The Real American History: "The Sons of LIberty"
Tonight starts the 3 part, 6 hour series "The Sons of Liberty" on the history channel. It professes to show us the founding fathers, as they were. Not demigods, but tough and resilient men, who were putting together a country on a concept never tried before. They are flawed, ingenious, nasty, profound, educated, uneducated, and they helped to shape the nation that we had today.
To see these men as human, is probably the most interesting and important part of this mini series. So often, we treat our founding fathers as if they were beyond mortal men. But it is their flaws that make what they did, so much more intriguing.
So tune in to History Channel and get a taste of history.
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I for one WILL be watching, of course understanding it is a docudrama...
Would recommend EVERYONE watch it.
If anything, to get a dialogue going.
It is indeed a docudrama.. but go to the History Channels site, and there they explain how they put together history.
Great! I was hoping someone would say that... especially in a time when everyone tells us what our founding fathers were all about.
Enjoyed and looking forward to the next one!
Tough to fit this into 6 hours, but if itinspires anyto learn some more history, that's alright.
:~)
Not really any issues with it so far, first episode "A Dangerous Game" Covers the beginnings of the revolution, from a younger persons perspective, they were young men, it shows in many ways why we need to be vigilant even today.
The acting was ok, the directing was as well. I don't believe they would have used the language they were using, but this was created for people today to enjoy so I don't see that as a big negative.
Overall, Good production so far. If the Next episode "The Uprising" is as good, it is well worth watching.
But it is the final episode, "Independence" that will define this one.
NW,
They are not doing a lot of old English, but Ben Franklin made note of that in his many diaries. They did curse a ton and drank like sailors.
I think that the story had a good flow and the people were well defined.
I had a funny feeling that they would end on the Boston Massacre.
You have to check with your cable provider. Sometimes it is only being shown once, but several times in a row. You can DVD it.
Yes they did, and many down in the trenches were very bellicose and ebullient.
It does flow well and the characters are defined in a way that makes them real people as much as could be practically portrayed.
The massacre was where I thought the first episode would end, it is the natural turning of the page, brought what was at that time a lot of undefined and disjointed complaints into focus. Kind bringing it into a rebellion state where decisions were made that set the course.
We aren't going to take it any more. Even if they really didn't know what they were really taking. It's the point where it became adversarial, an us or them feeling took real hold.
Next is organization and clarification, preparing for defense while settling the actual issues.
Looking forward to it.
You can watch it online here...
Sons of Liberty; A Dangerous Game
Lol I also noted a definite commercial tie-in, along a few places of the episode. The commercial following each segment was tailored for that spot, you could see it. that's fine by me too, I like beer, and like the show so far. I mean, a person could do better or worse than Sam Adams brew (which it sounds like he did try brewing, but wasn't very good at it), and their Boston Lager is one of their best....
:~)
LOL... I love the cross advertising idea... me too on the Sam Adams.
BTW here is a funny story.
A few years ago we took the girls to Boston and we took a tour on the Duck Bus (land and sea). We made a stop at a pub that was directly across the street from where Sam Adams was buried. The tour guys says on the loudspeaker:
"This is the only place in Boston where you can have a cold Sam Adams while looking at one"
Oh my, that's bad...
;^)
Properly prepared for the revolution now...
It's about making history come to life John. Distractions aside, learning about history is always a good thing.
What i though fun tonight was that myself, my wife, and my son all had our phones going at the same time. Flo was looking up accuracy of flintlocks, Arlene was looking up the relationship between adams, revere, the doctor and the british dude Gage and his wife. I was looking up the population of Boston in 1776 (15,000).
I didn't see Gen Gage's wife in there, In Fact the only time I saw General Gage was when he refused to be sent to the Colonies, and when Parliment forced him to go.
IF you are talking about the plain house when he visits and the good looking woman that meets him at the door, that was Abigail Adams, the wife of his semi wealthy cousin, John Adams.
But I will re-watch it to make sure.
One of the things portrayed in the first episode was the whitewashing of the "T" (for Tory, British loyalist) on the homes of the citizens of boston. It actually did happen in the irish section of Boston and the practice was ended by Sam Adams as a blight on Englishmen everywhere. One must remember the context, the protagonists still considered themselves as Englishmen who were fighting for equality of treatment. The ideal of rebellion wasn't a consideration at this time. this was revealed in the Prime Minister being told this and expressing his revulsion at the thought. We must also remember that this wasn't King George's war, it was Parliament's war. The monied interests in Parliament was what was driving the taxation/asset seizure issues.
Remember also, the Boston riot that wound up as the Boston Massacre wasn't over taxation or the shooting death of a child, that was drama, the riot was over the quartering of the British Regiment of Gage's in colonist homes by throwing out the owners. That caused the riot and the scared British detachment's firing into the crowd even though they were ordered not to.
(it is also why we have a Third amendment)
The Second Episode is now up...
Sons of Liberty; The Uprising
She makes a Big appearance in the second episode.
and yeah, she is striking.
It would be a good idea to continue the Sons of Liberty as an ongoing series now and then, adding different story lines. My son asked a great question, and we spent the next hour or so looking at..."...Hhhhmmm, I wonder, what were Indians doing at this exact moment;in particularthe Cheyenne ...".
My wife was more interested in Sam Adams, I just can't figure out why...
;~)
OFF TOPIC: Hey, Mike-- good to see you!
Little known fact of history that goes back to biblical times is that it was usually if not always safer to drink the local brews or distillants than it was to drink the local water . simple reason is that the brewing and distilling process made whatever water used was purified in a sense. remember back then there were only local sources of water and not the massive water systems in place today so the water was always suspect. an example I can offer is I was back in that area last may, upon arrival from Wyoming , I made the mistake of getting up and having a glass of tap water , the gastro-intestinal distress I suffered ranged toboth ends of the spectrum and was rather unpleasant to endure. if I had stuck with beer it wouldn't have happened , and of course a month later I arrived back in Wyoming and had to endure it all over again . there is truth to the saying ,"don't drink the water" where ever you go even today.
Hence why I lived on beer when I was in Mexico, Mark. No Montezuma's revenge for me!
Yeah I can see why, But the spiderman imitations of climbing all over buildings to escape the redcoats are not exactly historically accurate, afterall is IS hollywood.
Psst: at the time of the actions in the first episode the real Sam Adams was a middling aged 48 year old. Don't think he would have been running over roofs.
And by the way, at that time also, there were NO British troops station in Boston.
But I promised to leave historical accuracy alone, it's good entertainment.
I actually checked out Gage's wife, and it does turn out that she was suspected of being a spy for the colonist. Good Jersey girl!
Same here Mike! Nice to see you!
Like I said at the start, the last episode would set the worth of the whole.
Not very good I must say. Although they tended to follow the historical timeline, they left out way to many essentials in favor of invented drama rather than the very real drama that was taking place in those times.
Sad, it could have been a great piece.
Like all docudramas of late, way to much into the invented personal dramas and not enough of the actual factual dramas, to make this worthy as anything but "Entertainment"
The shame of it is, how many are going to use this contrived story to teach others.
The hollywood/political perversion of history continues.