John Adams on HBO is a worthy event

Chuck Barney, San Jose Mercury News:

...

The miniseries begins in 1770 during the Boston Massacre and ends on July 4, 1826, with the eerily coincidental deaths of both Adams and Jefferson. Along the way, it portrays its fascinating and flawed hero as a man of both uncommon intellect and common humility "" a man who could be high-spirited, open-hearted and humorous, but also quick to anger, vain, stubborn and irritable.

"It's an enormous character "" a Shakespearean character," Giamatti says. "I get to run the gamut of emotions and highs and lows. "¦ I mean I get to do everything in this part."

Adapted by screenwriter Kirk Ellis and deftly directed by Tom Hooper ("Longford"), the ambitious production ushers viewers through the landmark moments of Adams' life "" his passionate pleas for independence at the Continental Congress, his stint as an ambassador in Europe, and his years as president, during which he steered the nation away from a potentially disastrous war with France.

Serving as a trusted ally through it all was Abigail. In fleshing out this most remarkable of marriages (some have called them America's first power couple), the film drives home the point that she was not only the love of his life, but also his muse, his sounding board and his emotional "ballast."

"You can't understand him without understanding her," says McCullough, whose research included hundreds of letters written between the two. "Their love story is genuine, not contrived, and so is the deep respect he had for her. He acknowledged that, in many ways, she was superior to him."

In order to bring the story to life, Hooper relentlessly strove for realism "" even if it wasn't always pretty. A tar-and-feathering incident is depicted in graphic detail. The grisly horrors of a smallpox epidemic are there for all to see. And in defiance of the "costume-pageant" approach of many period productions, the film contains plenty of characters with grubby clothes, bad teeth and grime under their fingernails.

"You see most films about this era and everything looks like a beautiful and picturesque postcard," says Hooper. "But we didn't want to romanticize it. I actually spent a lot of time on my hands and knees in the mud putting more dirt on the actors' clothes and faces."

Much effort was also put into accurately capturing the rich, descriptive language of the time.

"The language alone (in the script) was something I just couldn't believe would be done for television," Giamatti says. "To have people speaking at this high level and with this amount of intelligence was incredibly exciting to me."

...

"Back then, decisions weren't made by committees and polls and studies. You couldn't call up people on your Blackberry. You couldn't send faxes," he says. "You had to commit yourself to a cause and live by the courage of your convictions. "¦ These days, most politicians tell people what they want to hear. Adams told people what they needed to hear."

I am really looking forward to this series, though I will probably wait for the DVD so I can watch several episodes at once. David McCullough's book on which this series is based is outstanding and apparently the HBO team followed it closely. Adams is a fascinating character as is his wife and family. Giamatti was the Merlot fan in the movie Sideways that many enjoyed more than I did although his acting was not the cause of my disappointment. I just did not like the characters that much. That want be a problem in the case of John Adams.