Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

My god, what were they thinking? This quite possibly one of the worst ideas ever to make it to the silver screen. Just cringe-worthy. The real marvel is that they managed to find enough brain dead investors to make this stinkburger. Just awful.

In school we were presented with a stodgy version of history, so 1776 was immediately appealing simply for turning our American saints into human beings.Some of the songs are absolutely delightful, such as The Lees of Old Virginia, and the fairly perfect But, Mr. Adams. The story is involving and the characters well defined. William Daniels has his best role as John Adams, and Howard Da Silva is so perfect as Benjamin Franklin that it's hard to accept anyone else in the role.On the other hand, a lot of the songs are fairly forgettable, and some, like He Plays the Violin, are extraneous, which is a particular issue if your movie is overlong. While the second half is fun, the more serious second half sometimes drags, for all its admirable good intentions in showing the dark side of revolution. And to me, the letter exchanges between Adams and his wife seemed only mildly interesting.Watching the movie, I couldn't help thinking that it parts of it (like Adams and his wife) would probably work better on stage, although that's only a guess.This is well worth watching, but I wouldn't call it a truly great musical.

I think this story would be better fitted for a 2 hour drama, but the drama within this musical is still good and holds up the film nicely. I wasn't sure if I would be bothered by the fact that it is a musical, but honestly there wasn't as much music as I expected anyway, and I only thought one or two songs were unnecessary.In my opinion this film doesn't seem overly long even though it is a 2 hour 45 minute film. In fact, the best scenes in the film are the long, dramatic debates which the characters have with each other inside the Congress building. It keeps the film very enticing and questions ethics instead of just explaining how the Declaration came to be.The character of Benjamin Franklin is surprisingly very funny in this film. At one point, he even seems to make a phallic reference which I never thought would be part of the content for this film - but then again Shakespeare had hidden sexual jokes in his plays as well, and that was centuries before movies were made.One part of a scene that could have been omitted from the film in my opinion is when one of the colonies wants Jefferson's mention of slavery removed from the declaration. Since this movie was about America declaring their independence, this didn't seem to be a crucial part of the story, but this movie was highly about ethics so I suppose the filmmakers thought it was in the film's best interest to include this short debate.This is one of my new favorite "patriotic" movies, and I'll probably be watching it again around this time next year along with Yankee Doodle Dandy.

It's easy to see why 1776 (1972) has attained and kept its cult following throughout the years. One of the last big Hollywood musicals, it is also among the best of that period.If you thought a musical about the creation of the Declaration of Independence would be sleep-inducing, then you would be wrong. The well-drawn characters, witty dialogue, and good humor will keep your interest throughout.Of course, there's also drama and romance. The film never lets you forget the consequences of war and the looming threat of the English. The signing of the Declaration at the end of the film is not pictured as a moment of total triumph; the bell tolling in the background and the music lend a gravity to the moment. In fact, there is a lot of poignancy in this otherwise delightful film: Martha Jefferson's song "He Plays the Violin" has lyrics which foreshadow her premature death by childbirth and "Mama Look Sharp," sung by a shell-shocked young soldier, is heartbreaking.The songs are mostly fantastic and catchy ("Till Then" is a little too sappy for me) and the performances are mesmerizing. How can one even pick a favorite? Howard Da Silva makes a funny Benjamin Franklin and I never failed to laugh when Ron Holgate's Richard Henry Lee showed up. But like most people, my favorite performance is that of William Daniels as John Adams. He was just perfect, literally perfect (or maybe, literal-Lee perfect... ha ha).There are a few things in this film which are not so perfect though: at two hours and forty-five minutes, it does drag sometimes. There are moments where the film goes 30-40 minutes without any musical numbers, which feels jarring. Overall though, this is a fine musical, well-produced and acted.