John Adams: A Conversation with Tom Hanks (HBO)

[17monticello1]

Benjamin Franklin needs his own series, and a national holiday. He is truly one of the greatest human beings ever to have lived. However, John Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and Abigail Adams were all heroes as well. Abraham Lincoln? Why does everyone think he was so great? Benjamin Franklin was an abolitionist and never gets any credit for petitioning Congress to end slavery.

[dougssmookie]

JOHN ADAMS..WAS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE INDEPENDENCE....WITH GEORGE WASHINGTON, FRANKLIN, AND JEFFERSON.......BUT IF IT WASN'T FOR JOHN ADAMS SPEAKING OUT

DOING HIS SPEECHES, HARD-HEADED AS HE WAS....I DON'T THINK, OR SHOULD i SAY WE WOULDN'T OF ACHIEVE IT AS SOON AS WE DID..

HE DOESN'T GET ENOUGH CREDIT IN HISTORY FOR THIS....I SAY HE'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE PRESIDENTS...W.O ....WE MIGHT BE DIFFERENT , TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hamoudalnasser]

Would John Adams have voted for Obama? Yes--because he would have recognized a thoughtful person willing to improvise and experiment and would have been repulsed by the "real Americans" jingoism of the other side. These kinds of shows are great, but we do no service to posterity by simply bemoaning our current system. Let us have more high quality shows and have stricter public service requirements for private broadcasters. Let us build a more honest and thoughtful political culture.

[themadmallard]

@hamoudalnasser

let we the people demand those things on principal

let us not restrict the freedom of others by path of legislating a false supply of these things, the highest of hubris to legislate posterity.

[Ich1NL]

Thumps up for those people who had at least 1 tear when abigail adams died!

[dk410]

this show is so amazing. best movie/show ive seen that tells america in the beginning. Tom Hanks is amazing as well. love his work. he should make a show of Abraham Lincoln!

[evergreenpotato]

@dk410 He may want to someday, as he is a blood relative of Lincoln--through Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks.

[dk410]

@evergreenpotato WoW. I didn't know that. That is interesting.

[mgwilliams1000]

The language... So powerful, and so well spoken then. A lost art today. They made their argument, their point, articulated their triumphs and tradgedies so well... whether spoken or written. And yes, basic letter writting is another lost art.

[Taylor2Awesome]

I'm 14 and I'm sad that I finished watching this mini-series!! It was so good and hooked you in from the beginging... They need to make more about other iconic American leaders

[LordHannigan]

I want to see the orignal 5 Presidents it be great. Don't stop HBO.

[royals1985brett]

AFter watching this series i had a new perspective on America, Changed the way i thought. Adams became my favorite founding father right after Ben Franklin. His morals and stubborness were very virtuous characteristics.

of course Hanks would be part of such a moving piece of film. He is every American ideal tied into one..probably a reincarnation of one of the founding fathers

[taking000piss]

@royals1985brett maybe you should read more about Washington. if so, i bet you will respect him more than anyone else.

BTW, Hanks is a far relative of Abraham Lincohn

[royals1985brett]

@taking000piss

I know quite a bit about Washington. Very upright and noble. But not the intelligence and brilliance i respect so much so in Franklin. Franklin was a rennaissance man, Washington was a stalwart military general. I still think Franklin was the most astounding of all the talents. Washington would win in a fight, Franklin would win in chess, conversational argument, and humor.

I knew that also, its called Nepotism as Steve Martin once put it.

[timcp1]

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity.”—John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813--John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1856), Vol. X, pp. 45-46

[melarry]

@timcp1 That one remark is an overview that is a comparison of English law to the ten commandments. The reality is both Adams and Jefferson both repeatedly said that the US government was NOT based on the Christian religion.

[kirstynlovesmom]

i wanna watch this show, dude. fuckkkkk

[septrenarion]

Ron Paul is the Thomas Jefferson of Our Time.

[helenadagreat]

i have a question...

was madison in this?

[SW189]

Madison is mentioned in the movie I believe but hes never seen

[TheGnostic11]

I don't trust Mr Tom Hanks his movies are part of the big wigs agenda.

[TheThreekeys]

Do you think John Adams would have voted for Obama? Nope.

[monkaboy]

Do you think he would of voted for John McCain either? No.

