PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — America’s self-image is a complicated thing. It wants to be a great nation, and it knows that, in a lot of really important ways, it is not.
So as Americans move between Juneteenth and the Fourth of July — between a day celebrating the emancipation of the last enslaved Africans in the United States and a day celebrating independence for white people from the British crown some 89 years before then — it is as important to acknowledge the bad stuff as to commemorate the good stuff.
Last year, before Juneteenth was finally declared a federal holiday, Philadelphia expanded Welcome America to combine Juneteenth festivities with Independence Day festivities. The story of freedom in the United States is not easy to tell, but it is still essential.
In that spirit, holding the best and the worst of this great nation in our hearts and minds simultaneously, we offer this list of movies and TV honoring freedom.
1776
This 1972 movie musical is a humorous "School House Rock" take on a gravely serious issue: the political compromise that set the country up for the next 250 years of systemic racism. It has all the appearance of truthfulness, while still containing enough historical inaccuracies to keep a general audience from getting too uncomfortable.
To be fair, "1776" is adapted not from a history book or the celebrated biography of a Founding Father, but rather from the 1969 broadway musical of the same name.
John Adams (William Daniels) — Harvard graduate, Massachusetts lawyer and future president of the United States — is meeting with reps from the 12 other colonies in the "foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy" Philadelphia summer of 1776. Villainous Britain has gone too far this time, and there is a movement afoot to dissolve the political bands which have connected the colonies to the crown.
When he is not writing love letters to his wife, Adams is busy browbeating his colleagues into voting for American independence and signing the treasonous document that, had things gone differently, would have gotten all of them hanged.
And then, the climax: After a dramatic (literal) song and dance about the “triangle trade,” every delegate from the South refuses to sign the Declaration until a clause condemning slavery is removed. Is Adams — is his dream of a United States of America — doomed?
Like "Titanic," you know how this story ends.
“1776” makes up a lot of fake news about attitudes toward slavery. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina did not lead a southern walk-out. According to real-life Thomas Jefferson, himself, several unnamed "northern brethren" also wanted to lose the anti-slavery clause.
While character Jefferson (Ken Howard) resolves to free his slaves, real-life Jefferson did no such thing. And despite what Benjamin Franklin (Howard da Silva) says in the movie, he did not become an active abolitionist in real life until after the Revolutionary War.
Still, what "1776" does well is to show how disagreements over the founding document created the conditions that would necessitate the Civil War just 85 years later.
“1776” is available for purchase on iTunes.
Hamilton
Like we were saying, there’s no better way to re-learn the history of our nation’s creation than through song and dance. If you haven’t seen a stage production of “Hamilton” yet, what are you doing with your life? In this filmed version of the original Broadway production, Lin-Manuel Miranda stars as Alexander Hamilton, whose progression from orphaned immigrant to Founding Father becomes more and more resonant today.
Like its subject matter, the production itself is revolutionary. With a cast that reflects the truth of America today, and presented in the authentically American voice of rap, hip-hop, jazz and R&B, “Hamilton” makes the distant past as urgent and meaningful as the present.
“Hamilton” is currently streaming on Disney+.
Roots
Long before 23andMe, Inc., and PBS' "Finding Your Roots," there was the 1977 television adaptation of Alex Haley's novel "Roots: The Saga of an American Family.”
"Roots," an eight-episode miniseries, is a story of Haley's family history, spanning several generations — starting with the capture of a Gambian man named Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), and ending with the broken promises of emancipation in the Jim Crow South.
Kunta, born in 1750 and based on one of Haley's ancestors, is ripped from the love and traditions of this home at the age of 17, sold to British slave traders, and transported to Virginia to spend the rest of his days under the painful, degrading and cruel conditions of America’s birth.
The bestselling novel, published in 1976, and the record-breaking miniseries were historic unto themselves — coming out as Americans of all backgrounds were contemplating the bicentennial and the nation’s complex origin story. And together, they did much to inspire a consciousness of Black history among the general public, and to raise interest in genealogy and family histories.
A written family history was something many African Americans descended from enslaved people did not have access to, but through his own research, Haley supported as much of his family's oral tradition as possible with records from public archives and libraries. His resultant "Roots," described as "fiction," was shelved among the nonfiction sections of bookstores at the time.
A very worthwhile follow-up is the 2016 four-episode miniseries adaptation of the novel. Not only does this new "Roots" have the advantage of four decades of advancements in filmmaking, it is perhaps a more culturally competent adaptation, portraying West African kingdoms with more sophistication (and culpability), and Black characters with more agency, than the original. And there are fewer extraneous white characters to get in the way of the story.
“Roots” (1977) is currently streaming on HBO Max. “Roots” (2016) is currently streaming on the Roku Channel.
The West
To European explorers and, later, the United States, the American West was a wilderness to be conquered. Never mind the people who already lived there.
"The West," produced by Stephen Ives and Ken Burns, is a nine-part PBS documentary miniseries. It is a story of exploration, exploitation, betrayal and lawlessness dating back to the 16th-century convergence of European nations on the Native American world.
