1776 (film)

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 continually refuses to begin debating the question of American independence. The leader of the independence faction is the abrasive John Adams of Massachusetts, whose continuous pushing of the issue has brought their cause to a complete standstill. John Dickinson 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, who resides in Massachusetts and gives him insight and encouragement (these conversations are based on letters between the couple). Dr. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania suggests another colony that supports independence should submit a proposal. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia voluntarily rides off to Williamsburg, Virginia to get authorization from the Virginia Colony to propose independence.

About a month later, Dr. Lyman Hall arrives to represent Georgia, and is immediately interrogated by his fellow delegates regarding his views on independence (with Dickinson framing it as "treason"). Minutes later, Lee returns with the resolution, and debate on the question begins. Eventually, six colonies say "yea", five more say "nay", and New York abstains "courteously" as it does in every vote. The debate, largely between Adams and Dickinson, becomes increasingly contentious and personal, culminating in a cane fight between Adams and Dickinson. Caesar Rodney breaks up the fight and reminds the delegates that the enemy is not each other, but England. He falters because of his cancer and is taken back to Delaware by fellow delegate Thomas McKean, leaving the anti-independence George Read to represent Delaware.

Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, part of the anti-independence faction, calls the question without a majority of positive votes present. The New Jersey delegation, led by Reverend John Witherspoon, arrives just in time to provide a vote supporting independence. In a move intended to defeat the resolution, Dickinson moves that the vote on independence be unanimous. After a tie amongst the delegates, with New York still abstaining, John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, votes in support of Dickinson's motion, arguing that without unanimity, those opposing independence would fight for England against their fellow colonists. Stalling for time to rally support for the resolution, Adams and Franklin call again for a postponement, stating the need for a declaration describing their grievances. Once again, the vote is tied (New York abstains "courteously" yet again, since its delegates have never been given specific orders by the disorganized New York legislature) and ultimately decided by Hancock in favor of Adams' motion.

Hancock appoints a committee that includes Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Thomas Jefferson (after Lee declines due to an appointment to serve as governor of Virginia). Jefferson resists because he desires to return home to Virginia to see his wife, Martha, but the others present more compelling reasons to avoid the responsibility; they opine that Jefferson's diplomatic nature and superior writing skill are required to draft the declaration. Jefferson develops writer's block due to missing his wife, so Adams sends for her: "It simply occurred to me that the sooner his problem was solved the sooner ours would be." Upon meeting her, Adams and Franklin are quite taken with her. While maneuvering to get the required unanimity for the vote on independence, Adams, Franklin, and Samuel Chase of Maryland agree to visit the Colonial Army encamped in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the request of General Washington, to help convince Maryland to support independence.

When they return to Philadelphia, the declaration is read and then subsequently debated and amended for days. Jefferson agrees to most alterations to the document, much to Adams' growing consternation. The debate reaches a head when the Southern delegates, led by Edward Rutledge, walk out of Congress when a clause opposing slavery is not removed. Adams remains adamant that the clause remain, but Franklin appeals to him to allow the passage to be removed so that they can first achieve the vote on independence and the formation of a nation, deferring the slavery fight to a later time. Adams leaves the final decision to Jefferson, who reluctantly concedes. After removing that clause, 11 of 13 colonies are now in favor. New York abstains "courteously" once again.

The question is therefore up to the Colony of Pennsylvania, whose delegation is polled at Franklin's request. Franklin votes for the declaration, but Dickinson votes against. The outcome is now in the hands of their fellow Pennsylvania Judge James Wilson. Wilson has always followed Dickinson's lead, but, in this case, Wilson votes in favor of the declaration, securing its passage, so that he would not be remembered by history as the man who voted to prevent American independence. When Hancock proposes that no man be allowed to sit in Congress unless he signs the Declaration, Dickinson withdraws, leaving to serve in the army despite believing the cause to be hopeless. After receiving word of the destruction of his property from General Washington, Lewis Morris finally withdraws New York's abstention and agrees to sign the document. Finally, with the Declaration of Independence ready to be signed, Hancock places his signature first, whereupon the others (including New York) affix theirs to the Declaration, establishing the United States on July 4, 1776.

Delegates

An asterisk (*) indicates an actor or actress who was also in the original Broadway cast.

