'1776' Revisited: The Conservatives Are Still 'Cool, Cool Considerate Men'
This is one of my very favorite movies, and it rings as true today as it did in 1972, when it was first released. Michael Winship of Public Affairs Television writes:
In some ways, this sparkly paean to patriotism is a subversive little hand grenade, its liberal politics woven into the plot at a time when Richard Nixon was still in the White House. In an exchange that stings now even more than it did then, John Hancock tells John Dickinson, "Fortunately there are not enough men of property in America to dictate policy," and Dickinson replies, "Perhaps not. But don't forget that most men without property would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor."
When the movie version was released its producer, Jack Warner -- allegedly at the behest of Nixon -- removed a song, "Cool, Cool Considerate Men," sung by loyalist, conservative delegates who smugly shout, "We have land, cash in hand, self-command, future planned!" According to "1776" writer Peter Stone, "The opponents of independence were very much involved in commerce and profits, so they were very much allied to modern conservatives. Nixon didn't want Americans to be reminded of this as he faced re-election in 1972, and the country was preparing to celebrate it's bicentennial. I think that's why he hated the song, and why Jack Warner took it out."
Luckily, the missing footage was found and has been restored to the version we see today on TV and DVD.
"1776" is a reminder that the embrace of the status quo in the face of revolutionary ideas is nothing new. Nor is bloody legislative compromise or our ongoing frustration over a Congress mired in petty squabbling, unable to take action.
At the beginning of the story, John Adams sings, "A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere, or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair. But no, You sent us Congress! Good God, Sir, was that fair?" Later he laments, "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress!"
But the Tea Partiers and Glenn Becks of America who scorn government and who have tried turning the Founding Fathers into libertarian deities will find little comfort in "1776." As Franklin says in the film, "We're men, no more no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed." Rather than fall hopelessly into endless name-calling and mudslinging like today, ultimately these men engaged in forthright debate and overcame ideological differences that threatened to stop their revolution before it began. They managed to produce a nation, an experiment outlined in a Declaration of Independence that is, as the movie version's John Adams says, “a masterful expression of the American mind."
And they did so realizing, as a character in the film says -- quoting the words of conservative icon Edmund Burke, member of the British Parliament -- that a representative owes the people not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion.
really worth remembering just how this nation started. Especially in the false light of Glen Beck.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
And that is why you see silly idiot middle Americans screaming "Cut Taxes."
100% correct CPT K.
Drop the "U R". What are you? A plonker?
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
I don't give a toss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO8k9jfLEMU&fe...!
Some things never change!
Edmund Burke: "A representative owes the people not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion." This is a good example of Burke's elitist conservative view that the common (small) people's opinion should not be trusted.
A fantastic movie, and one of my favorites, too. A musical has to be great for me to sit and watch, and this film qualifies. It's not Fred & Ginger, but the people who created it did themselves proud.
And it's a work from Broadway, the same geographic location the Glenn Becks of the world want to ghettoize as an enclave of reflexive, trendy anti-Americanism.
Gweneth Paltrow's first film.
Are you sure; I don't remember that (& my mother choreographed the movie, so I know it well). Perhaps you're confusing Gwyneth with her mother, Blythe Danner, who played Martha Jefferson?? Gwyneth was born only 2 months before the movie was released, so she really couldn't have been in it.
just not yet in a starring role.
Ms. Danner said she was pregnant with Gwyneth during the last few months of shooting so by default...a sure fire bar stool trivia winner ... '1776' was Gwyneth's first film.
Damn that's an awesome quote.
I was just telling a Conservative friend of mine that poor (broke) Republicans like himself vote to give tax cuts for the rich out of some absurd belief that they too will be rich some day.
Seems I was just echoing a Founding Father from over 225 years earlier.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
on the contrary - if I am able to afford an acre or two I must be able to pay property taxes and obtain permits to build on that property. A meager wage earner has a greater chance of riches by gambling at the local casino than he or she does by owning land, particularly in the current housing/land market. I believe we cheer for the poor, the underdog who rises above the common man and reaches recognition by peers because contemporary society entrains us to expect more and to strive to climb out of poverty.
Indigenous tribes lived a different way:
A Message from my friend JR Dakota
I come from a culture (American Indian, Dakota Sioux) where leaders were expected to divest themselves of wealth as leaders ... if one starved the leaders were the 1st to go without, when all feasted the leaders were the last in line to be fed ... nor was power herditary, just because your father was a leader meant nothing, you could very well end up with the most menial of positions in the tribe ... leaders have been elected to represent the People since approximately 1200 AD ... a representive government and rights were nothing new to us in 1776 .... war was decided by the entire tribe, not a handful of leaders and certainly not by the war chiefs ...
THAT breeds honesty and integrity in leaders ....
JR -
They wouldn't have existed.
The ideology of teabaggism, a combination of Jim Crow, fundamentalist Christianity, and status anxiety comes out of the souring of Populism in the late 19th Century.
Pitchfork Ben Tillman was the prototypical Teabagger.
