Everyone is the hero of their own story.
The Big Picture
- John Adams’ disdain for French high society is rooted in his background, leading to a unique interpretation of the man’s character.
- Adams is portrayed as a complex figure in the 2008 HBO miniseries
John Adams
, constantly out of his depth and struggling to adapt to the changing political circumstances around him. - The miniseries offers a different perspective on Benjamin Franklin, contrasting the views of Franklin as a mentor and rival from Adams’ point of view.
It’s often been said that history is about perspective and nowhere is this saying more accurate than in the most recent episode of Apple TV+’s Franklin, where John Adams (Eddie Marsan) makes his unwelcome debut in France. In his blunt manner, he complicates the tense and delicate relationship that Benjamin Franklin (Michael Douglas) has been carefully cultivating with the House of Bourbon over several years, so much so that the British view Adams as an unwitting asset in their attempt to undermine the American alliance. However, writer Kirk Ellis has more than enough experience with Adams to know that this is not the only way to view the man.
An equally valid interpretation that the HBO miniseries John Adams explored portrays him as a man surrounded by indulgence and excess in a foreign land, shocking and unfamiliar to his New England roots. Although both sources show him to be rather impulsive, which proves a major factor in his failure to win reelection, much of his disgust can seem justified, especially with the benefit of hindsight. When viewed from another angle, the second president can be perceived as a complex and tragic figure of history, one who defies simple categorization in the same way as everyone else.
John Adams
The life of one of the USA’s Founding Fathers, its second President, and his role in the nation’s first 50 years.
- Release Date
- March 16, 2008
- Cast
- Paul Giamatti , Laura Linney , Mamie Gummer , David Morse , Rufus Sewell , Sarah Polley , Tom Wilkinson , Danny Huston
- Main Genre
- History
- Creator(s)
- Kirk Ellis
- Directors
- Tom Hooper
‘John Adams’ Gives Context to Its Lead’s Disdain of France
One thing both shows get right about the second American president is his clear disdain for French high society, but it makes perfect sense when one considers the way he lived. In contrast to the plantation colony of Virginia that George Washington (David Morse) and Thomas Jefferson (Stephen Dillane) hailed from, Boston is depicted as an urbanized but not opulent city. In the same way, John Adams (Paul Giamatti) and his more extremist cousin Samuel Adams (Danny Huston) are certainly famous in their home state, but neither could be described as anything close to royalty. Before the Boston Massacre radicalized the city and changed his life forever, John Adams was a respected lawyer in the city, enough to represent his home state during both sessions of the Continental Congress, but was not truly a politician. This preference for philosophy over policy was evident long before his visit to France, and it would haunt him later as president, but his time spent in Europe is perhaps the most egregious example of this weakness.
All of this is not to say John Adams is portrayed as a paragon of humility in the series. During his time as president, a full decade after leaving France, he still equates the French Revolution to mob rule and served as the unofficial leader of the Federalist Party, which remained defined by elitism. Even still, he is far from the likes of Alexander Hamilton (Rufus Sewell) and his allies in the cabinet, who are openly willing to sabotage peace negotiations with the Bonaparte government to maintain political power. Ironically, his eroding friendship with Hamilton proved crucial in his electoral defeat, but he regarded avoiding war with France to have been his greatest achievement. Whereas Adams and Hamilton never managed to forgive each other, partially because the latter famously perished in a duel, he and Jefferson later reconciled, proving that he is not nearly as detached from reality as the French aristocrats he condemned.
