John Adams

Recently I finished a seven-episode miniseries from HBO, “John Adams”.  It’s about our second President, played by Paul Giamatti.  He’s taken various roles here and there, usually fairly snarky, but the best and most memorable, aside from this one, was in “Sideways”, wherein he expresses an intense dislike for merlot.   Rest assured, viewers, our second President made no such preferences – at least not in this miniseries.

Background.   JA was a lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts around the time of the American Revolution.  His first claim to fame was defending the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre – and he got them off.  FYI, Sam Adams (as in the beer) was his cousin.

Next assignment:  getting all the states on board for the Declaration of Independence.  For that he had to work with Thomas Jefferson (Virginia), herein played by Stephen Dillane, better known to us as Stannis Baratheon on “Game of Thrones”, and Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), played by Tom Wilkinson.   Although George Washington has a substantial role – as you would imagine – he’s played kind of low-key here.  It looks like Adams was a major actor in getting this done, for which he doesn’t seem to get much, if any, credit.  Hancock seems to get all the attention because of his snazzy signature, and Jefferson for actually writing the damn thing. 

Third Assignment:  while the War was going on, Adams was sent to Paris to work with Ben.   That didn’t seem to work too well, as Ben was “when in Rome, jump in hot tubs with the French ladies”, while Adams was a bit too serious. 

Fourth Assignment. After the US became a country, Adams was sent to London to act as our first Ambassador to the UK, a job he didn’t enjoy – though at least now he had Abigail by his side.  It looks like the London tabloids were up and running back then. 

Fifth Assignment.  Eventually he came back, and managed to win the Presidency in the 1796 election, after Washington had served two terms and then called it a day (although they did not have term limits back then).  Also back then, the #2 winner wound up as the Vice President:  this meant Thomas Jefferson.  (Imagine that setup today:  Hillary as Trump’s VP?  Sorry, can’t help laughing at that…)  It didn’t take long for the two of them to butt heads, and the 1800 election comes back as the first instance of candidates throwing mud at each other.  Here the mud tends to be overarticulate, but still fun as mud.

Adams Administration.  Back then the US had not much in the way of power at home or abroad.  It looks like his #1 concern was managing the ongoing conflict between England and France, which were at war at the time and both seeking US assistance against the other.  While France had assisted us in gaining our independence, by that time King Louis XVI, the actual sovereign responsible for that assistance, was gone, replaced by Napoleon, who had not yet crowned himself Emperor of France’s “First Empire” – he was leader of France’s First Republic.  Adams’ policy was to remain neutral, obviously the correct position given the circumstances.

Retirement.  The last episode covers his retirement back to his farm outside Boston.  His daughter died of breast cancer, than his wife Abigail (played by Laura Linney) died as well.  Adams managed to reconcile with his erstwhile adversary Thomas Jefferson, and lived to see his oldest son, John Quincy Adams, elected president in 1824 – in a very contentious election.  Finally he and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Speaking of which, he gave the painter, Trumbull, a hard time about the famous portrait.  “We signed individually as we passed through Philadelphia, there was a war going on at the time.  We never gathered together all at once to sign it.”  The moviemakers adjusted the portrait to make the parties resemble their depictions by the actual cast members.  Clever.

Objectively, I get the impression that Adams gets short shrift these days.  Of the first five Presidents (himself, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe) he was the only one to serve only one term and the only one not from Virginia.  [The last Virginia President we had was Tyler.   As Massachusetts Presidents go, we got his son John Quincy, Calvin Coolidge, and JFK.]   But as noted above, he really had one job:  keep us out of the European conflict, and he did that.  So it looks like he is underrated. 

Excellent acting by the cast, though my angle was Rufus Sewell, aka Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith from “Man in the High Castle”, acting as Alexander Hamilton.  It looks like Hamilton and Adams weren’t exactly friendly either.  Either way, Giamatti generally gets the job done.  Bravo!  Huzzah!