Any discussion of films and TV series about the American Revolution has to start with a caveat. 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.
By Stuart Salmon for Smithsonian Magazine
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. I’m a historian of the American Revolution, and these are my favorite ways the story has been told on TV.
1. “Turn: Washington’s Spies” (2014-17)
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 the British. This is a major plotline in the show’s later seasons.
The series’ main villain is British officer John Graves Simcoe (Samuel Roukin), whose historical counterpart was a very different character to the one portrayed in the series. His memoir is a key primary source for the British experience of the war. I have been lucky enough to read Simcoe’s handwritten copy.
2. “John Adams” (2008)
This wonderful HBO mini-series stars Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, the power couple of the American Revolution. The series is based on the 2001 book John Adams by David McCullough. Linney and Giamatti both won Emmy Awards for the show and brilliantly portray their complex but likable characters.
Although John is the one whose name is in the title, his wife, Abigail, has an equal role in the series. My favorite scene shows Abigail putting herself and her children in smallpox quarantine in Revolutionary-era Boston. This happened as shown and sheds light on the bizarre regime in which doctors would deposit fluid from smallpox vesicles into an incision on a person’s arm. Patients would then shut themselves away for at least two weeks in the hope of catching a lighter version of the disease while building immunity.
The series creates a great picture of two hugely influential figures in the Revolution and the history of the U.S. The couple arguably established many of the key features of the roles of president and first lady. They wrote each other thousands of letters over their 54-year marriage, but the most fascinating is Abigail’s letter to John on the eve of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (John was instrumental in getting the Declaration passed by Congress.) She urges John to “remember the ladies.” The letter is a hugely important early feminist document, which is now widely used as a teaching aid.
3. “Franklin” (2024)
This Apple TV+ mini-series is based on the 2005 book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America by Stacy Schiff. It chronicles Benjamin Franklin’s attempts to negotiate an alliance with France during the War of Independence.
Directed by Tim Van Patten and featuring a strong performance by Michael Douglas in the titular role, the series covers some of the same historical ground as “John Adams.” Both the second president (played in “Franklin” by Eddie Marsan) and Franklin spent much of the Revolutionary War in Europe attempting to secure alliances with European powers.
This series is very entertaining and gives a warts-and-all picture of Franklin as a septuagenarian. For an account of the young Franklin, his autobiography is well worth a read, and it also masterfully captures life in Colonial Pennsylvania.
4. “Liberty! The American Revolution” (1997)
If there was just one film or TV series that inspired me to study, write about and teach the American Revolution, it was this six-part documentary. It reached me at exactly the right time—about a year before I began my final undergraduate course on the Revolution.
The PBS series contains contributions from some of the key historians of the Revolution, such as Pauline Maier, Gordon S. Wood and Bernard Bailyn. It also has readings of the words of participants on both sides of the Revolution by actors, including a prefame Philip Seymour Hoffman. The wide-ranging coverage spawned an excellent tie-in book.
While “Liberty!” did not neglect to show the diversity of the American Revolution, more attention could have been paid the contributions of women, African Americans and Indigenous Americans. Historian Gary B. Nash’s 2005 book, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America, was a key work in recognizing this diversity. There have been other documentaries on the American Revolution, but it was this one that shaped the course of my career in history.
Did you know? “The American Revolution” on PBS
- In November 2025, PBS aired another six-part documentary about America’s founding conflict.
- To create the series, titled “The American Revolution,” co-directors Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt spent more than nine years interviewing scholars and conducting archival research.
5. Hamilton (2020)
While technically a televised stage show (available to watch on Disney+), Hamilton is undoubtedly the most popular work of media with a Revolutionary theme. Drawing on Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography of the first U.S. Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical tells the tale of its eponymous founding father with amazing energy and humor.
I have been intrigued by the musical’s antihero and villain, Aaron Burr, since reading Gore Vidal’s novel Burr (1973) as a teenager. Leslie Odom Jr. does a wonderful job of portraying the conflicted third vice president. Jonathan Groff, meanwhile, nearly steals the whole show as George III, despite appearing for only a few minutes.
The musical covers the years 1776 to 1804 without seeming to miss many momentous events. While the best way to see Hamilton is live, watching the filmed adaptation is the only way to enjoy the show with the original Broadway cast. Historically, the musical takes some liberties—Hamilton was not as enlightened on the subject of slavery as it suggests, for example—but it gives a wonderful impression of the Revolutionary era.
This article is republished from the Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Stuart Salmon is a historian at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling in Scotland. He specializes in Colonial America and the Revolutionary War era.
Find the original article in its entirety on Smithsonian Magazine.
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