1776
According to the film 1776, which was based on a Broadway musical decades before Lin Manuel’s Hamilton, the founders sang and danced their way through the tumultuous debates which led to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence during the summer of the titular year. Even so, it presents the historical events of that summer in a largely accurate manner. Unlike all too many films which tend to present the founders as ponderous semi-deities, it reveals the human sides to their historical debates and personal interactions.
The largely forgotten role of Abigail Adams in shaping the attitudes and actions of her husband John are presented, with much of the dialogue and even some of the song lyrics attributed to her are based on surviving letters she wrote at the time. Other founders are represented accurately as well, with John Dickinson of Pennsylvania cautioning against independence while arguing for reconciliation with the King, and Caesar Rodney (largely forgotten in most other dramatizations) hesitant to act because the belief his cancer was affecting his judgment.
Jefferson is usually described as considering himself unworthy to draft the actual declaration, in part because of his youth, but here he is reticent because of his desire to return home to Monticello to be with his wife. This attitude on the part of the Virginian is reflected in his own notes and letters, written throughout that summer.
Finally, despite the highly visible Unanimous in the finished document’s preamble, the convention is accurately presented as being deadlocked when it finally votes on the issue of Independence, with the deciding vote for the colony of Pennsylvania being cast by the wholly unknown James Wilson. Wilson bucked tradition by voting for independence, breaking with John Dickinson and siding with Benjamin Franklin, an act forgotten by history.
Once the issue passed, the colonists decided on unanimity for reasons of posterity, sparking Franklin’s famous quip about hanging together or hanging separately. Once the song and dance are cast aside, 1776 tells the story as it was – according to the existing records of the convention – recorded by those who were there.