| John Adams (HBO Miniseries) | 
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| Actors: Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney
Studio: HBO
Category: DVD
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $36.49
You Save: $23.50 (39%)
New (37) Used (14) from $33.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  370 reviews
Sales Rank: 16
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Running Time: 501 minutes
Number Of Items: 3
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.8 x 1
MPN: HBOD38820D
UPC: 883929020065
EAN: 0883929020065
ASIN: B000WGWQG8
Theatrical Release Date: March 16, 2008
Release Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Preston October 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
History as told by those who lived it, with all the realism and passion.
All Americans should immerse themselves in this wonderful accounting of the people that made this nation possible. Which was an experiment in self governing, and is on going and will last only as long as WE desire it so. One of the greatest masterpieces I have seen in my experience.
"Facts are stubborn things"
John Adams October 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An excellent and interesting story about the beginnings of a new nation from the point of view of John Adams, the second president of the United states of America. Shows that the first presidents of the nation were flesh and blood, human like everybody else and not just statues on pedestals...
 Disastrous Mini-series October 16, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
After reading David McCollough's truly inspiring John Adams, I was eagerly awaiting the HBO Mini-series. I was hugely disappointed. It seems HBO was hell bent on an agenda to almost totally distort the image of this passionate patriot. Several episodes in the book were particularly inspiring, as they offered a measure of John Adam's dedication to our fledgling country. One was his determination to travel with his company a thousand miles by mule to Paris after the Sensible could not make it to its intended port and needed to let the John Adam's party off the coast of Spain. In the miniseries, John Adams and John Quincy just appear in Paris. Another episode involved negotiations with the British over the details of Independence. These negotiations included defining the boundaries of United States territory, navigation rights on the Mississippi, debts, fishing rights off Newfoundland and compensation to the loyalists. Adams insisted on America's position on all these issues and won. Most impressive was John Adam's absolute insistence that the British recognize the United States before any negotiations could take place. He stood strong on this point, in spite of the Continental Congress's direction to avoid this issue. These were truly inspiring episodes which would be the stuff of imaginative genius, but they are especially glorious because they are the actual accomplishments of this truly great man. For reasons that make no sense, HBO completely disregarded them both.
HBO's depiction of John Adams as a person was of one not recognized in the book. John Adams was clearly the fire and passion behind Independence, a truly great patriot, a loving husband and father and a faithful friend. HBO's John Adams comes off as a humorless, peevish, arrogant toad, guided to any positive accomplishment only buy the hand of his wife. In fact HBO's Abigail is so prominent in the miniseries, she at times seems to hold the central role. I grew increasingly weary of Abigail being continually lionized in contrast to the HBO's deeply flawed version of our second president. Shame on HBO!
A great man - a great book - a disastrous miniseries.
Truly riveting, adds much weight to our collective American experiences October 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I don't claim to know much about the history of this country, nor the history of the world really. I only began to take interest in things bigger than myself in recent years. I admit, applying real world stories to a dramatic medium increases the appeal of something that is already so significant but that's just exactly what this mini-series did to me. It made me think about the literal idea of me standing here being able to live in a world and time where I can come home, chill, grab a bit to eat, and write this review on a lazy Tuesday evening. Sounds like a cliched endorsement perhaps, but the corniness doesn't make it any less true. I am Asian-American so even more so am I amazed and grateful that it's because of the founding principles of this country that I am leading a comfortable life, although that's not to say it wasn't a struggle to get to where we are today...and believe me, I know things still aren't perfect.
And I think that's one of the key words that should be attributed to "John Adams", however general: struggle. If so far, you are conjuring images of a sweeping, glorified epic tale of our revolution, well, I have to say my words were probably a bit misleading. There are times, especially in the first few parts where the tone feels that way but make no mistake, this is the portrait of John Adams, the excellent supporting characters, and his relation to his country and the world. Where the word struggle comes into play are the moments when I realize that disagreements will certainly exist in this world, and there will be many of them. Such is the case here. The real undertaking of establishing a nation isn't as bright or glorious as we like to make it seem sometimes. Congress may not always act, there may be people whose intentions aren't quite noble, public opinion may affect the politics etc. So with that in mind, you incorporate great in-depth characters like John, his impressively insightful wife Abigail, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. And in "John Adams", they are portrayed as real people rather than what our mythology depicts them to be, although there certainly are scenes heightened in vitriol for dramatic effect.