John Dickinson was more of a traditional Tory, a European conservative. He wanted some reformation of the system but he was afraid of the kind of social disorder that would result from a revolution.
That being said, whenver I hear Glenn Beck invoke Thomas Jefferson or George Washington, I get something of an idea of how, say, Thomas Mann must have felt in the 1930s when he heard the Nazis invoking Schiller and Goethe.
Doubtless, the evangelical/teabagger crowd would still find fault with the film/musical, not only for its excoriating of the right, but for the absence of GOD (Because We All Know This Is A Christian Nation, Founded By Christian Men).
"1776" is a reminder that the embrace of the status quo in the
The Teabaggers, btw, aren't facing "revolutionary ideas."
Obama has about as much in common with the John Adams of 1776 as I do with Hercules. The Adams of that movie was a ferocious idealist, ready to throw down with anyone at anytime to fight for his ideals.
Obama and Rahm would actually be more like the "Cool Conservative Men" then the Teabags would.
When I tried watching this movie a while back, I only got about 15 minutes into it because I hate musicals. However, after reading this synopsis, I'll try watching it again with an open mind
William Daniels, who played John Adams in both the stage and screen version of 1776, later went on to be the voice of the Knight Industries Two-Thousand (KITT) in the television series, 'Knight Rider.'
Daniels also had a regular role on the medical drama, "St. Elsewhere," and whilst his character was touring Philadelphia, met a comment from the character's wife by singing a line out of the musical.
"I'm obnoxious and disliked, that cannot be denied" I giggled like a schoolgirl. and, he wasn't touring Philadelphia - the character had severely cut his hand punching a glass framed photograph, and was there for surgery.
I've seen this show several times on stage, and the line that ALWAYS gets huge applause is when Franklin says,
"The man who would sacrifice his liberties for a bit of security deserves neither."
Especially during the national nightmare known as "The Bush Years," this was the money quote!
Also the "Cool, Cool Considerate Men" song is chilling in its accuracy at representing the utter soulessness of the conservative mindset. No wonder Nixon hated the song.
I think it was actually Gwyneth's mom, Blythe Danner, in the role of Jefferson's wife.
The minuet was actually an out of date, old-fashioned dance by the time of the Revolution, soon to be replaced by the more modern waltz, or by the new gavotte, as mentioned in this scene's verbal exchange between and Dickenson and John Hancock. The authors of "1776" were very fastidious in their research of the facts surrounding the characters and events depicted in the show.
It was Gwyneth's first film. Ms. Danner was pregnant during the last few months of filming. She mentioned it on Leno years ago. (if memory serves)
Ahhh, that's the same reason I can say I danced on Broadway--Mom was a dancer in "Guys and Dolls" until she was almost 7 months pregnant with me. And Patrick Cassidy was in "The Music Man" (the 1st movie Mom choreographed) movie because Shirley Jones was pregnant with him during the filming; if you watch very closely you can kind of figure out the order of shooting by watching Shirley Jones's tummy.
it's why Hancock mentioned "Mr. Adams new Gavotte" it was to call attention to the dusty thinking of Mr. Dickinson and the lot
I'm not a fan of musicals, but I am a fan of the Declaration of Independence. This post reminds me that conservatives were:
-Against the war of independence.
-Against the right to vote for non-landowning white men (etc.)
-For slavery
-For violent secession to protect slavery, so much so that they threw this country into the bloodiest war in human history to that point.
-Against the 10-hour workday, thinking employers should have the right to demand more than that.
-For child labor
-Against meat inspections
-Against immunizations
-Against women having the right to vote
-Against any regulation on industry or investments after the 1929 stock crash
-Against Social Security
-Against the minimum wage
-Against the WPA
-Against a war against Nazi Germany in 1941
-For an immediate atomic war against the USSR in the spring of 1945.
-Against desegretating the military
-Against giving women (or anyone other than rich white men) the right to vote.
-Against giving blacks (or anyone other than rich white men) the right to vote
-Against allowing interracial marriages.
-Against the 8-hour work day and the 40 hour work week, supporting employers' opportunities to demand more than that of their empoloyees.
-Against medicare and medicaid
-Against equal rights for black people
-Against appointing the first black person to the Supreme Court
-Against energy reform, to reduce our dependence on any oil, including foreign oil.
-Against the ERA.
-Against reproductive rights for over half the population.
-Against unions having any power or influence at all
-For illegal wars in Central America while funding violence through the mujihadeen in Afghanistan
-Against the nuclear freeze
-Against any minimum wage increase ever.
-For the illegal wars in Panama and Grenada (Grenada! that will be a joke in the history books)
-Against seatbelts, then against airbags.
-Against alternative energy or setting any standards that would move the country in that direction.
-Against a reasonable health care policy (unfortunately they're joined in this by the corporate Dems)
-For the useless, endless, expensive and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
-For the bank bailouts
-Opposed to unemployment checks.
You and I could go on. The question today is not whether to pay any attention to conservatives; it's whether or not the Democratic party walks hand in hand with them, at the expense of you and me.