Others

1776 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album cover

1. Overture
2. "Sit Down, John" – John Adams, Congress
3. "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve" – John Adams
4. "Till Then" – John and Abigail Adams
5. "The Lees of Old Virginia" – Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams
6. "But, Mr. Adams" – John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston
7. "Yours, Yours, Yours" – John and Abigail Adams
8. "He Plays the Violin" – Martha Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams
9. "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" – John Dickinson, The Conservatives
10. "Momma Look Sharp" – Courier, Andrew McNair, Leather Apron
11. "The Egg" – Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson
12. "Molasses to Rum" – Edward Rutledge
13. "Compliments" – John and Abigail Adams
14. "Is Anybody There?" – Charles Thomson, John Adams
15. Finale

An original motion picture soundtrack album was released in 1972 by Columbia Records on vinyl LP records. It contains all the musical numbers, with the exception of "Cool, Cool Considerate Men" and "Compliments". The soundtrack also contains the edited versions of some of the musical numbers which were presented in full on the laserdisc and DVD releases. Although the Original Broadway Cast recording was released on CD in 1992, the film soundtrack was not.

Jack L. Warner bought the film rights to the musical for $1.25 million.

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, Ron Holgate, David Ford, Charles Rule and others repeated their roles from the Broadway production, marking their only appearances in feature film. This was a decision Warner made himself after feeling he made a mistake by turning down Julie Andrews for the 1964 film adaptation of My Fair Lady in favor of Audrey Hepburn.[5]

1776 was also the only film of Donald Madden, who was not in the original Broadway cast.

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.

The water fountain seen during the musical number "The Lees of Old Virginia", with Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee, became known to television viewers as the fountain seen during the beginning credits of the TV series Friends. This fountain still exists directly across the street from the Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie houses.[6]

Interiors were shot at the old Columbia studio on Gower Street in Hollywood.[7][8] 1776 was among the final films shot at Gower Studios before the Warner/Columbia merger in 1971.[9]

"Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" was cut from the film prior to its release and not included on the soundtrack recording nor on the first VHS tapes and laserdiscs. The footage, some of physically poor quality, was restored for the DVD and Blu-Ray releases.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "The song 'Cool, Cool, Considerate Men' depicts Revolutionary War–era conservatives as power-hungry wheedlers focused on maintaining wealth."[10] According to Jack L. Warner, the film's producer and a friend of U.S. President Richard Nixon, Nixon requested to have the song removed from the film. Nixon apparently saw the song as an insult to the conservatives of his time, as it suggested that the conservatives were the ones who were hindering American Independence as they danced a minuet singing the song that included the stanza,

Come ye cool, cool considerate set
We'll dance together to the same minuet
To the right, ever to the right
Never to the left, forever to the right.

To further complicate things as mentioned above, the song is anachronistic, because the terms "right" and "left" in politics were not coined until the French Revolution.

Warner's attempt to comply with Nixon's demands had initially been rebuffed by director Hunt during production, only for the song to be removed in post-production while Hunt was on vacation. Warner also wanted the original negative of the song shredded, but the film's editor kept it in storage unaltered.[10] Trailers were already released in theaters with the "Considerate Men" number as its centerpiece; Warner had those trailers pulled and re-edited.[11] In a 2015 interview, Hunt mentioned that Warner, on his deathbed in 1978, told a friend that he regretted editing the scene, believing that he had ruined the structure of the film as a result of those edits.[11] It was only decades later that the song was restored to the film.[10]

When the Broadway musical was about to be presented to Nixon at the White House in 1970, before the film was made, his staff pressed the producers to cut the song then; their request was denied.[10]

According to The Columbia Companion to American History on Film, historical "[i]naccuracies pervade 1776, though few are very troubling."[12] Because Congress was held in secrecy and there are no contemporary records on the debate over the Declaration of Independence, the authors of the play created the narrative based on later accounts and educated guesses, inventing scenes and dialogue as needed for storytelling purposes. Some of the dialogue was taken from words written, often years or even decades later, by the actual people involved, and rearranged for dramatic effect.[13]

The film particularly omits the views of the mid-Atlantic Quaker population, represented by Dickinson. Although in the film Dickinson is portrayed as loyalist, and John Adams is seen making the points of objection about the tax abuses of George III of the United Kingdom, including regressive taxes and "taxation without representation", all to fund wars and the King's lifestyle, not to benefit the people, it was Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania that had originally made these points. A supposed physical fight between Dickinson and Adams is portrayed, in which Dickinson calls Adams a "lawyer" as an epithet, which makes little sense as Dickinson was a lawyer himself.

