a more perfect union.

This week in class we watched the BYU production of A More Perfect Union. It was an educational movie full of horrible acting and inaccurate accents but it carefully displayed historical content to the benefit of the viewer.

The movie mainly followed James Madison, the man considered as the Father of the Constitution, as he and the rest of the Founding Fathers paved their way through creating the Constitution. I thought the movie was very interesting because it painted James Madison in a very bad light. From what I have read about James Madison, he was a fairly shy man but he had a strong opinion. I thought the portrayal of him in this movie was very negative.

The character of James Madison was very demanding, powerful, negative and severely outspoken. Throughout the movie I became very frustrated with him and had a hard time watching him. I didn’t appreciate his character very much. I know that James Madison was very steadfast in his opinions and beliefs but I never imagined him to be so overruling and frustrated all the time.

I do understand that early America was a time of opinions, frustrations, varying ideas, and conflict. I believe that there is plenty reason for people to be strong in their beliefs and I understand why James Madison would be so outspoken. However, I felt the movie’s portrayal of his character was brutal and I had a hard time enjoying him.