"Historical movies have been around for as long as movies themselves, but films and TV series about the great founding event of the United States have been thin on the ground, certainly until the 21st century. In 1917, an American director was even prosecuted for making The Spirit of '76, a film about the Revolution that criticized Great Britain, America's new ally. It wasn't until 1985 that Hollywood tried a big-budget retelling of the American Revolution, with Revolution."
"Sadly, the Al Pacino vehicle, while spectacular, had an incoherent storyline and was an unmistakable flop. Another 15 years passed before Hollywood tried again, with The Patriot (2000). The Mel Gibson movie was more financially successful than Revolution but arguably even less popular among the historical community (including myself). Amid all these flops, however, a few gems emerged in a different medium: television."
"This four-season AMC TV series stars Jamie Bell as patriot spy Abraham Woodhull, who was a leading figure in George Washington's successful spy network, the Culper Ring. The show was based on the 2006 book Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose. The series consists of 40 episodes, and each one is action-packed. For me, it conjures up the secret war of the Revolution brilliantly. The series explores some of the most intriguing characters of the War of Independence, but most interesting for me was Ksenia Solo's interpretation of Peggy Shippen, an American woman who spied for the British, then married patriot hero Benedict Arnold and helped him defect to"
Feature films about the American Revolution were rare and unevenly received before the 21st century, with legal controversy as early as 1917 and a long gap until 1985. Big-budget attempts such as Revolution failed critically and commercially, and later films like The Patriot achieved box-office success while dividing historians. Television produced more effective and sustained portrayals, offering depth through multi-episode narratives. Television dramatizations recreated espionage, political conflict, and biographical portraits, exemplified by Turn: Washington's Spies and by miniseries that dramatize the lives and careers of key founders such as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
Read at Smithsonian Magazine
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