Review of 1776 (1972) by Kendall I — 31 Oct 2011

I had to watch this in history class.

PLOT:John Adams (William Daniels) is an arrogant and obnoxious Patriot who is fighting Congress for American Independence with his partners in the Declaration Committee, Benjamin Franklin (Howard Da Silva) and Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard) as the Revolution is occurring, but Jefferson's personal problems, tolerance of the Declaration's rules, and trying to get the whole thing accepted is a trouble. It's a good subject to make a movie on-but a musical? It's executed decently considering the fact that it's based off a '69 musical.

ACTING:Very good acting. The shiners are Daniels and Da Silva. They have friend chemistry and spark interest in the characters.

SCORE:The score is composed very well and is very patriotic. The soundtrack has its ups and downs. Some songs where the singers can't sing worth a crap are "Yours Yours Yours" and "The Lees of Virginia". Some beautiful songs are "Momma Look Sharp" and "Molasses to Rum". Some just plain silly songs are "The Egg" and "He Plays the Violin". The soundtrack overall is not too bad considering it's a historical musical.

OTHER CONTENT:Some may argue that the historical accuracy isn't too good, but I say that it's pretty well researched, for we have learned this stuff in history class this past week. I will admit, it left out a few things. It's pretty accurate in basics though. Though this movie is so stupid it's funny and cheesy to the extreme, it's supposed to be. It's a BROADWAY COMEDY MUSICAL! It's cheesy in a way that it's campy, but not well enough executed to be considered good. Even in some scenes, it helps you feel the dread of this time's war and loss.

OVERALL, an ok musical with a decently executed plot, great acting, patriotic score and not too bad of a soundtrack, pretty good historic accuracy, a thin layer of campiness, and actual feeling.