Wednesday, January 7, 2009

History

Over the last few nights, once the kids are tucked away in their beds, we flip on the TV to watch the HBO special - John Adams (we rented it from Netflix). What an extraordinary film!

Paul Giamatti stars in this sweeping Emmy winner for Best Miniseries that chronicles the astonishing life of founding father John Adams: revolutionary leader, America's first ambassador to England, the first vice president and the second president. The iconic cast of characters includes Abigail Adams (Laura Linney), George Washington (David Morse), Thomas Jefferson (Stephen Dillane), Benjamin Franklin (Tom Wilkinson) and many more. (Netflix review)
This is one area of history is so important to teach in the schools, but is so POORLY taught. This film does an amazing job of setting the scene, and then drawing you into the personal lives of these quite amazing people.

I have to say, that my favorite story line is that of John and Abigail. GO... RENT THIS FILM! It is worth the time it takes to watch all 3 DVD's!

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I will put it on our netflix list for the summer! My dad, a major politically incorrect history buff enjoyed the show, so it must be worth watching. Oh, I posted a picture that Daddio requested on my blog.

nicole said...

I have only heard good things about the series. Do you get all the DVDs at once? We only get one movie at a time with our account, so I wonder how that would work.

Jeff Shaara is an author who writes historical fiction based on diaries, letters, etc about American history. He has two books about the Revolution, one called Rise to Rebellion and one called The Glorious Cause. They are both great reads. He writes from the perspective of various players in the events, with lots of tactical stuff at times, but very engaging.

Word verification: 'stingstu'
Who is Stu and why should I sting him?

MommaLlama said...

La Familia, to me it was nothing like what I remember from our history books. I wish there were more parts, I really wasn't ready for it to be over... or at least I think they could continue where they left off... to me, it really was that good. LOVE THE PICTURE!

Nicole, each DVD had 2 or 3 episodes of the miniseries, and you will get one DVD at a time (we had two at a time because that's how our account is currently set... it was hard waiting on the last one to arrive and we only had to wait a day after we sent off the second one).