John Adams

A year or two ago, a friend loaned me David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of John Adams. This 752 page behemoth drew out from me strange behavior. I would be found sitting at the dining room table a time or two past midnight reading because I would be deeply moved and unable to put it down.

Get it and read it. It is better than caffeine to keep one up at night!

But this post is not about a book.

Recently, HBO produced a seven part miniseries based upon that book, starring Paul Giamatti as John and Laura Linney as Abigail, and this is now available on DVD. Seven segments demand a hefty investment of time, but Barb and I took it all in over three successive Friday nights. My overall assessment is this: you must watch the first six segments to get to the seventh, but by all means get to the seventh. In the seventh and last segment, a brilliant and fascinating but flawed man is made human. There is much redemption in this last piece, which makes the first six worthwhile.

The first segments, while good, move at too rapid a pace. Beginning with the Boston Massacre in 1770, the series quickly moves through one major event after another of our nation’s founding. Giamatti’s voice is too high pitched to impress upon me Adams’ power as an orator, and much in these earlier segments focuses upon Adams’ oratory. I was not quite a fan. Yet.

It is the last segment that makes all the others worth watching. As we see an aging Adams deal with the complexities of his life from the perspective of age, we are also treated to a view of a family that had endured a lot, and yet lived in love and respect for one another.

The makeup department should receive some kind of award for making the forty-year old Giamatti a convincing 90 year old Adams. This is not, however, for the weak of stomach. Those who like watching primitive early 18th century anesthesia-free surgery may do fine. Enough said.

The relationship between John and Abigail, whom he addressed as his ‘dearest friend’ and called his greatest advisor and his ballast, is the thing that moved me most about the book. That relationship is preserved throughout the miniseries. One is struck with the price that families such as this was forced to pay because of the demands of the time. Our freedoms were not purchased only by death’s on the battlefield.

The Adams’ daughter Nabby is played by a Canadian actress Sarah Polley, who does a wonderful job. I’m reminded that fame in Hollywood is not just a matter of talent. So many talented actors never reach headline status, and yet can captivate us by their work. Polley accomplishes that. [Coincidentally, Polley was nominated for an Oscar last year, but not for her acting. Rather, she wrote and directed the movie Away from Her, receiving the nomination for her writing.]

Had you asked me part way through what I thought, I would have given a somewhat middling assessment of the series. But this work has to be evaluated as a whole, and as a whole it is memorable. I’m glad it was made; I’m glad we watched it.

Now, I need to read the book again.

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