Despite the film's inclusion of Martha Jefferson and Abigail Adams, Dickinson's wife, Mary Norris Dickinson, was the only spouse actually present in Philadelphia during the convention. (Franklin's common law wife, Deborah Read, had died a year or so earlier. Martha Jefferson had just suffered a miscarriage and was dealing with complications of gestational diabetes in Virginia.) In truth, Quaker marriages, such as that of Dickinson and Norris, were often more egalitarian than those of other founding cultures, such as Adams' patriarchal Puritan-style marriage, to which Abigail Adams objects in her letters quoted in the film.

Another departure from history is that the separation from Great Britain was accomplished in two steps: the actual vote for independence came on July 2 with the approval of Lee's resolution of independence. The wording of the Declaration of Independence—the statement to the world as to the reasons necessitating the split—was then debated for three days before being approved on July 4. The vote for independence did not hinge on passages being removed from the Declaration, since Congress had already voted in favor of independence. For the sake of drama, the play's authors combined the two events.[14] In addition, some historians believe that the Declaration was not signed on July 4, but was instead signed on August 2, 1776. Others note that the final copy of the document was signed by the delegates over several weeks and months, commencing in July and not completed until as late as September.[14]

The Liberty Bell in 1776 is shown being rung as the delegates were signing the Declaration on July 4; however, Independence Hall's wooden steeple was structurally unstable, and the Liberty Bell was silent, having been lowered into the upper chamber of the brick tower.[15] A smaller bell, used to toll the hours, may have rung on July 8, for the public reading of the Declaration.

Many characters in 1776 differ from their historical counterparts. Central to the drama is the depiction of John Adams as "obnoxious and disliked." According to biographer David McCullough, Adams was one of the most respected members of Congress in 1776. Adams's often-quoted description of himself in Congress as "obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular" is from a letter written 46 years later in 1822,[16] after his unpopular presidency had likely colored his view of the past. According to McCullough, no delegate described Adams as obnoxious in 1776.[17] Historian Garry Wills earlier made a similar argument, writing that "historians relay John Adams's memories without sufficient skepticism", and that it was Dickinson, not Adams, who was advocating an unpopular position in 1776.[18]

The committee of five appointed to write the Declaration of Independence were: Franklin, age 70 (Howard Da Silva was 62 at the time of filming in 1971); Roger Sherman, 55 (Rex Robbins was 36); Adams, 41 (Daniels was 44); Jefferson 33 (Ken Howard was 27); and Livingston, 29 (John Myhers was 49). The lyrics of "But Mr. Adams" give the reason that Livingston can not write the Declaration is because "I've been presented with a new son by the noble stork", but Livingston actually had only two children, both daughters, and the elder was not born until 1780.

For practical and dramatic purposes, the work does not depict all of the more than 50 members of Congress who were present at the time. This version of John Adams is, in part, a composite character, combining the real Adams with his cousin Samuel Adams, who was in Congress at the time but is not depicted in the play.[19] Although the play depicts Delaware's Caesar Rodney as an elderly man near death from skin cancer (which would eventually kill him), he was just 47 years old at the time and continued to be very active in the Revolution after signing the Declaration. He was not absent from the voting because of health; however, the play is accurate in having him arrive "in the nick of time", having ridden 80 miles (130 km) the night before (an event depicted on Delaware's 1999 State Quarter) unaided, instead of with the help of another delegate. Further, Richard Henry Lee announces that he is returning to Virginia to serve as governor. He was never governor; his cousin Henry Lee (who is anachronistically called "General 'Lighthorse' Harry Lee", a rank and nickname earned later) did eventually become governor (and the father of Confederate general Robert E. Lee). John Adams was also depicted as disliking Richard Henry Lee, but according to McCullough, Adams expressed nothing but "respect and admiration for the tall, masterly Virginian." He did dislike Benjamin Franklin, contrary to what was portrayed.

Martha Jefferson never traveled to Philadelphia to be with her husband; she was extremely ill during the summer of 1776, having just endured a miscarriage. The play's authors invented the scene "to show something of the young Jefferson's life without destroying the unity of setting."[20] Martha is also depicted as dancing a galop or polka with Franklin and Adams, dances not introduced until the 1800s.

