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John loves Abigail
(by Michael Dennehy - May 07, 2008)
Kay and I watched the HBO presentation on John Adams and were fascinated by it. It was by far the best thing I’ve seen on TV in a long, long time! It was seven hours long spread over several weeks, and it was worth every minute. The film had everything in it: war and peace; a love story; the life struggles and happiness of one man’s family and a short course on early American history.
The actors are extraordinary in their roles. Paul Giamatti plays John Adams. He will never be mistaken for George Clooney or Brad Pitt but he is perfect for this role.
Adams was a stocky man, receding hairline, bulging eyes and jowly face. Laura Linney plays his wife. She is stately, and intelligent. John Adams graduated from Harvard. He and Abigail were married when he was 29 she was 20. The marriage lasted 54 years ending with her death in 1818. Their love was buttressed by a lifelong respect and dependency upon each other.
The film is based upon the research of the highly respected historian David McCullough, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of
Adams . The history of the is told from the colonial period through the revolution to 1826 when
Adams passed away. It is the story as seen through the eyes John Adams, an instrumental force in the birth of this country, and his wife Abigail, his best friend and most trusted advisor. David McCullough poured over countless letters between John and Abigail as well as his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, Washington, etc. The production is filmed on location at the many historic sites involved.
They are dressed in the fashion of the day. The men in their tight slacks, vests, fluffy shirts and ties. The women with their long dresses and high built hair. I didn’t realize the men of middle and upper class wore those silly wigs everywhere. I thought it was just in court or the halls of government.
Adams would wear it at home as well as out to go to a store. Talk about your bad toupees, and all the men wore them, hair or no hair. Gar! They must have been hot! Through the magic of makeup we see John and Abigail age over a span of 40 years. We also see John suffer with bad teeth (as did
Washington ). His teeth darkened progressively until they fell out.
Adams is a young lawyer trying to establish a practice in
Boston . John and Abigail had five children. John Adams was a born natural for law and politics. He soon becomes involved with the colonist’s movement attempting to get more freedom from Mother England. At first he is loyal to the crown even defending the English soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. He gets them off. However, after the English attacks on Lexington and Concord,
Adams presses for revolution at the First Continental Congress. From 1974-1978 Adams was apart from Abigail for weeks at a time attending the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia … There were no trains or short hops by plane. Horseback or wagon was the only mode of transportation.
On June 7, 1776 Adams seconded the resolution that "these colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states," From 1777-1788 Adams was dispatched to Europe, first as an emissary to and and finally as the first Ambassador to . In fact he spent years separated from Abigail serving the new nation. Abigail remained at home caring for their children and tending to the farm.
Upon returning home
Adams became vice president when he came in second to our first president, George Washington.
Adams was frustrated as vice president because his only duty was presiding over the Senate. He served two terms and told his wife: “My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” Hmmm? Nothing new there! He won the election in 1796 becoming the second president of the .
His term was filled with political warfare between his party the Federalists and the Republicans.
Adams was defeated in his re-election bid by his friend Thomas Jefferson. The film’s portrayal of politics only proves that nothing ever changes in government. Constant bickering and jabbering filled the halls even before the revolution.
The depiction of the love between John and Abigail is heartrending. He was lost without her. Like all families they faced many trials. One son, Charles was an alcoholic. John, a stern father who expected much from his children, dis-owns Charles, who dies at age 30. Their daughter Nabby develops breast cancer. She has the breast removed in a procedure at home that is hard to imagine in these days of modern medicine. The cancer spreads and she passes away at age 48.
The most moving part of the film is when Abigail contracts typhoid fever.
Adams is completely distraught. They had been married for 54 years (Kay and I have known each other 54 years-married 47). He is lying on the bed next to her, holding her hand crying, “Don’t leave me my friend!” Kay and I were sitting up in bed watching. We clasped hands, Kay got teary-eyed. OK-OK! I got teary-eyed too.
John Adams lived another eight years dying at the age of 90. John Adams closest friend next to Abigail was Thomas Jefferson. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, these giants of American history, died on the same day – July 4, 1826 – the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence .
You can’t make this stuff up.
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