Do you see how easy it is to make a claim without any evidence? Prove that John Adams would not of voted for John Adams.

[elfred1980]

Bull

[AndPious]

He wouldn't have voted for Obama nor McCain. He would have voted for someone who closely follows the structures and beliefs that the men of his day believed in, and upon which our nation was formed. That would likely be somebody such as Ron Paul, who has been called the "Thomas Jefferson of our time".

[bfcalhoun57]

@TheThreekeys Perhaps not. But he surely wouldn't have voted for McCain, especially if he had heard the good senator's choice for Vice President speak for five minutes.

[rhettrongun]

@bfcalhoun57 Agreed. My guess is he would be a supporter of a Libertarian candidate ie. someone like Ron Paul if he lived in these times.

[wind0wninja]

@rhettrongun If they lived in these times, they would be doing the same thing they did in their times. Forming a new nation state!

[rhettrongun]

@wind0wninja That sounds good, but I doubt it. I think it's quite a bit more difficult to accomplish something like that living under the government of the modern US than it was back in the colonial days under Britain.

[wind0wninja]

@rhettrongun I don't believe that is true. We have today what they did not, 200 plus years of hindsight. The events which took place in the formation of the US set precedence for the entire world and is accepted internationally among every other nation. The difference being that today, war is not necessary. The International right of Self-Determination has well established protocols for peaceful settlements of disputes.

[rhettrongun]

@wind0wninja We are surrounded by propaganda through the media & political campaigning now. It reaches people more easily through television, newspapers, magazines, advertising, and to a lesser extent the internet than it did back then. Some of these of course existed back then as well, but people weren't bombarded by it like they are now. A lot of that hindsight you are referring to is molded by these same sources also. Talking points memos, special comments, etc...

[wind0wninja]

@rhettrongun True that, all the more reason to move out. Lets not base our future and our childrens childrens future on a past nobody can prove.

I'm not a religious man to make a religious issue out it, but somewhere in the Christian text there's a law which states "thou shall not bare false witness." Well without first hand knowledge, how can one be a witness? In truth we could all wake up tomorrow with amnesia it should keep us from our rightful station in life.

[Pilaf1984]

@TheThreekeys Considering he was a strong Federalist, it's unlikely he'd support a Republican candidate. Jefferson on the other hand... 

[wind0wninja]

@Pilaf1984 We currently under equally formidable tyranny to which if the founders were alive today, would have to do it all over again.

[LadyAubrie]

@TheThreekeys I don't think Adams would have voted for any candidate that makes it to the platform today...

[haleydearest]

this was my history professor's favorite show. convinced me to watch it from talking about it all the time in class. it was great, i really enjoyed the mini series

[lekesha00]

since when has tom hanks started to wear a wig?

[snlfan6]

jefferson also came up with his own synopsis of the teachings of jesus christ

[wbtaylor1]

I'm joining the Tom Hanks boycott too. I can't support anyone who wants to punish an entire religion for loosing his mommy 40 years ago. Get over it Hanks. Your mommy doesn't love you. All the hate movies you create won't change that.

Join with me if you care about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or just plain freedom. Boycott Hanks and HBO.

[xxNIKEDAN63bb]

Are you saying that John Adams is a hate movie?

[mkmwrite]

What do you mean by hate movies?

[jeromemelt]

Wonderful film, and they all had problems with Christianity. I've read a lot of books....they would probably be better characterized as Deists, especially Franklin and Jefferson. Franklin, however, saw that their had to be a moral structure to the belief in God, or it would be total social chaos. They were men of reason. They wouldn't have a voice today. Whatever may be said about them, they believed in man. God, to them, was mostly asleep. That's why they accomplished so much.

[bluetube01]

You are reading clumsy authors if you have the idea they were Deists. Jefferson and Franklin could essentially be described that way, but they were culturally Christian. However, the vast majority of the numerous founding fathers, including John Adams were in fact deeply religious, and most of them were Christians or various sects. We must remember that the "deists" of that time would be seen by atheists and deists today as basically being fundamentalists Christian.

[elfred1980]

thats completely untrue. Jefferson and and Adams as well as other said some very very unkind things about the church and its "culture"

[bulked]

yes, THE CHURCH.

The church as an institution.

