Deja Fu

Americans aren’t big on accolades for the second person to do anything. We don’t remember the second Pope (it was St. Linus); the second man to invent the telephone (Elisha Gray), and never mind the silver medal winners in the Olympics. Gold medal winners get their faces on a Wheaties box. Silver medal winners, not so much.

Much to my chagrin, I would be forced to admit I felt much the same way about our second president: John Adams. Of the first three presidents, he always seemed to be the least interesting when I was a kid. As I got older and studied history more and more, I would find interest in the events during which he lived, but not the man himself.

Well, that’s at an end. Over the last six weeks, HBO has been airing a seven part mini series on the life of John Adams, drawn from historian David McCullough’s book by the same name. The conclusion aired last night, with Adams and Jefferson both dying on the same day, July 4, 1826, the last survivors of those who, fifty years before, signed the Declaration of Independence. So it seems appropriate to write a bit about it.

Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways) gives a powerful performance as Adams, in turns brilliant and passionate, vain and arrogant, tired and bitter. Laura Linney (Love Actually, Mystic River) gives an equally wonderful performance as his wife, Abagail who also served as his most valuable counselor and friend throughout fifty-one years of marriage.

Both the book and the mini-series draw heavily from the extraordinary correspondence maintained between John and Abagail over the course of their relationship. As fortune would have it, the letters have been preserved and are even available in collected form. It is a singular window into one of the collected minds of our founding fathers. It’s also a prime reason why, although it has its own inaccuracies, John Adams is one of the most accurate depictions of the early history of our country. I have always been fond of quoting a history professor of mine when he said, “Never get your history from a movie.” While the rule still holds, Hollywood could certainly do a lot worse than to use this mini-series as the new watermark of achievement.

John Adams won’t be for everyone. There’s very little in the way of battles or action. It is a biopic, and this particular subject wasn’t a general in an army. He actually spent most of the war in Europe. However, for anyone with a modicum of interest in early American history, it is highly recommended. If your view of Adams is changed as much as mine, that should be counted as a success.

-K

Saving Private Ryan blew me away when I saw it in the theater. All told, I saw it three times on the big screen, which for me is a lot. The opening scene at Omaha Beach never failed to leave me with my mouth hanging open. Only through repeated watchings on DVD was I able to overcome the awe that overtook me when I saw it.

In 2002, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielburg got together and produced Band of Brothers, which aired on HBO. At the time, I didn’t have HBO, so I never saw it. It eventually came out on DVD, but by that point it had faded from my memory.

A few weeks ago, Morgan suggested we rent the first DVD, as she had seen it and really enjoyed it. So we did, and sat down to watch the first two episodes.

Wow.

Band of Brothers traces E “Easy” Company / 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne division. If you don’t know military organization, that will mean nothing to you, but basically we’re talking about 150 men out of a few thousand. It begins with their training at Camp Taccoa all the way to the capture of Hitler’s personal retreat, the “Eagle’s Nest.”

It is also a tale of men who were given some of the most difficult assignments in World War II, told from the perspectives of the men themselves. Unlike Ryan, everything presented in Brothers actually happened. The series was taken from the book by the same name, authored by Stephen Ambrose, a noted World War II historian.

I haven’t even finished the series yet, but I know this will become part of my collection at this point, the hundred dollar price tag be damned. It’s powerfully moving, wonderfully multi-dimensional (one of the episodes is told from the point-of-view of a medic) and the fact that these are real men accomplishing some of these things is just mind-blowing.

Even more amazing is the look to the series. Like Ryan, it is filmed with subdued colors and tones. Green and grey are the primary colors here, but neither one is ever presented in bold, full color. Everything is washed out and drab, giving the films a sense of history, as if you’re watching movies made from the era. It’s a nice effect without being too distracting from the story.

Although the entire series is ten episodes (which means it will take ten hours to view it all), I highly reccomend it. It only takes an hour to sit down and watch an episode, and each story is contained enough that it can be enjoyed with time between viewings (although watching them out of order is not reccomended). Both Hanks and Spielburg did an incredible job putting this series together, which treats war as the horror it is, while at the same time treating the men who fought it with respect and honor. Expect no punches to be pulled, but also be reassured that there is no sensalization either.

Most of all though, expect to walk away knowing men fought for their country against the greatest military foe ever seen, and triumphed despite their own shortcomings.