{"id":54,"date":"2008-07-05T15:03:52","date_gmt":"2008-07-05T19:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=54"},"modified":"2025-07-04T11:45:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:45:30","slug":"when-language-pop-culture-and-politics-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/when-language-pop-culture-and-politics-collide\/","title":{"rendered":"When Language, Pop Culture, and Politics Collide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'1776'<\/figure>\n\n\n

You know what driver’s-ed classes don’t teach you? They don’t teach you how complicated it is to make your way through a busy intersection of more than two streets, especially when there are no traffic signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought about this failure today, in connection with the 1972 film of the musical 1776<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until last night, I’d never seen the movie and never (truth be told) had wanted to. No objection to musicals per se<\/em>, you understand. But I’ve always had a hard time with light and frothy musical treatments of truly momentous historical subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Yet I very much like Cabaret<\/em>, and agree with Pauline Kael’s assessment at the time it was released: “A great movie musical, satirical and diamond-hard.” Satire with an edge: good. But perkiness<\/em>? Eh, well…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But last night my resolve was weak. The Missus and I were both wiped out by planning, preparing, and executing a July-4th cookout for […counting…]<\/em> ten people. While she escaped to her office, collapsing into a fog of online gaming, I just sat, stretched out, on the sofa, TV remote close to hand. And clicked. And clicked. And clicked…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some reason probably having to do with the previous day’s power failure<\/a>, when I first turned it on the channel was set at 2: the Home Shopping Network. (click) PBS had David McCullough on Charlie Rose<\/em>, talking about John Adams. (click) Wonder what’s on Turner Classic Movies…? Hmm. William Daniels in colonial garb. Singing. Singing?<\/em> Did William Daniels sing? What was<\/em> this, anyhow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I realized what it must be, I’d been sucked in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah, make no mistake: 1776<\/em> has its frothy moments. It also takes some liberties (er, no pun intended) with history. (Wikipedia lists<\/a> some of them. On the other hand, it cites the Columbia Companion to American History on Film<\/em>: “Inaccuracies pervade 1776<\/em>, though few are very troubling.”) But there are also some notable highlights, even for a cynical viewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the cynical viewer in question, the chief pleasure comes from a number called “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the background: John Adams wants the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain. His opposition (personal as well as political) comes from a faction led by one John Dickinson, representative from Pennsylvania. As depicted in the film, Dickinson is a rather calculating Tory sympathizer who doesn’t want to rock the boat lest he jeopardize his considerable property holdings — but who cloaks his objections in a cool rationality: Why embark on a path to certain ruin for everyone, when it’s impossible for us to win? Surely there’s some more reasonable way than revolution to resolve these temporary and really quite minor disagreements with the Crown?<\/em> And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(In fact, the real Dickinson<\/a>‘s motivations were probably much more complex and sympathetic than the broad-brushstrokes caricature which the movie presents. But hey, this is a musical, right?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Dickinson and Adams have a furious argument — Dickinson: “Madman!”; Adams: “Coward!” — Adams finally storms from Independence Hall. Following shortly after are other supporters of revolution, leaving Dickinson and his faction in the hall, along with John Hancock, secretary Charles Thomson, and “Mr. McNair” (a sort of servant\/building manager, responsible for keeping the delegates in rum and the hall both cool in temperature and free of flies). And then Dickinson begins, leading them into and through “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n