John Adams

2008

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
  • 0
8.5| TV-14| en| More Info
Released: 16 March 2008 Ended
Producted By: Mid Atlantic Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.hbo.com/john-adams
Info

Adapted from David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, this lavish seven-part miniseries chronicles the life of Founding Father John Adams, starting with the Boston Massacre of 1770 through his years as an ambassador in Europe, then his terms as vice president and president of the United States, up to his death on July 4, 1826.

Genre

Drama

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Director

Tom Hooper

Production Companies

Mid Atlantic Films

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John Adams Audience Reviews

ThiefHott Too much of everything
Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.
Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
slat-11689 This is a masterpiece of historical narrative film. It expresses perfectly the perspective of David McCullough's book, presenting the viewpoint of John, Abigail, and others as actors facing an uncertain future. Laura Linney was brilliantly cast as Abigail and her performance is magnificent. Her every scene bristles with energy and depth, bringing to life the powerful relationship of Abigail and John, which influenced the course of American history. Other characters were also well cast, especially Tom Wilkinson as Ben Franklin, David Morse as George Washington, and Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson. Tom Hanks and his team did a great service in creating this film for posterity.
guy-372 Now, after reading multiple biographies of the founding fathers and previously becoming an expert on human behavior, I'm sad at the distortions of history, biography, and human behavior perpetrated by this mini-series. This mini-series portrays John Adams as a melancholic, principled, angry man, which is entirely wrong on melancholic and angry, and only partially right on his principles, as these were distorted. It failed to show John Adams as the devoted follower of Samuel Adams and committed to the same cause as Samuel Adams from where the mini-series begins and places John Adams at the edge of all the action, instead of among Samuel Adams' fomenting puppet masters, who never appeared at the riots. This highly fictionalized portrayal highly ignores history's record of who John Adams was and the very deep religiously pious nature of both Samuel Adams and John Adams; portraying Samuel Adams as ostentatious, nobly garbed and an accumulator of wealth, when the opposite was true. John Adams was much more likely to be decked out in fine clothes than Samuel Adams, who despised pretension and ostentatious spending. Moreover, John Adams had by the beginning of this mini-series already been among Samuel Adams' secretive inner circle. Samuel Adams was known to hold unprovoked violence toward persons as reprehensible and unacceptable to his God, thus in Samuel Adams' piety, it was likely Samuel Adams who asked John Adams (the only lawyer among them) to represent the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. Moreover, the alternating angry and melancholy natures of this portrayal is not only historically in accurate, as John's actual character was more like an enthusiastic irrepressible happy little dog, rather than the universally unlikable character of this angry melancholic portrayal, which never gets a person chosen or elected for anything. From that huge error and others on this mini-series, it this portrayal is doomed to be a highly inaccurate, highly fictionalized portrayal of John Adams, which only historians will recognize, because of the broad ignorance of the masses.
EloiseForever I usually don't easily rate with 10 stars, but this series is absolutely worth it. I didn't know too too much about the beginnings of the history of the US, but this series taught me a lot.Thanks to a great cast who brought these honorable people back to live and very moving scenes it will stay in my mind and heart.I agree that this should be showed to school children and especially modern day politicians.What especially positively impressed me was the nearly complete lack of violence compared to oh so many other (american!) productions.We all know how terrible things can be, so there is no need to show it over and over again and satisfy merely voyeuristic wishes.Voices, quotes, Face expressions,subtle gestures should be enough for any human being to understand the message of this movie.VERY WELL DONE!
TheLittleSongbird I have seen many exceptional series, but few lately have been as so as this, John Adams. There is so much attention to detail here, the whole of John Adams is exquisitely photographed and is advantaged further by authentic period recreation and costuming. John Adams also has realistic atmosphere, something that some of the best period drama series(such as North and South, Little Dorritt, Bleak House and The Crimson Petal and the White) excel at.The music enhances the mood of each scene very well too, the writing is full of grit, poignancy and intelligence, and the story is both absorbing and interesting. The characters intrigue with enough depth to them to make them not fall into caricature. The acting is wonderful with no weak link. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney are exceptional, and they are given top notch support from all particularly the always reliable Tom Wilkinson and David Morse.All in all, simply amazing is really all I have to say about John Adams. 10/10 Bethany Cox