MacNoob

I’ve recently become hooked on the new HBO film-series “John Adams” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by David McCullough.  Tom Hanks produced this series and the cinematography is magnificent!

Filmed largely in Colonial Williamsburgh (the American scenes, anyway), this work completely transports me to that time in our young nation’s history.  As I understand it, Mr. McCullough’s book is based on the extensive correspondence between John (Paul Giamatti) and Abigail (Laura Linney) Adams.  I had heard about this book a while back, but it never made my all-to-short reading list.  This series has moved it right to the top.  I highly recommend this HBO series to anyone, but especially school-age children.  Given our public education system’s apparent total incompetency with regards to American history (56% of eighth-graders can’t point to Washington D.C. on a map!), this film provides insight into the birth of our nation even a history buff like myself will find enlightening.  More importantly, the facts are presented in real human terms that are both intriguing and entertaining.

As I view the actions of our country’s founders as depicted by “John Adams” I can’t help but feel quite meloncholy when today’s reality snaps back into focus.  Are men of John Adams’ character extinct?  How lucky we are as a nation to have had men like Adams, Franklin, Jefferson and Washington at the exact point in history when America needed them most.  It sounds like providence to me.