Very different from the religion they pretend to represent

[jkjl234]

@bulked many of the founders were against religion all together and, at the same time, many of them were very religious. the main fact is that they all were against the combination of religion and state. THAT is a fact.

[VirgiliaCoriolanus]

@bluetube01

I know this comment is from a year ago, but I have to comment. I love the fact that even if they weren't "Christians" from today's standpoint, they had their own beliefs. Beliefs that they studied hard to come to the conclusions that they did. Just because they didn't believe in the Bible,( in its entirety) didn't mean that they weren't Christians.

[CharleyWessex]

I would love to see more historical drama from HBO.

[vwcops]

Thank you Tom Hanks, HBO for this well done film. It is truly time to look at our founding documents once again. If we don't know the constitution and the limits to the powers our government has, we will lose the freedoms they bled for and end up with a country worse to us than the British oppressors

[tolhouse1609]

I agree- founding fathers were Christian

over 1/3 of singer's of declaration of Independence were clergy

[Pdids01]

This is an oversimplification of history to say that "founding fathers were Christian". That's not to say there weren't Christian founding fathers, however.

Many were deists - believing in a creator God that didn't concern himself with the affairs of men. I also don't see how any objective minded historian could call Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin "Christian".

[ShakespeareHamlet]

he most glaring inaccuracy was that they omitted the fact that John Adams & most of the other Founding Fathers were Christians.

[hoperoad56]

Deists. Not exactly the same. They didn't beleive in Christ's resurrection or magical powers.

[espada9]

No only a few were deists, notably Jefferson and Franklin however even they spoke out in FAVOR of the ideas of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ while warning of the dangers of mixing ORGANIZED RELIGION with government.

I know it's trendy to now teach revisionist history discrediting Christianity and bashing religion but open a book and READ what they said, you'll find this leftist propaganda is FALSE and nothing more than bull shit.

[Pdids01]

You claim that Jefferson spoke out in favor of Christianity - this is untrue. Here is one example:

"Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one-half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth."

-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

[espada9]

He was speaking out against the corruption of the church and clergy NOT about Christianity being intrinsically bad, your quote is out of context and you have an agenda, how dishonest.

"I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. "--Thomas Jefferson

[Pdids01]

John Adams was certainly a christian and if you watched the series that fact would be impossible to miss.

However, Thomas Jefferson was at most a deist and very possibly an agnostic. Benjamin Franklin was almost certainly a non-believer.

[ronleon62]

"John Adams" is the best piece of television I have seen in my 46 years of life. There is no comparison.

[jaysonbuckley]

@ronleon62 In my 30 years I have never been so emotionally moved by television as much as I was with John Adams. I agree with you sir.

[DontDoItToJulia]

Amazing miniseries. The best I have ever seen.

It is not surprising that throughout this series, and with the deluge of philosophical discourse in the creation of the US, that throughout the film my mind was on fire!

[brazilianboiii]

a truly remarkable film, i will never forget this show, great reality for us in these times, HE UNITED THE STATES OF AMERICA!

[bptmuff]

Incredible show, could've used more Alexander Hamilton, though.

[cherishtherepublic]

Amazing and Important Show....A Rarity for these days

[theBigTakeover]

Why did they cast Steven Segal as Sam Adams?!

[france213]

best show on HBO

[theBigTakeover]

Someone hasnt watched 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians'.

[clayp72]

Absolutely right.

[histre101]

You can go to the John Adams site on HBO and catch each part's synopsis until the DVD comes out in June.

[TheRedPriestofVenice]

David McCullough's John Adams was the best biography I've ever read and as I was reading I kept thinking what a great movie it would make. I can't wait to see it, but I don't have HBO. Any word on when it will be available on DVD?

[nfree08]

I read somewhere it will be availible sometime in june 2008

[jc2333]

the guy from windtalkers adam beach should be in it

[californiamortensen]

The book is Amazing! John Adams was a man of great honor and integrity, and is an important player in US history. Every student in school should read the book - it's more informative and interesting than any history book in class curriculums. I'm thrilled to see that it's being turned into a movie, so more people will be exposed to this wonderful story.

[aznativethug]

they should do a miniseries on native americans... without a leading white guy!

[sesankata]

teccumseh would be a good one.

[Moviebro]

I agree with you aznativethug.I'd watch that.

[drudge20]

They have ROOTS.