1776 (film)

1776
DVD release cover
Directed by	Peter H. Hunt
Produced by	Jack L. Warner
Written by	Peter Stone
Starring	William Daniels Howard Da Silva Donald Madden John Cullum
Music by	Sherman Edwards
Cinematography	Harry Stradling Jr.
Editing by	Florence Williamson William H. Ziegler
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	November 9, 1972 (1972-11-09)
Running time	142 minutes (theatrical) 168 minutes (DVD)
Country	United States
Language	English

1776 is a 1972 American musical film directed by Peter H. Hunt. The screenplay by Peter Stone was based on the 1969 stage musical of the same name. Portions of the dialogue and some of the song lyrics were taken directly from the letters and memoirs of the actual participants of the Second Continental Congress. The song score was composed by Sherman Edwards.

Plot

While General George Washington is conducting the struggle against the British Empire on the battlefield, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia piddles away its time over trivial matters and cannot even begin debating the question of American independence.

The leader of the independence faction is the abrasive John Adams (William Daniels) of Massachusetts whose continuous pushing of the issue has brought their cause to a complete standstill. John Dickinson (Donald Madden) of Pennsylvania leads the opposition that hopes for reconciliation with England.

During his quieter moments, Adams calls up the image of his wife Abigail Adams (Virginia Vestoff) who resides in Massachusetts and gives him insight and encouragement. Doctor Benjamin Franklin (Howard Da Silva) of Pennsylvania suggests another colony that supports independence should submit a proposal.

Richard Henry Lee (Ron Holgate) of Virginia is sent off to Williamsburg to get authorization to propose independence. Weeks later, Lee returns with the resolution, and finally debate on the question begins. After heated discussions, the question is called without a majority of positive votes present. The vote is successfully postponed until a document or declaration describing their grievances can be written.

John Hancock (David Ford), President of the Continental Congress, appoints a committee up that includes Adams, Franklin and a protesting Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard) of Virginia who was heading home that night. Adams sends for Jefferson's wife so the declaration can be prepared by the otherwise distracted Jefferson. Both Adams and Franklin are quite taken with the young Martha Jefferson (Blythe Danner).

While maneuvering to get the required unanimous majority for the vote on independence, Adams, Franklin and Samuel Chase (Patrick Hines) of Maryland visit the colonial army encamped in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the request of General Washington to help convince Maryland.

Upon returning, the declaration is being read and then subsequently debated and amended. The Southern delegates walk out of Congress when the slavery clause is not removed. After removing that clause, 11 colonies are in favor, and New York continues to abstain.

The question is down to the colony of Pennsylvania and the vote of Judge James Wilson (Emory Bass), who always follows Dickinson's lead. Wilson votes with the rest of Congress as part of the majority. Finally, with the Declaration of Independence ready to be signed, each colony (including New York) affixes their signature to the Declaration, establishing the United States on July 4, 1776.

Cast

• William Daniels as John Adams (MA)
• Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin (PA)
• Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson (VA)
• Donald Madden as John Dickinson (PA)
• John Cullum as Edward Rutledge (SC)
• David Ford as John Hancock (MA)
• Roy Poole as Stephen Hopkins (RI)
• Ron Holgate as Richard Henry Lee (VA)
• Ray Middleton as Thomas McKean (DE)
• William Hansen as Caesar Rodney (DE)
• Blythe Danner as Martha Jefferson
• Virginia Vestoff as Abigail Adams
• Emory Bass as James Wilson (PA)
• Ralston Hill as Charles Thomson
• Howard Caine as Lewis Morris (NY)
• Patrick Hines as Samuel Chase (MD)
• William Duell as Andrew McNair
• Daniel Keyes as Josiah Bartlett (NH)
• Leo Leyden as George Read (DE)
• Stephen Nathan as Courier
• Jonathan Moore as Lyman Hall (GA)
• James Noble as Reverend John Witherspoon (NJ)
• John Myhers as Robert Livingston (NY)
• Rex Robbins as Roger Sherman (CT)
• Charles Rule as Joseph Hewes (NC)

Production

Many members of the original Broadway cast, including William Daniels, Ken Howard, John Cullum and Howard Da Silva, reprised their roles for the film. Ralston Hill, and Charles Rule also repeated their roles from the Broadway production, marking their only appearances in feature film.