‘John Adams’ Is a Classic Fish Out of Water Story
One important factor overlooked during the Revolutionary era is how foreign each of the colonies felt to each other, much less a kingdom an ocean away with a different language and culture. Even in Philadelphia, Adams is taken from the legal world of arguments and courtroom drama to one of negotiations and diplomacy, becoming isolated both geographically and culturally, and this is amplified in France. He might have been a Harvard graduate, but the decadence and vanity of the French court just ten years before the French Revolution is simply on a scale he had truly never seen before, providing a deep sense of culture shock. The role of ambassador proves to be a major challenge for him, as he lacks the patience required for such a role and has little respect for what he views as a morally, politically, and financially desolate institution. More than most others, Adams had the first taste of just what that rot would eventually bring and the corruption of the French court soon plagued Adams, even during his presidency twenty years afterward. This feels particularly ironic when one considers that his young son and travel companion John Quincy Adams (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) would later grow up to be not only a brilliant lawyer and future president in his own right, but arguably the greatest diplomat in American history.
More than anything else, John Adams is portrayed in the miniseries as a man constantly out of his depth and there was often little he could do to escape it. Even on the rare occasions where he performs decently well, such as during his meeting with King George III (Tom Hollander) to end the war, any attempts to control the narrative remain beyond his control. This was something that began ever since his acquittal of the men charged with the Boston Massacre and arguably never ended until his retirement from political life, where he faced even more tragedy. Unlike his predecessor in Washington, who had the perfect image and earned legendary status for it, Adams was left unable to captivate it, either for others or himself.
Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin’ Boldly Depicts a Flawed Founding Father
This Benjamin Franklin is not the one we read about in history books.
In ‘John Adams,’ Benjamin Franklin Plays Both Mentor and Rival
Since Adams was a whole generation younger than Franklin and lived much longer, one advantage of John Adams is that we get to see a character like Benjamin Franklin (Tom Wilkinson) from another perspective, one vastly different from his own series. During his crucial diplomatic role in the Second Continental Congress before the war, Franklin gives Adams an important lesson about the value of courtesy when publicly dealing with other politicians. Despite his own attempts, this is an idea Adams never learns, as demonstrated when he goes so far as to criticize the French in their own court during a verbal exchange with Franklin. In both series, Franklin also gives identical advice about the tactics of French diplomacy, telling him the key is to make progress behind the scenes while appearing inconspicuous to the outside world. For a man used to the public stage of the courtroom, this remains almost incomprehensible for Adams, who treats the idea with scorn. Only during his presidency, long after Franklin is dead, does he apply this to his philosophy and end the undeclared war with revolutionary France, though it costs Adams his reelection and the friendship of both Hamilton and Jefferson.
The version of Franklin we see in John Adams, especially during their time in France together, feels nearly opposite to that of the future president. During Franklin and its focus on the alliance, the man is viewed as a celebrity and womanizer, one who clearly thrives in the high culture of the Ancien Regime. From the more grounded perspective of Adams, however, Franklin appears to be enjoying himself a little too well, enabling and encouraging the vices of a society he privately deems abhorrent and losing focus of their true purpose. Nowhere is this more apparent than the air bath scene, where Adams rushes to deliver a crucial message to Franklin, only to awkwardly find him bathing with a French noblewoman without concern. With his unprecedented fame, Franklin also serves as the living embodiment of the figure Adams wants himself to be, charismatic and beloved by all who get the chance to meet him. When placed alongside his legitimate disgust at the embrace of French elitism, it remains little wonder that Adams left the country with deep resentment towards Franklin.
While much of the Franklin series has to say about him is true, John Adams is clearly a more complicated and tragic individual than it might initially appear. Soothing to his ego as they might have been, his criticisms of the French royal family were not without cause and the excess of their culture was no doubt shocking to witness for a small lawyer from Boston. For much of his life, but especially in France, John Adams is left unable to adapt to the changing political circumstances, something that would haunt him for the next decade of his public career. The indulgences of Franklin, who remained beloved even despite them, felt like mockery to Adams, who was eclipsed by him then and remains so today. While Jefferson was a philosopher, Franklin was a celebrity, and Washington was a general, Adams never truly fit anywhere in the early American landscape and his attempts to find his place only led to hardship. The famous saying goes that history is written by the winners, but the case of John Adams shows that even the winners can have their stories written for them, whether they want it or not.
John Adams is available for streaming on Max in the U.S.
This article was originally published on collider.com