We applaud HBO and executive producer Tom Hanks for their brilliant adaptation of David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book to the seven-part epic, TV miniseries, “John Adams.” Though not without flaws, the series about America’s second president is riveting, patriotic and inspiring.
The series is a refreshing reminder that the nation has overcome events far more challenging than a mortgage meltdown or a recession. And, during a presidential election season when candidates seem to dispute matters of little lasting importance, it reminds us, too, of what can be accomplished by real leaders, like Adams and Jefferson, who managed to forge a nation despite their competing and often discordant visions of the purpose and breadth of government.
Ably portrayed in the series by Paul Giamatti, Adams sacrificed career, family and health to nurture the fledgling republic. The lawyer and erstwhile farmer bravely defended some of the British soldiers accused of firing upon Bostonians in what became known as the “Boston Massacre.” The film makes the case in its first episode that Adams was a man of extraordinary principle who was unafraid to defend unpopular men who were presumed guilty.
Adams became a member of the Continental Congress and opposed those who sought reconciliation with Great Britain. He personally persuaded George Washington to lead the Continental Army and selected Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. As a diplomat, he helped negotiate an alliance with France and worked on the treaty that ended the war. After the conflict, he remained in Europe, where he obtained financing for the new republic from Dutch bankers and served as America’s first ambassador to the Court of St. James in London. The series shows how, despite these contributions, he later labored painfully in the political backwaters as Washington’s vice president.
The series trenchantly depicts the strategic role played by Adams’ wife, Abigail, and how Adams’ devotion to his country led to family problems. For all of his self-denial, Adams was unfairly scorned as a “monarchist” whose time in Europe had imbued him with unwelcome allegiances. He spent more time away from his family during these years than he spent with them, was treated as an unwanted “third wheel” by Franklin in France and fell deathly ill while in Holland.
Hanks has produced a first-rate series, though not a perfect one. The first episode has Adams rushing to the street on March 5, 1770 to observe the aftermath of the Boston Massacre, where he found the bodies of the wounded and murdered. In truth, British soldiers and the bodies were gone by the time Adams arrived. The film also takes historical liberties with the trial of the British soldiers accused of the massacre. It combines into one trial Adams’ representation of British Captain Preston and his soldiers. In actuality, Preston and his men were tried separately. The series shows all of them being acquitted. But the two soldiers who were proven to have fired their weapons were, in fact, convicted of manslaughter. According to the series, the British Crown wanted to reward Adams after his successful defense of their soldiers by offering him a royal appointment. However, according to Adams’ autobiography, this offer was made two years before the Boston Massacre.
The series is not kind to either Jefferson or Franklin. Jefferson is portrayed as stubborn, Anglo-phobic and in thrall to violent French revolutionaries. Franklin is depicted as an aging sybarite, jealous of his own rock star status in pre-Revolutionary France and a cynical political gamesman. Alexander Hamilton and Jefferson seem to be at each other’s throats throughout.
Still, the series makes the point strongly that despite their rivalries, peculiarities and competing ideologies, these Founding Fathers managed together to launch what is today the most enduring democratic enterprise in the world.
Don’t miss it.