Exteriors were filmed at the Warner Ranch in Burbank, California, the former Columbia Pictures backlot, where they built an entire street of colonial Philadelphia. Most of the colonial sets were destroyed by a fire in the mid 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

The water fountain seen during the musical number "The Lees of Old Virginia," with Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee, is best known to current television viewers as the fountain seen at the beginning of the TV show Friends. This fountain still exists directly across the street from the Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie houses.^{[citation needed]}

Interiors were shot at the old Columbia studio on Gower Street in Hollywood, which is now called the Capital Studios at Sunset Gower. 1776 was among the final films shot at Gower Studios before the Warner/Colombia merger in 1971.

In its theatrical and original home video releases, the film was rated G; following the restoration of various parts cut by producer Jack Warner, the DVD was rated PG.^{[citation needed]} The Laserdisc version, out of print, contains additional footage and background music not contained on the DVD release. The 168-minute version is considered director Peter Hunt's preferred version, hence its "director's cut" moniker. The film was the Christmas attraction at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

"Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" was cut from the film prior to its release and not included on the soundtrack recording. The first VHS tapes and laserdiscs suffered from this deficiency. The footage, some of physically poor quality, was restored for the later laserdisc and DVD releases.

The cable television channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) broadcast this movie in its entirety on July 4, 2011, the 235th anniversary of the date of independence.

Political changes

The song "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" depicts Revolutionary War–era conservatives as power-hungry wheedlers focused on maintaining wealth. According to Jack L. Warner, the film's producer and a friend of U.S. President Richard Nixon, Nixon pressured him to cut the song from the 1972 film version of the show, which Warner did. Nixon apparently saw the song as an insult to the conservatives of his time. Warner also wanted the original negative of the song shredded, but the film's editor secretly kept it intact. It was only decades later that the song was restored to the film.

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times observed, "The music is resolutely unmemorable. The lyrics sound as if they'd been written by someone high on root beer, and the book is familiar history — compressed here, stretched there — that has been gagged up and paced to Broadway's not inspiring standards. Yet Peter H. Hunt's screen version of 1776 ... insists on being so entertaining and, at times, even moving, that you might as well stop resisting it. This reaction, I suspect, represents a clear triumph of emotional associations over material ... [It] is far from being a landmark of musical cinema, but it is the first film in my memory that comes close to treating seriously a magnificent chapter in the American history."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two stars and declared, "This is an insult to the real men who were Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and the rest ... The performances trapped inside these roles, as you might expect, are fairly dreadful. There are good actors in the movie (especially William Daniels as Adams and Donald Madden as John Dickinson), but they're forced to strut and posture so much that you wonder if they ever scratched or spit or anything ... I can hardly bear to remember the songs, much less discuss them. Perhaps I shouldn't. It is just too damn bad this movie didn't take advantage of its right to the pursuit of happiness."

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy but lost to Cabaret. Harry Stradling Jr. was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography but lost to Geoffrey Unsworth for Cabaret.

Songs

• Overture
• "Sit Down, John"
• "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve"/"Till Then"
• "The Lees of Old Virginia"
• "But, Mr. Adams"
• "Yours, Yours, Yours"
• "He Plays the Violin"
• "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men"
• "Momma Look Sharp"
• "The Egg"
• "Molasses to Rum"
• "Compliments"
• "Is Anybody There?"
• Finale

External links

• 1776 at the Internet Movie Database
• 1776 at Rotten Tomatoes
• 1776 Official Website