Love & Mercy: A Review

Someday a movie about the Beatles may be made that's better than Love & Mercy about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, but until then Love & Mercy, which I just saw tonight with my wife, is easily the best rock star bio pick ever made.  Hey, it's the best movie about a musician ever made, period, and that's saying a lot, because Amadeus was none too shabby, not to mention the great movies over the years about greats like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash.

Brian Wilson's life is so big it took two stars to portray him - Paul Dano the younger Brian and John Cusack the older Brian - and both were just superb.  Though Dano looks more like the younger Brian than Cusack does the older, the performances of both were peerless, down to the mannerisms, tones of voice, and little ticks of Brian Wilson.  The music similarly was a seamless web with what was going on inside Brian's head and what we the devoted fans were hearing of the Beach Boys on radio and television.  The recording studio scenes were so realistic I felt like calling out to the engineer and asking him to bring up the bass a little more.

The movie is peppered with memorable phrases, delivered like history come to life, that I've both heard before and heard for the first time in this movie.  Jake Abel as Mike Love - another spot on performance - is there to complain to Brian that he can't make sense out of "sunny down snuff" and Van Dyke Park's masterful lyrics to "Heroes and Villains".  That's one I heard before.   But when a studio musician tells Brian that Phil Spector "has nothing" on Brian, that one was new to me, and I was as pleased as Brian in the movie to hear it (and not because I don't love Spector's music - he's a stone genius too - but I because I just love Brian's more).

Elizabeth Banks put in such a compelling and attractive performance as Brian's life-saving Melinda, that Banks instantly rocketed up to my favorite contemporary actress, that's right.  The sensitivity and strength of her performance made it totally believable that Brian fell in love with her, and she figured out a way to cut Brian lose from his baneful, control-freak, suffocating psychiatrist, well played by Paul Giamatti.

To get back the Beatles, the Beach Boys since the 1960s have been my second favorite rock group, way ahead of the Stones, in third place, and I guess, I don't know, the Eagles or the Who after that. Anyway, I don't want to argue about that.  I just want to say how good it was indeed in Love & Mercy, brilliantly directed by Bill Pohlad, to see Brian finally get more of the credit he deserves, not only for his music, but for making it and bringing it back against almost all the odds of his mental demons and most of the people around him.

See also my review of  The Beach Boys in White Plains

John Adams Concludes, The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides

A fabulous, instructive night for history on cable television - John Adams, the splendid mini-series, concluded on HBO, and The Tudors, the magnificent, searing series, continued with its second season on Showtime.


The last episode of John Adams was mostly personal, and very powerful. Adams' daughter dies of breast cancer. Abigail dies. And Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day, July 4, 1826, after they have reconciled via letters.

What was mostly at dispute between them was freedom of speech and communication, and the First Amendment. Adams, early in the hour, complains that all he'll be remembered for is signing the Alien and Sedition Acts - the closest our nation has ever come to abrogating the First Amendment.

Its importance was wrenchingly, brilliantly portrayed in the two episodes (4 and 5) of The Tudors I saw tonight (on Showtime On Demand). Thomas More resists the law that Parliament passed on behalf of Henry, proclaiming him the ultimate religious authority in England. More can accept Henry's marriage to Anne, but not the displacement of the Roman Catholic Church in his country. He doesn't seek to compel any other person to follow his lead, but nor will he give in to the King's and Parliament's request.

And so, he is sentenced to death. And, much like Socrates, Thomas More is executed for his beliefs.

This is precisely what the First Amendment is supposed to prevent. By separating Church and State, by insisting that government cannot compel people to believe, cannot punish people for not believing, or believing something different, cannot punish people for talking and writing whatever they may politically and/or religiously believe, our American society seeks through the First Amendment to improve upon the savage worlds of ancient Athens and Henry VIII.

I often tell people that, were I in Socrates' position, and given a chance to escape, I would have done so, rather than drinking the hemlock. And were I Thomas More, I might well have taken his own hypothetical mode of escape and publicly said I accepted the King's law - given it lip service - and continued with my contrary beliefs. But More rejected that, and chose martyrdom instead. I doubt that I could have been a martyr like Socrates and More.

