The Founding Fathers

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If I were a producer:I think Martin Scorsese should make a film about the founding fathers. It would be a character piece - their philosophies about freedom, religion, government - the basis of the U.S. Maybe we should look at ourselves. I heard a metaphor the other day - wish I could attribute it to the proper source, but I don't know it. It involved comparing colonial America to a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy who had been neglected and never disciplined and then all of a sudden weighed 250 lbs.

Anyway, this story would be after the war - The Constitutional Convention. It wouldn't be sugar-coated either. Warts and all. Has there ever been a film about this, and if not, why? There could be lots of sex and substance abuse and drunken fighting in the streets. James Madison could be the main protagonist and stay sober. Maybe Rob Reiner instead of Scorsese if we wanted a "lighter" touch. Okay, this is a bit tongue in cheek but why not a serious film?

Has there been one (probably a long time ago - seems like I may have seen something in grade school), and I can't remember? Are our founding fathers now considered non-PC and out-of-touch? Would everyone argue about it too much? Would this be considered boring? Did the biopic of George Washington on tv cover it all?

I think we should be updated on all this.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

(snips)
[nq:1]...this story would be after the war - The Constitutional Convention. It wouldn't be sugar-coated either. Warts and all. Has ... *** and substance abuse and drunken fighting in the streets. James Madison could be the main protagonist and stay sober...[/nq]
I think your problem would be with the "warts."
Given the conservative revisionist "original intent" crowd and their couterpart "politically correct" nigglers on the other side of the political spectrum, people would hate the truth and just about any interpretation that would fill in gaps of the historical record.
For starters, your cast is a bunch of white guys.
Washington was a hemp farmer. Franklin was a womanizer. Just about everybody in those days drank a lot more rum than is considered socially acceptable these days. So you're right, a lot of *** and drugs and 18th Century rock 'n' roll (sitting around and singing the original lyrics to "Anacreon in Heaven," perhaps?) would be in the mix between sessions of the Continental Congress. There'd probably be a prostitute in the story and you'd lose Lois from the get-go.
And then there's the old 3/5th of a person issue. Like it or not, this nation's foundation was set in ink on parchment as thoroughly and decidedly racist. It's taken over 200 years, a ****** civil war, associations, filibusters, affirmative action and backlash to attempt to extricate ourselves from that, ahem, tar baby. And an authentic dramatization of how that issue was handled in 1789 would distress 21st Century ears.

Ultimately, the story is one about compromise. Big States, Little States, North, South, free, slave. If you got into the Bill of Rights, someone would have to depict how the Second Amendment got such strange punctuation, to the degree no one really knows how the Founding Fathers might vote on AK-47s in the classroom. The NRA and Handgun Control would be picketing every theater in the country.
An accurate portrayal of the theists who hammered out the document would *** off 21st Century Evangelicalists. More pickets outside theaters.

You'd have more people outside theaters than in.
Joe Myers
"Forget it, Jake. It's Philadelphia."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Has there been one (probably a long time ago - seems like I may have seen something in grade school), ... about it too much? Would this be considered boring? Did the biopic of George Washington on tv cover it all?[/nq]
The question is, "What's the story you're telling?"

There have been dozens of films done about various founding fathers ("Jefferson in Paris" is the most recent that leaps to mind).

Part of the problem is thinking, "I'm going to tell the story of the founding fathers." That's not really a movie-sized story, it's too big. Even just picking a time frame doesn't really narrow it down. Who's story are you telling? What is the specific story you're telling?

-Ron

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]If I were a producer: I think Martin Scorsese should make a film about the foundingfathers. It would be a ... Did the biopic of George Washington on tv cover it all? I think we should be updated on all this.[/nq]
Just a short time ago our we (our producing partner and I) tried to get a cable series set up based on the lives of the founding fathers post-revolutionary war dealing with a lot of these same issues the scandals, the back room deals the way that this country was hammered out of compromises and fumblings and people who were just trying to figure it all out as they went along.
Couldn't get anybody to touch it with a stick. No interest whatsoever.

And believe me, producers with much more impressive credentials than we have have tried to get series along similar lines on the air and have met with the same result.
Nobody wants to put them on the air, not network, not syndicated, not cable zip nobody has faith that anybody will watch them or be interested in seeing this stuff.
And, it's certainly not going to be any better on the big screen. It's one thing to tell a story like, "The Patriot" which is a kind of inspirational action-filled historical war movie. What you're talking about is really a movie that takes place in parlors and in meeting halls and in back rooms. It's a movie about people who accomplish what they accomplish by talking to other people only it takes place in the late seventeen hundreds.
What are the chances that a project like that is going to excite anybody's interest? It's not high concept. No action. No spectacle and all the men are going to be walking around in powdered wigs and knee breeches.
Now there's a formula guaranteed to make the average studio executive sit up and take notice.
NMS

The Founding Fathers

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