As you continue to watch, you certainly notice some of the characters' imperfections, namely the title character. He may be noble in spirit, but many times he doesn't have the social tact or grace to get through certain political situations as it was in the painful scenes of him and Benjamin Franklin in France. Which really begs the question, "How do you judge a man?" or would that be too egocentric to ask. Also, there are times when you actually do question Adam's goodwill when he makes statements regarding whatever credit he deserves, or his disappointment with his lack of popularity compared to other relatively softer spoken comrades (and nemeses). At times, John comes off very passionate, with great qualities of leadership shining through. Those same characteristics are also his flaws as you will soon see. Other times, he is very petulant, almost childish and belligerent. There are times that I literally got frustrated in how he incited train wrecks of social and politically important situations. That's what makes his story so compelling to me. It's very easy to depict good guys and bad guys as many (certainly not all) network television shows are proof of that. Not so here: you will cry for him and other times you will want to hold your face in your hands and say to him, "What the **** are you doing?!" The supporting characters like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson contrast very well with Adams, and so does Abigail (I'll get to her later). Because their words are gentler, and therefore politically helpful, rifts of friendship begin to form sooner or later. There is even a point when Adams is clearly chided by Franklin in one of the more memorable quotations in the series: "A good diplomat observes much, acts little, and speaks softly." Uh, apparently John didn't get that memo LOL. To digress, there are other great quotes, one from Abigail: "You do not need to quote great men to show you are one."
Abigail is the constant in John Adam's life. For all his flaws and his ill-tempered behavior, you will also see moments where you realize that "jerks" (and yes, he certainly was one in a good amount of scenes) have people to love, and people that love him. She is also what grounds Adams due to her more diplomatic sensibilities and her ability to not only see things that her husband may not have caught, but also to tell them straight to him when necessary, regardless of how he may take it.
The performances are nothing short of amazing, and coming from an actor, it means much to me. I've read in some places and websites where people think Giamatti was miscast. Honestly, I won't even touch the statement because I don't have a large enough frame of reference yet. When I read more literature about him, maybe I'll edit this review to reflect added thoughts. As it is, Giamatti is clearly a terrific and gifted actor if I were to judge his performance at face value. Linney is amazing and I didn't expect otherwise. All the actors are very capable of nuanced performances and pushing it to emotional levels in key places so that the overall palette has a lot of color. Wilkinson who plays Franklin, and the actors that play Jefferson and Washington are wonderful as well. Casting wise, I thought everything was top notch.
Some of what I may have written may contain spoilers already (as warned) but I tried to mostly limit them to showing you examples of what I find to be, well, exemplary. Here is another one, which I believe to be one of the main points of this work: HUGE SPOILER There is a scene later on when Adams reconciles with a friend due to differences in political/social views among other things. It was done in correspondence and one of them writes something to the effect of the importance of living in a nation where it is alright to disagree and that it cannot get in the way of friendship. Well, my friends, we are currently living at a...dramatic time in our history and I also believe it is important to honor the opinions of people who may not agree with you. What we have to remember that regardless of our differing perspectives, we all love this country for all its merits and despite our flaws. I believe everyone is capable of having civilized discussions and "going negative" is just not what our country is founded on, even if it is a reality of the world (which is all the more reason to rise above it). It would not be right if I believe every McCain supporter is dishonorable, just as it would not be right if I believe with naivete that every Obama supporter is teeming with complete benevolence. The truth and serious considerations of consequences of our actions should be what matters. And to that end, everyone should be respectful to each other because we all have very different ideas of what those things are. There is also nothing wrong admitting shortsightedness and adopting different viewpoints if one truly believes it's right to do so. You may call this message to be a bit of stretch but frankly if that's to be something I got out of watching this, I'd say I got more than my money's worth.
 John Adams comes to life October 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
HBO does a great job with their miniseries. John Adams was a little drier or slower than the Rome or Deadwood series but it was a good picture of how our US government began. Has it changed?
My ten year old granddaughter has studied John Adams in school but I think the miniseries is a little too graphic in places for her.
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