But the point is that the First Amendment in America makes such an agonizing choice unnecessary. And that is why we are truly more civilized.

As long as we don't let the First Amendment slip away.... But it's not easy - it never is. It and we are daily tested...

Truly powerful history on our new golden age of television tonight. Emmy award-winning acting by Paul Giamatti as John Adams, and by Jeremy Northam as Sir Thomas More.

And let's not forget Peter O'Toole, who is unforgettable in his every scene as the Pope, and tonight was part of the one laughing-out-loud funny scene of the evening, as he hears Michelangelo berating one of the workers on the Sistine Chapel, "Moses looks like a pile of ..."

But television nowadays has never looked better.

See also: John Adams on HBO: Good Founding Father, Bad President ... John Adams 3 and 4: Jefferson and Space Travel of the Soul ... 5. Jousting of Ideas ... John Adams 6: Flawed President and Flawed Father ...

Further reading ...

The Flouting of the First Amendment - my 2005 Keynote Address at Fordham University, in which I talk about the vying opinions of John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson...

The Soft Edge: A Natural History and the Future of the Information Revolution - my 1998 book, with more details on this time in history, and the roles of Adams and Jefferson

And ...



See also ...

Tooling Up for The Tudors and The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins ... The Tudors and the Printing Press ... The Tudors Concludes and America Begins ...

and my reviews of all of last season's episodes, beginning here ...

and more on the printing press and the Protestant Reformation in my book, The Soft Edge ...

and ...



The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

John Adams on HBO: 6: Flawed President and Flawed Father

People sometimes ask me why I'm so critical of John Adams - the real person in history, not the superb HBO series - and the answer is the damage done to, and near death of, our democracy brought by the Alien and Sedition Acts, signed into law by Adams. This grim episode, and Jefferson's protest that these acts trampled on the Constitution, were vividly portrayed in this 90-minute episode that covered the whole of Adams' Presidency.

But the episode brought to light something equally lamentable about Adams - pertaining to his family not his country. Charles, the reprobate son, is disowned by John Adams. His son-in-law is turned away when in financial need. It's not that our culture was so different then. It's that John Adams could not overcome his stern New England upbringing, and give his son the love and emotional support, his son-in-law the economic support, that they needed. John Adams meted out punishment instead - just as he did to his country by jeopardizing the First Amendment and its protections.

It's a measure of how superb Paul Giamatti's performance is as John Adams, that we feel anything akin to sympathy for the second President and father at all. Giamatti is just perfect for summoning the pain and humanity that one hopes Adams felt for these actions. It convinced me enough that I called them "lamentable," rather than despicable, in the paragraph above.

As I've said in previous reviews of this series, this is history on television on an entirely new, breathtaking plane.

The series concludes with the next episode.

How about a series about Thomas Jefferson, played by the outstanding Stephen Dillane.

See also: John Adams on HBO: Good Founding Father, Bad President ... John Adams 3 and 4: Jefferson and Space Travel of the Soul ... 5. Jousting of Ideas ... John Adams Concludes

Further reading ...

The Flouting of the First Amendment - my 2005 Keynote Address at Fordham University, in which I talk about the vying opinions of John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson...

The Soft Edge: A Natural History and the Future of the Information Revolution - my 1998 book, with more details on this time in history, and the roles of Adams and Jefferson

And ...

John Adams on HBO: 3 and 4: Jefferson and Space Travel of the Soul

A powerful, beautiful Episode 4 of John Adams on HBO tonight - after last week's somewhat lackluster Episode 3, in which the highpoint of the tension was Adams getting sick of and in Europe.

But let's look at Episode 4, bursting with brilliant scenes:

.John and Abigail reuniting Paris - handled with sensitivity and passion, as Abigail forgives John for his years of absence.

.Adams and Jefferson in Paris (1) - Adams chastising Jefferson for the high opinion he has of human nature, at the same time that Jefferson chastises Adams for his low opinion of same. This difference of opinion is crucial, and will set the stage forever more in American history between those who want strong central authority to show the people the best way (Adams) vs. those who want to protect the people, capable of governing themselves, for the tyrannies of government (Jefferson).

