Movie: Revolutionary America

Revolutionary America, Hillsdale College’s new Ken Burns-style documentary on the founding, arrives at a fitting moment: the nation’s 250th anniversary. Though it resembles Burns's work in its message, soundtrack (very much like the work of Hans Zimmer), maps, and pacing, it is far superior to anything Burns has done.

The documentary is a gorgeous, straightforward, non-ideological approach to a difficult and complex historical subject...

... Revolutionary America is broken into two parts. Its first half explores the events leading up to the Battle of Lexington, the Revolution's opening salvo, on April 19, 1775. The second half considers the move toward independence, George Washington’s masterful leadership of the Continental Army, and the Revolution's fulfillment through the creation and passage of the Constitution. The documentary builds to a powerful close, with President Arnn observing that the American Revolution never really ended - that every generation must rededicate itself to the principles on which it was fought.

The Revolution was an eruption of eternal truths in time, a moment steadied by Ciceronian first principles, an expression of Judeo-Christian truths of natural law and natural rights. One comes away from the film not only with an increased devotion to and patriotism for the American republic, but also with a deep appreciation of the men who fought for independence: John Adams, Sam Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson, and, most especially, George Washington...

Brilliantly, Revolutionary America lingers over the creation of the Continental Army and the Declaration of Independence, approved on July 2 and adopted on July 4. Then, at a wonderful breakneck speed, the movie details the ups and downs, the victories and the tragedies, of the Revolutionary War...

The film serves as an anamnesis - a remembering of all that matters...