1776 (1972)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Book by Peter Stone
Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards
Adapted for the Screen by Peter Stone
Directed by Peter H. Hunt
Starring William Daniels, Ken Howard, Donald Madden, Blythe Danner, John Cullum, Roy Poole, David Ford, and Virginia Vestoff

Features:

• Running audio commentary by director Hunt and screenwriter Stone
  
• Screen Tests
  
• Trailers
  
• Production Notes
  

Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, this country did not exist. It was merely a collection of British colonies being robbed blind by a tyrannical king. So, several of the colonies decided it would be best to send a representative to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss their plight and decide the best course of action. Most of the people in the colonies had the same idea in mind. It was time to be completely independent from Great Britain once and for all. However, this was not as easy as getting together and saying things like, "You in? Okay." For several months of that hot summer, the men of the first Continental Congress debated and struggled with the idea of independence and how to best implement it. One man in particular was the leading champion of independence: John Adams. The only problem was that he was generally not liked by the rest of the representatives...in fact, he was very nearly despised by just about everyone there.

Thirty years ago, several artists got together and decided that this truly American story should be made into a truly American art form: The American Musical. They decided to use the last month of this debate as the focus of their story.

If you are a true fan of this medium, it's really hard to not like this show. Having seen several productions of it on stage ranging from the community theatre level to professional productions, I can honestly say that the adaptation of this stage show to the screen is very well done. It doesn't seem to lose any of the charm and passion that it has on the stage. This is mostly due to the fact that most of the original Broadway cast appear in the film. William Daniels is absolutely perfect as Adams. It was impossible for him to have anything less seeing as how he had the benefit of countless runs of the show on Broadway. The same goes for Howard Da Silva, who gives an inspired performance as Ben Franklin. The only aspect of this film that sits in the negative column is the editing. Simply put, there are several cuts between scenes that seem a little rough.

The DVD contains some really wonderful special features as well. For example, there are the screen tests for William Daniels, Ray Middleton, James Noble, Leo Leyden and Rex Robbins. These are really rough cuts of these actors reprising their roles in front of the camera before a plain white background. The tests seem to be there in their entirety; mistakes and reshoots included. Bonus material of this type is absolutely irreplaceable and it is a great thing to have it preserved in this format for posterity. I don't know how much they had to choose from, but it certainly made me long for more.

There is a disappointment on this DVD and it is unfortunately what is slowly becoming the bonus feature of choice: the commentary track. I have definitely heard worse tracks than this, but not many. You basically get scribe Stone and director Hunt narrating the film for you. Granted they do throw in some other little tidbits of information, but for the most part, there's just not much to it. Again, on this DVD, it's nice to have the original trailer on the DVD for posterity's sake.

So, if you are a true fan of the movie, or indeed of this genre, you will probably want to pick it up to add to the collection. If not, I recommend it as a definite rental.