It may be my fondness for mythology that makes me love to watch particular movies around particular holidays. I say that because many of the well- known myths were recited on ancient holidays when their subject matter was relevant to those holidays. The stories helped accentuate the meaning of the special events and that’s the way I use various movies. At Christmas I watch countless variations of A Christmas Carol, around Labor Day I watch Eight Men Out, at Halloween The Evil Dead and the original Nightmare On Elm Street, Thanksgiving Eve I do Oliver! and for Frontierado (which is just a month away now) I do Silverado.
Since the actual 4th of July is loaded with activity I always show 1776 on the night before. It’s a great way to get in the mood for Independence Day. It’s a musical but with brilliant dialogue portions and the story involves the political maneuvering surrounding the Original Thirteen Colonies at last announcing their independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the shots fired at Lexington and Concord started the war.
The story is excellently conveyed and is moving, comical, invigorating and poignant all at once. As long as you know which parts of the tale are depicted accurately and which are complete b.s. it’s a terrific way to spend each 3rd of July.
The movie was originally a Broadway musical and stars William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, Howard Da Silva as Ben Franklin and Virginia Vestoff as Abigail Adams. Sure, some of the songs are so stupid not even Barney the Purple Dinosaur would be caught dead singing them, but that could be said of just about all musicals. The dialogue portions make the movie for me and are very witty and filled with sly references that history buffs will love. I’m no reactionary flag-waver but this musical is a wonderful way to wish a Happy Birthday each year to the country and political system Abraham Lincoln accurately called “the last, best hope of Earth.”
Balladeer's Blog 
“the last, best hope of Earth.”…hmmmmmm
Ha! I genuinely feel that all things considered representative democracy with Constitutional protections like Free Speech and the rest of the Bill of Rights really is the best course for the future. Democracies have not been going to war against each other in decades.
The problem comes in with political parties being bought by bloated rich pigs, which means the government stops acting according to the actual will of the voters and acts according to the will of the wealthy oligarchs.
Like I always say, people who THINK they hate America REALLY hate the Democrats and Republicans who have hijacked our political system. You’re fond of Michael Moore and even he calls the two parties “one big Republicrat Party” referring to how they are both owned by Wall Street now.
Anyway, our SYSTEM is the best, but uber-capitalists as always work to find ways around legalities. You may have noticed one of the major issues I address on my blog all the time is how repulsive the Democratic and Republican parties are.
I get this…but one of the major flaws with America is its perception of itself [for me at least]. It no longer sees itself as a player with the rest of us but as a sort of police force to keep us in line. I can’t help but be enraged when yet again America steps in to control another country…for whatever reason…as it has done to over 70 countries since the end of WWII. This especially galls when I read each day of how Americans are denied basic healthcare, decent wages, that racism and elitism runs riot. America howls over human rights abuses yet still operates Quantomino and spies on the rest of the world. It uses [abuses] its power to get other governments to buckle to corporate greed [happening here in NZ] so that like a school yard bully it gets its way yet again. It is well past time that America concentrated on getting America right…and bloody well leave the rest of us alone to do our own thing as we see fit as nations of sovereignty. Sorry Ed for the rant…but although I have compassion for Americans [at least the sane ones], your government is a shambles that is dragging the rest of the world in to a cesspit we may never get out of. As for your system being the best…sorry I have great doubts about that simply because it has so easily been twisted and corrupted. When I see countries such as Finland, who when hit with a banking crisis came to the aid of the investors and tossed the bankers in to gaol…there is a system that really is operated by the people for the people.
Yeah, you’ve hit it on the head. Everything you’ve mentioned is also despised by us CITIZENS but the “Royal Houses” of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and their bloated rich pig owners (George Soros, the Koch Brothers) are responsible for all that.
The chaos in our country now is partially triggered by the rest of us getting fed up with our wishes being ignored (ever hear Ron Paul talk? He’s the only politician in this country who seems to agree with us voters that we should take care of our own country and leave other people alone. He gets ridiculed by the Dems and Reps because of that.)
IF and it’s a big if, we can erode the power of those two parties and their unconstitutional hold on the electoral system we WOULD behave like Finland.
I think the problem is lawless capitalism and it gets to STAY lawless because of the way the two main parties are bought and paid for. When I hear OWS people being outraged that nothing changed under Obama I wonder how blind they are. Both parties have been the enemy of our own citizens and the world at large for quite a long time.