Review of 1776 (1972) by Xander S — 24 Apr 2015

The founding myth of America is reenacted with toe-tapping glee, and without as much of the vapid flag-waving and yankee-doodling as lesser talents would have brought to it. A cast pretty much brought over directly from the original Broadway production (with a handful of exceptions) brings, if not life, then wit to an ensemble of unrealistic, but mythologically plausible, characters as they fight over the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

The characters may be historical caricature, but the Philadelphia they inhabit is vivid, beautifully designed, and tangible. The songs aren't perfect (they tend to swing back and forth between operatic bombast and Broadway kitsch), but a few of them are sublime (just try not getting chills when a young Continental soldier hauntingly croons a folksy tune about a mother looking for her son on the battlefield).

And how about that direction? Scenes of the Congress bickering are brilliantly claustrophobic, and even the weaker musical numbers are either sprightly or daringly artistic. Blythe Danner (Will's pill-popping mother on "Will & Grace") also makes a brief but breathtaking appearance as Thomas Jefferson's eager young wife.

Her energetic waltz with John Adams and Ben Franklin injects the viewer with just enough energy to breeze through the film's slow second half. Not a perfect movie, and definitely not the "history lesson" some critics dismiss it as, but certainly an event worth dropping by for.