TV Documentary Review: 'Liberty! The American Revolution'

On November 23, 1997, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired The Reluctant Revolutionaries, the first episode of Liberty! The American Revolution, a six-part miniseries about the American Revolutionary War (1775-1781) and the birth of the United States of America.

Written by Ronald Blumer (The U.S. Constitution, Benjamin Franklin) and co-directed by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer (Benjamin Franklin), Liberty! is an earnest if a somewhat superficial attempt to explore America's War of Independence, its root causes. and its long-lasting impact on American, British, and world history. Featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood and Broadway stars (some of whom were just starting out) and a team of American and British historians, including Pauline Maier, Ron Hoffman, Gordon S. Wood, Richard Norton Smith, John Keegan, Jeremy Black, and Nicholas A.M. Rodger, the miniseries portrays the tumultuous 25-year period between 1763 and 1788 through a mix of live action footage of reenactors, paintings and illustrations of the period, and "talking head" dramatizations of readings from letters, diaries, and speeches written by British, American, French, and Hessian participants in the Revolution.

Presented in chronological order, each of the miniseries' six parts is introduced by former ABC and NBC journalist Forrest Sawyer. After the intros, which were filmed in a contemporary-looking  "reading room" set, veteran TV documentary narrator and actor Edward Herrmann takes over as the filmmakers' unseen "voice of God" to tell the story of the War for Independence, aided by the "talking head" actors in period costume and expert commentary from the historians I mentioned earlier.

 EPISODE 1: "The Reluctant Revolutionaries" 1763-1774

In 1763, the capital city of America is London, George Washington is lobbying for a post in the British army, and no one thinks of Boston harbor when they hear talk of tea parties. In a dozen years, the colonies are on the brink of rebellion. What happens to bring this country so quickly near war with England?

EPISODE 2: "Blows Must Decide" 1774-1776

A total break from Great Britain remains hard for Americans to imagine, even after shots are fired at Lexington and Concord. Words push matters "Over the Edge" in 1776. Common Sense argues that it is the natural right of men to govern themselves. The Declaration of Independence declares this same idea a "self-evident" truth. For Americans, there is no looking back. There will be war with England.

EPISODE 3: "The Times That Try Men's Souls" 1776-1777

Days after the Declaration of Independence is signed, a British force arrives in New York harbor. Washington and his troops are driven to New Jersey. With only a few days of enlistment left for many of his volunteers, a desperate Washington leads his army quietly across the Delaware River on the day after Christmas, 1776, to mount a surprise attack on a sleeping garrison in Trenton.

EPISODE 4: "Oh Fatal Ambition" 1777-1778

The "united" states remain in dire need of funds and military support. Congress dispatches Benjamin Franklin to France in hopes of creating an alliance which will provide both. Meanwhile, a British army marches down the Hudson River trying to cut off New England from the other colonies. The British are crushed by Americans at Saratoga. The French enter the conflict on the American side.

EPISODE 5: "The World Turned Upside Down" 1778-1783

The British hope to exploit the issue of slavery and to enlist the support of loyalists in the south. They fail. After a series of brutal engagements, the British army heads for Virginia, only to be trapped by the miraculous convergence of Washington's army and the French fleet at Yorktown. The end of the war is at hand.

EPISODE 6: "Are We to Be a Nation? 1783-1788

Peace comes to the United States, but governing the world's newest republic is no simple task. Congress is ineffectual and individual states act like sovereign nations. By the time the Constitutional Convention convenes in 1787, many wonder if the country can survive. The long ratification process helps define what sort of nation the United States is to be—a process that continues to this day. - Episode Guide, Liberty! (PBS) Website

My Take

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by history, especially when it comes to the history of the United States. This was true even when I was in school, even though I preferred to read books and watch documentaries on my own rather than sit through (mostly) uninspiring and "by rote" lectures at Riviera Junior High and South Miami Senior High School.

Though my favorite era to study about is World War II, I try my best to learn about other periods of history. So just as my library of books contains volumes about the Civil War, Prohibition, baseball, the American West, the First World War, and Korea, my DVD and Blu-ray collections also include documentaries that are not about the Second World War.

 Liberty! The American Revolution is one of the two documentaries I own that cover America's struggle to break free from British rule and become the nation known as the United States; the other one is 2006's The Revolution, a longer series that aired on The History Channel at a time when that cable outlet was worthy of its name.

Of those two series Revolutionary War, Liberty! is the shortest and therefore slightest documentaries; it boasts a great cast of American and British actors (Austin Pendleton, Donna Murphy, Roger Rees, Simon Jones, JD Collum, Stephen Lang, Colm Feore, Campbell Scott, Philip Bosco, and Philip Seymour Hoffmann) and excellent production values by Middlemarch Films. The cinematography is good, too, and we get to see some interesting views of Colonial Williamsburg and other historical locations.

All this is good and well, but the quarter century between Britain's victory over France in the Seven Years' War and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution is an era that calls for more of an exploration than the roughly four hours of total runtime that Liberty! gives us. 

Maybe I'm just spoiled by the narrative style of Ken Burns and Stephen Ives' documentaries, especially The Civil War, Baseball, and The West, but although Liberty! is a decent primer on the subject of how the United States came to be, its six 40-minute long parts are clearly not in-depth enough to do justice to its subject.

I'm also not enamored with Hovde and Mayer's artistic choice to dress up its all-star cast of fine actors in period costumes to do dramatizations of letters and diaries kept by both the luminaries (George III, John Adams, Benjamin Rush, Abigail Adams, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin). I found this approach to be rather kitschy and unnecessarily distracting. I prefer the technique of keeping voice actors offscreen while the camera pans across a painting or a document from the period  a la "Ken Burns effect."

On the other hand, I like how Ronald Blumer and the directors-producers strive to tell a fair and balanced account of the American Revolution by not portraying the patriots as paragons of virtue and bravery and avoiding the "British as villains" stereotype that permeates the American mythology of the Revolution. The inclusion of British historians as prominent as N.A.M. Rodger and the late John Keegan ensure that the British perspective is presented here, and the American historians, particularly the late Pauline Maier, point out that most Americans in colonial times saw themselves as proud British subjects, loyal to their sovereign and proud of their freedoms as Englishmen.

Though limited by its skimpy runtime and saddled by its editorial choices to mix "celebrity costumed cameos" where voiceovers would have sufficed, I still recommend Liberty! The American Revolution as an introduction to its topic, especially for families with kids who are still in school. For viewers who want a more in-depth look at the Revolution, I suggest A&E Home Video's The Revolution.