1776

1776 (1972) is a historical musical film to watch online on iFILM, directed by Peter H. Hunt from the Broadway production that claimed the Tony for Best Musical in 1969. At 141 minutes, it covers one summer in Philadelphia: the fractious debates that produced a declaration.

William Daniels plays John Adams as a man perpetually ahead of everyone else — driven, abrasive, and usually right. Howard Da Silva is a calculating Benjamin Franklin; Ken Howard is a reluctant Thomas Jefferson handed the task of drafting a document he did not want to write; and Blythe Danner plays his wife Martha. Every delegate at the Continental Congress gets an argument to make, and the film gives the slavery dispute the weight it deserves.

Few musicals make the founding of a country feel this unglamorous, or this messy. Stream 1776 (1972) online on iFILM.