Just to start this blog out on a lighter note, my friend Derk looks exactly like Craig Wasson, who played James Madison in the movie. A total Doppelgänger. I pointed this out to Derk, and this photo is now his Facebook profile picture. Win.
On a more substantive note, I keep noticing in every film that we watch the differences between the characters and personalities of the Founders. I sometimes think of them as a monolithic block of upper-class white men in wigs. How wrong could I be! Benjamin Franklin's hair was totally real.
But seriously, the creation of the Constitution required serious sacrifice and compromise between competing ideas of what a good government would be. It is really incredible that the document they were able to draw up has lasted as long as it has, especially with only minor revisions. The fundamental premise of our government has remained what James Madison organized and wrote and compromised into the Constitution.
Interesting to me, in the film, was the debate over the Bill of Rights - that states would protect those rights, and that the prescribed system of government would check that.
Last, and I know this is sort of a weak-sauce blog entry, and further, I write this doubting that the TAs actually read our blogs, but why are we watching movies instead of having class lecture? How does a C-list film produced by BYU replace a lecture from a PhD? This is an honors class, and I can see the value of watching films as a supplement to lecture, but totally replacing class with a movie? I'm always a little sketched out by historical films in any case, because how can you represent another time period accurately?
Sorry to be critical, I just expected more from an Honors course.
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