Sheesh!
We're not going to get very far if you keep injecting logic into the conversation!
That's a keeper.
Always a favorite. But there are a few lines from John Adams that have been reverberating in my ears over the past few years:
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?"
We're not going to get very far if you keep injecting logic into the conversation!
Were from a letter written by George Washington, later echoed by Adams in the song of the same name.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
Today these cool men deny that the triangle trade involved slaves.
1776 is not only a favorite but instructive. Hardened opponents were able to CHANGE THEIR MINDS without reprisal!
Lincoln and Douglas shared a bed during their debates, but a Republican who votes for a "Democratic" bill faces Party sanctions, today.
Conservatives do not revere history, they rewrite it!
For quite a number of years, this movie was unavailable in DVD form, and my well-worn VHS version was the shortened, aka censored by Jack Warner/Tricky Dick version. I was pleasantly surprised when I finally obtained it in DVD that the missing scenes were restored.
Adams protagonist, and the leader of the slave-holding Southern block that threatened to destroy the independence movement was Edward Rutledge, portrayed in your video:
"Edward Rutledge (1749-1800) was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, taken prisoner of war by the British. became governor of South Carolina."
South Carolina, again. What IS it about this state? They resist independence, fire on Fort Sumter, protect their slave-holding mindset by abusing the black race for over a hundred more years, and produce more political idiots and rednecks per capita than any other state in the union. Money and power, protected by the Republicans.
Any bets Rutledge is one of Mark Sanford or Jim DeMint's ancestors?
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
A history of restricting the franchise. Before the Civil War, they had the most restricted franchise in America.
They had univeral sufferage during Reconstruction. But blacks lost the vote in the 1890s and didn't get it back until the 1960s.
When Teabaggers say "America is a republic not a democracy" what they want is ante-bellum South Carolina.
...something which Jefferson did not do (unless you count the few freed 50 years after his death). One of history's many examples of irony....
Rutledge may have freed his slaves, but I doubt many people in South Carlina talked about it in the ante-bellum period.
South Carlina was the heart of secessionism. It's arguable that had it not been for the aristocratic constitution of this state, there may never have been a Civil War. South Carlina provided the ideology for seccession. John C. Calhoun had originally been a nationalist but, in order to defend slavery, he transformed himself into the main idealogue of southern sectionalism.
Another historical irony is that when Jefferson was president, he founded West Point in order to reduce the influence of New England Federalists in the military. It worked. West Point provided the core of the leadership of the Confederacy (both Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee were grads) and the south has dominated the military ever since, hardly in keeping with Jefferson's ideal there be no standing army.
for America: "He took leave of Congress in November of 1776 to join the defense of his colony. He was a member of the Charleston Battalion of Artillery, engaged in several important battles, and attained the rank of Captain. The colonial legislature sent him back to Congress in 1779 to fill a vacancy. He took his leave again in 1780 when the British conducted a third invasion of South Carolina. He resumed his post as Captain in the defense of Charleston, was captured and held prisoner until July of 1781.
In 1782 he returned to the legislature of his native state, where he served until 1796. He was a very active member, intent on the prosecution of British Loyalists. "
source: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/...
unlike the current crop of "cool men" he fought for American Independence.
"If we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories."- Ronald Reagan, 1975
Thus began the push back against history and the truth. Nixon may have censored the truth, but by the Reagan Era conservatives were rewriting the truth. And "Most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor, and that is why they will follow us to the right..." became not just a political idea but a full on ideology.
I believe most people today would qualify as liberals. They have been inundated with the idea that RICH is the be all, end all open opportunity for everyone. Just work hard enough, play the stock market, a house is an 'investment', you can't win if you don't play, buy gold, greed is good, me, mine - hands off my stack! Raise taxes on the rich means raising taxes on me if I become rich.
Viewers of FauxNews and listeners of Rush are NOT the rich. They are not even upper middle class. Many of them are now unemployed. These are the people we need to reach. We need to change the paradigm. We should e-mail every liberal blogger and ask them to interview at least one unemployed person\family a day, every day until the problem bleeds into the news cycle like a hurricane. Liberals need to take charge of this issue and rewrite the rewrite on history.
For the last 5 years, it has been my family's tradition to watch that movie every July 4th
I've always loved the line "most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor." I was reminded of it during Joe the Plumber's 15 minutes, and now by the teabaggers.
spoiled brats. We want Mommy and Daddy to agree with us all of the time, and not do what's in our best interests, but what we desire. If not, we throw a Tea-Bagger fit.
We won't eat our veggies anymore. All we want are cookies.
And too many of our leaders have no problem giving them to us.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a Lunatic Asylum. -Havelock Ellis
Thank you for your kind words about the movie. My mom choreographed it (also the original on Broadway), so it was always close to my heart, as both a daughter and an American.
Oh, and I confirm the story about Warner & Nixon and the song "Cool, Cool Considerate Men", based on my mother's 1st hand account.
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