 1:50pm

I LOVE 1776. I have passed down the tradition to my girls...we watch it every year after our bbq.


Mr. Lewis Morris on the New York legislature

"They speak very fast and very loud, and nobody listens to anybody else, with the result that nothing ever gets done."

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 1:59pm

The funny thing about this show is that it's not underrated -- I think those who know it really do appreciate it and love it -- yet somehow it always seems to be overlooked in lists of favorites. Watching it again last night, I just kept thinking "this really is one of my favorite movies" - it's never boring, it's laugh out loud funny parts, and the performances are just incredible. My favorite performance is Franklin - the absolute JOY he takes in bawdy comments or wit is infectious. If Franklin really was like that, how much would you have liked to have known him??

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 2:17pm

I think the film is near perfect, but is marred by the presence of Blythe Danner, who actually detracts from the overall accomplishment of the film. Why she got cast is a mystery to me. Even the orchestration of her song is a step down from the rest of them.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 2:42pm

Was she a name then that would have drawn people in? I mean, the film hardly needs it (William Daniels was known already), but even if she is a weak link, it's a ten minute scene (if that) that you could skip if you wanted to - though I do LIKE that song...

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 4:03pm

I don't watch it every year, but I love it. Among other things, it got me really interested in John Adams, to the point where I read everything I could find about him and did a report on him in high school. He's still one of my favorite historical figures, bless his cranky, stubborn heart.

Let me make sure I'm reading all this right -- does the DVD have all the deleted scenes on it, like the laser disc? If so, I really need the DVD. (I don't have a laser disc player -- or can you play one of those in a DVD player?)

[Tesse]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 4:11pm

Watching it now. What a lovely film, and what a lovely way to spend the 4th!

Happy Independence Day, everybody!

[allofmylife]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 4:22pm

Ackermmi

Sorry to wake your baby.

My favorite line "This is Doctor Franklin, inventor of the fireless stove". Such amazing research.

[halyiaganitefiz]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 4:28pm

My favorite line has to be this one...

Adams: "Franklin smoked the ground with his miraculous lightning rod... and out sprang... *points with cane* George Washington. Fully grown, and on his horse. Then the three of them -- Franklin, Washington, AND the horse -- conducted the entire revolution all by themselves."

Franklin: "..........I like it."

[wishinguweresomehow]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 4:29pm

"Is it bad that I want to be John Adams and I'm a girl?"

I think it's only fitting...I mean especially if it was an all-female cast as Ive heard done. And you being a girl never stopped you from being Simba in the Lion King, did it Halyiaganitefiz.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 5:08pm

Was she a name then that would have drawn people in?

I don't recall knowing who she was, when I saw it. I knew Daniels. Not only had I seen the stage production with him, he also had a television series that I liked, as a kid, CAPTAIN NICE.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:12pm

Blythe was a Tony winner at that point (for "Cactus Flower"). But as we all know that means "squat" in Hollywood. I'm not sure how she got the part of Martha.

I do recall hearing that they thought Betty Buckley was "too big" vocally and a bit too shrill for the film. Such a shame. Whatever happened to her?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:18pm

Although I saw Buckley on stage, I'm not comparing one to the other. I really don't care that Buckley isn't in it, just that Danner is. I think that Buckley was considered a trouble maker by director Peter Hunt.
Updated On: 7/4/06 at 06:18 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:22pm

I saw Pamela Hall in the first national, back when I was 7 years old. She later played Martha on Broadway during the original run. And Barbara Lang was Abigail. And George Hearn was Dickenson, and Rex Everhart (who had recovered from his heart attack) was Franklin! Great cast. They gave me the signed declaration backstage after that performance, and it's a memento I still have.

[courtnyj]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:27pm

Sad...according to the clerk in the DVD section at Tower Records, 1776 is out of print. That explains why I've had so much trouble trying to find a copy. Guess I have to order it from amazon and wait a few days.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:36pm

The DVD is out of print? Or the OBCR?

I had no idea, either way.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:39pm

Mcfan2, the DVD does NOT contain everything that the laserdisc has. Almost, but not quite. Very disappointing. And, as was mentioned earlier, the sound is nowhere near as good on the DVD as on the laserdisc. What is there, looks very nice and clear (although there seems to be a bit of a brown hue to the whole thing, like the DVD of STAR! - which also looks better on laser.)

[courtnyj]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 6:44pm

Apparently the DVD was released July 2002 and they stopped making new copies September 2002...that is if I can trust the clerk at Tower.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 7:19pm

George Hearn as Dickinson?? *dies* I want to see him do Rutledge, too.

I can't believe they're not making new copies. That's so sad.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 7:24pm

ShbrtAlley44 --- I know! George Hearn was Dickinson... and it's not even that demanding of a singing role. But he carries that big LONG scene in congress early in Act I (about 20 solid minutes of non-singing dialogue when they fist introduce the question of independence).

I can't believe he wasn't Rutledge.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 7:29pm

My theater prof. told me once that that scene is the longest scene in any musical without singing. Anyone think of any longer ones?

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 7:40pm

I certainly can't - that is a LONG scene. But it moves quickly if done right.

Hearn would have kicked so much ass as Rutledge. But Dickinson is a scary little man, too.

If I were indeed to do an all-female production I'd be hard-pressed to choose which one of them to play. Or indeed, if I could play Adams, or Abigail, or Lee, or the Courier...

ETA: Oh my God, you guys, someone on ATC just said they went to an audience-participation production of 1776 in Philly - they threw plastic flies in the air and shouted "Woof!" whenever Hopkins' dog came onstage. We MUST do this.
Updated On: 7/4/06 at 07:40 PM

Posted: 7/4/06 at 8:04pm

The original script was published in a paperback version in about '76 and included amazing notes on the show, including a section titled (I think) "Things omitted, things made up, things changed" where the authors ran down all the things that weren't 100% accurate-- Such as the ending, which depicted a non-event (the congress signing the declaration) which never happened (Members of the congress signed as they could, one member not signing it for at least a year) but the authors defended by saying "Sure it never happened, but everyone THINKS it did-- so much so that there is a painting depicting it happening" (which is used projected on a scrim at the end).

The amazing things are the events depicted that are completely true: Adams letters, as mentioned above, Franklin being carried into congress by convicts whom he hired and frequntly dismissed with "All right men, back to prison with you!", the flies, the Rum, the debate over whether to pay for a mule that dropped dead while hauling for congress and even G. Washington's dispatches, which were constructed using his exact words (including reports of "every able-bodied whore" assembling to follow the US army.)...

As the authors say, this is so amzingly interesting, why do US History teachers teach it as if it were dull as dishwater???

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 8:27pm

I tried screening 1776 for my history class in high school, but these were people who are most decidedly not into musicals. Once they got over the fact that Mr. Feeny was in the movie, they lost interest. Sad.

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 9:38pm

Aw, ShbrtAlley my 6th grade history teacher showed it and it actually got me interested in the Revolutionary War and the signing. I loved it.
I revisited it for my 16th birthday party. It's amazing. And a few years later, I notice more and more how beautifully written it is. I know it's good, because yes, wea ll know the ending but there is such amazing suspense. It seems so boring, at first I was reluctant to see it, but I forgot how much it is about characters, individually and united.
Beautiful.