Almost 300 years later, when Lewis and Clark make their way northwest, they awaken dreams of a nation with an ocean view on both ends. Whatever their reasons for pushing the border westward — trade, a better life, religious freedom, religious domination, gold — settlers pushed with impunity, encouraged by a United States eager to prove that it was God's will to spread domination and democracy from sea to shining sea and beyond.
The westward expansion, starting with the Louisiana Purchase, ushered in a period of boundless imagination and unthinkable avarice. Anyone who was not on board was violently pushed aside, be they Native Americans, Mormons, or newcomers to this country who are told they just aren't as worthy of equal protection as other immigrants.
American freedom and self-determination comes at a cost -- to everyone else.
“The West” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Harriet
Starring Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn and Janelle Monáe, 2019’s “Harriet” is a remarkable retelling of the inspirational life of Harriet Tubman and her heroic escape from slavery. The film follows Tubman’s journey to freedom and her courageous work to free hundreds of others as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Later, in her role as a soldier and spy for the Union Army during the Civil War, Tubman was the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States.
“Harriet” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Lincoln
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Abraham Lincoln during the final four months of his presidency — during which he ends the Civil War and abolishes slavery. The film follows the negotiations — and the reluctance — in between, offering another perspective on the story of the United States’ complicated relationship with freedom. Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for his portrayal.
“Lincoln” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
I Am Not Your Negro
James Baldwin says with simple elegance, “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America, and it is not a pretty story.”
This deeply personal documentary, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, envisions a book that Baldwin never finished. Before he died in 1987, the American literary genius was working on something meant to be a revolutionary account of the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. — all three, close friends of his; all three, champions and challengers of American freedom.
“This is not the land of the free; it is only sporadically the home of the brave,” Baldwin once said.
The film features clips from archival footage and interviews to great effect, expanding on themes of race in America that are as urgent today as they were 60 years ago.
“When the Israelis pick up guns, or the Poles, or the Irish, or any white man in the world says "give me liberty, or give me death," the entire white world applauds. When a Black man says exactly the same thing, word for word, he is judged a criminal and treated like one and everything possible is done to make an example of this bad n*****, so there won't be any more like him.”
American history is Black history.
“The future of the Negro in this country … is precisely as bright or as dark as the future of the country. It is entirely up to the American people and not representatives. It is entirely up to the American people whether or not they are going to face and deal with and embrace the stranger they have maligned so long.”
“I Am Not Hour Negro” has been described as a radical narration about race in America. It would be more accurate to call it simply: the truth.
"I Am Not Your Negro" is currently streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
America: The Motion Picture
For a little levity, and to remind ourselves that America can and does have a sense of humor about itself, the creators of “The Expendables,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Magic Mike” — just let that combination marinate for a second — have given us “America: The Motion Picture.” The 2021 adults-only animated movie takes a satirical approach to Independence Day.
Think “Archer,” but set during the American Revolution. With a chainsaw-wielding George Washington. And a beer-loving Sam Adams. Plus, the characters are voiced by some of the best in comedy: Channing Tatum, Jason Mantzoukas, Olivia Munn, Bobby Moynihan, Judy Greer, Will Forte and Andy Samberg.
“America: The Motion Picture” is currently streaming on Netflix.
Independence Day
July 4, 1776, will always commemorate America’s independence from Great Britain, but July 3, 1996 — that’s the day Will Smith and President Bill Pullman* brought us our independence from aliens.
The summer blockbuster “Independence Day” has everything — Randy Quaid as a disgruntled fighter pilot, aliens, Will Smith in one of his earliest landmark hero roles, spaceships, explosions — and it doesn’t ask us to think too hard about anything.
“We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests,” says Pullman, playing President Thomas J. Whitmore, in his climactic pep talk to a global contingent of fighter pilots on a suicide mission to bring down a massive global alien invasion.
The “Henry V” St. Crispin’s Day speech it is not, but Pullman’s call for global unity delivers more nonpartisan presidential gravitas than any Biden, Clinton or Reagan could reasonably dream of.
*Bill Pullman is not actually our president.
“Independence Day” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime
National Treasure
In this illogical adventure romp, it’s not American ideals that are in danger — it’s the paper they’re printed on. On the back of the Declaration of Independence, there is a coded, invisible map pointing to the location of a huge stockpile of lost treasures, and historian Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) is desperate to get it.
But Gates has some rivals who would also like to be filthy rich. Basically, whoever can steal the Declaration, find the map, and decode it first, will discover the greatest treasure ever accumulated in history.
Well, if you’re gonna steal the Declaration of Independence, you gotta do it in Philly. (Shhh … the movie has only a few scenes shot across Philadelphia’s historic district, as well as The Franklin Institute — and … Urban Outfitters?) Rewatch for yourself and see how many Philly landmarks you can find. Just don’t be fooled by the ones faked on Hollywood sets.
“National Treasure” is currently streaming on Disney+.