.Adams and Jefferson in Paris (2) - at the launch of the first hot-air dirigible. Adams doubts that it will fly; Jefferson (a Renaissance man and inventor) believes it will. Guess who is right ... Another reason I always liked Jefferson - I bet he'd would have been a great advocate of the space program today and in the 20th century... he was always an advocate of space travel of the soul, of human beings breaking beyond their confines. (Obama is not a big fan of space travel, but his vision of the human spirit reminds me of Jefferson.)

.John and Abigail Adams, and Jefferson: Abigail is somewhat taken by Jefferson's charm...

.Adams meeting King George III ... the King is willing to give Adams a chance, for now, because he heard that Adams was not too fond of the French ... England, however, won't really get over losing American until at least the War of 1812.

.Washington takes office as the first President, and Adams as the first VP. Brilliantly acted and perfectly staged. Once again, I had tear in my eye during this vivid American history.

And there was more. But I'll stop here, and just add that the acting was outstanding.

Stephen Dillane is perfect as Jefferson. Paul Giamatti as John and Laura Linney as Abigail are excellent. David Morse looks like he came right off the dollar bill as George Washington. Tom Hollander even puts in a memorable performance as King George III (I say "even," because the time on the screen was short, the rendition understated, and the effect therefore all the more impressive).

I loved the music, too - kudos to Rob Lane and Joseph Vitarelli.

This is the best American history I've ever seen on television.

See also: John Adams on HBO: Good Founding Father, Bad President ... John Adams 5: Jousting of Ideas ... 6. President and Father ... John Adams Concludes ...

Further reading ...

The Flouting of the First Amendment - my 2005 Keynote Address at Fordham University, in which I talk about the vying opinions of John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson on human nature...

The Soft Edge: A Natural History and the Future of the Information Revolution - my 1998 book, with more details on this time in history, and the roles of Adams and Jefferson

And ...

John Adams: Good Founding Father, Bad President Makes Great Television on HBO

The Adams Chronicles mini-series on PBS in 1976 has long been one of my all-time television favorites. And, seeing as how I don't at all like the real John Adams, the second President of the United States, that's saying a lot.

I just saw the first two episodes on HBO's new mini-series, John Adams, and I think I like it better than the Chronicles.

Of course, the first two episodes did not get close to the part of the real life of John Adams that makes him a villain in my book. And that book is: respect for the First Amendment to our Constitution. Adams signed the Sedition Act into law shortly after he became President in 1796 - an Act that so trampled the First Amendment, that Thomas Jefferson was close to urging the South to leave the USA back then.

I'll tell you more about that era when the HBO mini-series gets there.

In the meantime, what I saw is superb, breathtakingly accurate history. David McCullough, author of the book upon which the mini-series is based, is a top-notch historian and a riveting writer. Tonight's two episodes captured perfectly the unique blend of radical and authoritarian that made John Adams what he was - a great Founding Father, and (in my opinion) a poor President. He is a passionate believer in American independence and the primacy of our laws over England's - so much so that he defends British soldiers wrongly accused in the Boston Massacre. He is powerful and convincing to some of our more cautionary Founding Fathers. He is an early appreciator of Washington as a military man, has a great alliance with Ben Franklin, and encourages Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence.

Adams and Jefferson will later fall out over the Sedition Act, but for now, John Adams (the character in the mini-series of the same name) is nothing but a pleasure to see. Paul Giamatti plays him well. Stephen Dillane has a quiet power as Jefferson, David Morse is excellent as George Washington, and Tom Wilkinson is marvelous as the sage Ben Franklin. The 20 or so minutes leading up to the ratification of the Declaration of Independence were pure gold.

I'll be back next week with another report on this history brought to vivid life on television.

See also: John Adams 3 and 4: Jefferson and Space Travel of the Soul ... John Adams 5: Jousting of Ideas ... 6. President and Father ... John Adams Concludes ...

Further reading ...

The Flouting of the First Amendment - my 2005 Keynote Address at Fordham University, in which I talk about John Adams and the Sedition Act...

The Soft Edge: A Natural History and the Future of the Information Revolution - my 1998 book, with more details on this time in history, and the roles of Adams and Jefferson

And ...