"Liberty! The American Revolution" (1997) TV series

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

23 November 1997 (USA)

Genre:

History | War

Plot:

Six-hour documentary on the American Revolution, from the passage of the Stamp Act (1765) through the...

Plot Keywords:

Bill Of Rights | American Revolution | U.S. President | American Constitution | Punctuation In Title

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Jane Adams	...	Sara Scott (6 episodes, 1997)
Peter Donaldson	...	John Adams (6 episodes, 1997)
Colm Feore	...	Alexander Hamilton (6 episodes, 1997)
Victor Garber	...	John Dickinson (6 episodes, 1997)
Anthony Heald	...	Philip Vickers Fithian (6 episodes, 1997)
Mel Johnson Jr.	...	Jehu Grant (6 episodes, 1997)
Stephen Lang	...	George Washington (6 episodes, 1997)
Terrence Mann	...	General John Burgoyne (6 episodes, 1997)
Jefferson Mays	...	James Madison (6 episodes, 1997)
Donna Murphy	...	Abigail Adams (6 episodes, 1997)
Remak Ramsay	...	Thomas Hutchinson (6 episodes, 1997)
Forrest Sawyer	...	Himself - Host (6 episodes, 1997)
Paxton Whitehead	...	Horace Walpole (6 episodes, 1997)
Isiah Whitlock Jr.	...	Luke-Slave (6 episodes, 1997)
Philip Bosco	...	Benjamin Franklin (5 episodes, 1997)
Edward Herrmann	...	Narrator (5 episodes, 1997)
Roger Rees	...	Thomas Paine (5 episodes, 1997)
Campbell Scott	...	Thomas Jefferson (5 episodes, 1997)
Joris Stuyck	...	Johann Ewald (5 episodes, 1997)
Jake Weber	...	Gentleman / ... (5 episodes, 1997)
JD Cullum	...	Nicholas Cresswell (4 episodes, 1997)
Daniel Gerroll	...	General Charles Cornwallis (4 episodes, 1997)
Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Joseph Plumb Martin (4 episodes, 1997)
Byron Jennings	...	John Hancock (4 episodes, 1997)
Roberta Maxwell	...	Mercy Otis Warren (4 episodes, 1997)
James Naughton	...	Patrick Henry (4 episodes, 1997)
Jamison Selby	...	Southern Patriot (4 episodes, 1997)
Francie Swift	...	Baroness von Riedesel (4 episodes, 1997)
Stephen Temperley	...	Hector de Crevecoeur (4 episodes, 1997)
Steve Zahn	...	American Sergeant (4 episodes, 1997)
Simon Jones	...	Ambrose Serle (3 episodes, 1997)
Mark Letheren	...	British Soldier (3 episodes, 1997)
Neil Maffin	...	Anti-Federalist / ... (3 episodes, 1997)
Kali Rocha	...	Eliza Wilkinson (3 episodes, 1997)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

Company:

Middlemarch Films

Soundtrack:

Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier

Fairly balanced view of the Revolution

This documentary features actors speaking the words of long-dead people, from Abigail Adams to King George III to Hessian mercenaries. The result is a multi-faceted view of the American Revolution. I use part of this program to teach the Revolution in my college courses for this reason. Since this is a U.S. production, the bias is pro-Revolution. I do not mind this, since my side won that war. I appreciate, however, the honest discussion of the key contradiction of the Revolution--the maintenance of slavery as part of the struggle for independence. Our founders were people, not demigods.

I will correct another commenter on this website. King George III actually spoke flawless English, as the actor who portrays him does. The monarch's great-grandfather (George I) spoke German. George II, grandfather of George III, spoke English as a second language. George III, however, took pride in speaking excellent English.