Capturing U.S. History

The Revolutionary War generally hasn’t fared well on the screen. Here’s a list of some of the films:

* D.W. Griffith’s “America” (1924) is an ambitious attempt to cram as much fabled history and Victorian romance as possible into a Revolutionary War story, but it’s no “Birth of a Nation,” a stunning film about the Civil War despite its abhorrent racial politics.

* John Ford’s “Drums Along the Mohawk” (1939), probably the most popular and successful Revolutionary War film, is really a transplanted western in glorious Technicolor. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play frontier newlyweds battling Indians led by creepy British loyalist John Carradine (wearing an eye patch, no less).

* “The Howards of Virginia” (1940) is a stodgy, class-conscious romantic drama with usually charismatic Cary Grant falling in love with aristocratic Martha Scott, trying to turn her and her Tory family around to the rebels’ side.

* “Johnny Tremain” (1957), based on the popular coming-of-agenovel, gives the popular Disney touch to the conflict as told through the eager eyes of a young boy determined to prove his patriotism.

* “The Devil’s Disciple” (1959) transforms George Bernard Shaw’s satirical play on ego and ambiguity into an underrated film. Burt Lancaster plays the neutral minister turned rabble-rouser, and Kirk Douglas plays the wily rascal turned moral savior. Laurence Olivier plays the famed “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne with his usual aplomb.

* “1776” (1972), the best film of all on the Revolution, faithfully adapts the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, providing lyricism, suspense and enlightenment.

* “Revolution” (1985), the most notorious flop of the bunch, tries to be hip and dark in an obvious post-Vietnam way, but even Al Pacino can’t save this dour father-son adventure.