1776 Movie Review Essay, Research Paper
Title: 1776Category: HistoryDescription:Body of paper: The movie 1776 is a lively musical about the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain. There are numerous sub-plots that come in the way of creating a new country. The most important sub-plot is to gain a unanimous decision vote for the revolution. Without one hundred percent votes for independence then they will not succeed from the Great Britain. The problems they have in getting total support for the declaration is lots of little things like being scared of leaving and the consequences, having a low citizen acceptance, having a small army, and the issue of slavery. There were tons of little things that the whole congress had for declining to the declaration. They were trying to get every part of the declaration to fit their needs. Like when he was said to the congress, you’ve edited four hundred words out of it, they were changing it so that all the states would vote, so they had to meet it to their needs. Adams got mad and talked about how they were trying not to offend Great Britain, but he said, this is revolution for god sakes, you have to offend someone. He was thinking that they were being to lenient and had to get it over with. Out of all the disagreements there are more important ones. When one of the delegate’s did not want to sign it because of fear of breaking up from Great Britain. He thought that once they tried to do it, Britain would just take over the country and hang them for treason. He did not want to do it because he thought that they had to small of an army. John Adams believed in his army and challenged him to go to New York and if he liked what he saw in the army then he would vote for Independence. After he got back, he said, at first they seemed not to good, and were sloppy, but when they saw a flock of geese fly bye it was greatest army he ever see shoot. By that showing he decided that he was going to vote for it. This helped Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin to get over a big hump. Now they had almost everyone’s vote in congress to pass the declaration.
There was just one last person who was not going to vote towards the declaration. It was John Dickinson from Pennsylvania, the cause’s biggest antagonist. Dickinson had conflicts with all them, like when he and Franklin comically were fighting, Franklin said, “Calling me an Englishman is like calling an ox a bull: he’s grateful for the honor, but he’d rather have restored what’s rightfully his.” The congress laughs then Dickinson says, “when did you first notice they were missing, sir”, with even more laughter. That was a comical side to the fight for the votes. Dickinson’s almost stopped the Revolution because he would not sign it. Luckily right before he was about to vote Franklin motioned for a split vote between himself Dickinson and his partner. His partner betrayed him and voted for it. Finally they had gotten all the votes and they established the United States of America. The movie 1776 gave a good look at the revolution with songs and a comical aspect to it. The fight for Independence was against themselves as much as Britain. The most crucial sub-plot was the act of getting every single person in congress to vote yes. Without every vote it would not pass and they would still be a part of Great Britain. The things they had to do to get the congress to vote was change it around, use ingenious tactics and the determination to do this. Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin all helped greatly in creating the United States of America. This paper was written by Clark Peters and they can be reached at kwack@juno.com.