James Wilson was not the indecisive milquetoast depicted in the play and the film. The real Wilson, who was not yet a judge in 1776, had been cautious about supporting independence at an earlier date, but he supported the resolution of independence when it came up for a vote. Pennsylvania's deciding swing vote was actually cast by John Morton, who is not depicted in the musical.[19]

The quote attributed to Edmund Burke by Dr. Lyman Hall in a key scene with Adams is a paraphrase of a real quote by Burke.[21]

The song "Cool Considerate Men" is anachronistic; the terms "right" and "left" in politics were not in use until the French Revolution of 1789. John Dickinson, who is portrayed as an antagonist here, was motivated mainly by his Quaker roots and his respect for the British Constitution, having lived in England for 3 years in the 1750s.[22] He was no wealthier than some members of the pro-Independence faction, and freed his slaves in 1777. Thomas Jefferson wrote that "his name will be consecrated in history as one of the great worthies of the revolution".[23]

The film also misses the objection some had to the Declaration's stated basis in "rights of Man" based in "natural law" derived from a supernatural being. The Quaker-based population in the mid-Atlantic, represented by Dickinson, objected to this conception. Dickinson's objection to the Declaration had to do with this, as well as the fact he and his base preferred civil disobedience to war as the means, and a view that the colonies were too immature and the egalitarian mid-Atlantic culture would be overruled by the slavery of the South and the patriarchal Puritan attitudes of New England, represented by John Adams, in the foundation of the new country. The film also omits the fact that Dickinson, after refusing to sign the Declaration, set about drafting the Articles of Confederation, which he based on "rights of Person" with no reference to anything but law created by human beings and the only reference to "men" being in the context of mustering armies. This basis was then used when the Articles were converted to the Constitution but by then completely omitting the word "man" and only using the word "Person."

The musical also deviates from history in its portrayal of attitudes about slavery. In 1776, after a dramatic debate over slavery, the southern delegates walk out in protest of the Declaration's denunciation of the slave trade, and only support independence when that language was removed from the Declaration. The walkout is fictional, as the debate over the wording of the declaration took place after the vote for independence on July 2, and apparently most delegates, northern and southern, supported the deletion of the clause.

The musical depicts Edward Rutledge as the leader of the opposition to an anti-slavery clause in Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration. However, while it is known that, according to Jefferson, the clause was opposed by South Carolina and Georgia, plus unspecified "northern brethren",[24] that is all that is known about opposition to the clause. Rutledge was a delegate from South Carolina, but there is no historical evidence that he played any part—much less a leadership role—in the opposition to the clause.[25] The musical does acknowledge the complexity of the Colonial attitudes toward slavery in the dramatic song "Molasses to Rum to Slaves", sung by the Rutledge character, which illustrates the hypocrisy in northern condemnations of slavery since northerners profited from the triangle trade.

Thomas Jefferson is depicted in the musical as saying that he has resolved to free his slaves, something he did not do, except for a few slaves freed after his death 50 years later. The musical also depicts Franklin as claiming that he is the founder of the first abolitionist organization in the New World; the real Franklin did not become an abolitionist until after the American Revolution, becoming president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1785.[26] It was actually Dickinson who freed his slaves in 1776, conditionally at first, and fully by 1787 when the Constitution was ratified.

In both the play and the film, John Adams sarcastically predicts that Benjamin Franklin will receive from posterity too great a share of credit for the Revolution. "Franklin smote the ground and out sprang—George Washington. Fully grown, and on his horse. Franklin then electrified them with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them—Franklin, Washington, and the horse—conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves." Adams did make a similar comment about Franklin in April 1790, just after Franklin's death, although the mention of the horse was a humorous twist added by the authors of the musical.[27]

James Wilson is portrayed as subordinating himself to Dickinson's opposition to independence, only changing his vote so that he would not be remembered unfavorably. In fact, Wilson was considered one of the leading thinkers behind the American cause, consistently supporting and arguing for independence, although he would not cast his vote until his district had been caucused.[28]

The formula John Adams gives Abigail for making saltpeter—"By treating sodium nitrate with potassium chloride, of course!"—refers to various chemicals by their modern names, instead of the names used in the 1770s. A more historically accurate version might be "treating soda niter with potash." More accurate still would have been a detailed description of the process, involving ingredients such as manure or bat guano, but that probably would have been too long, and repulsive to audiences.

• Charlton Comics: 1776 (March 1973)[34][35]

• List of American films of 1972

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