Give Me Liberty

Give Me Liberty was the first of three short subjects in which character actor John Litel played the fiery Virginia bred founding father. This one is a competently made film which gives the essence of the real Patrick Henry.

One of the other reviewers mentioned that he thought Litel was old fashionedly flamboyant as Henry. But in point of fact that's what he was in real life. He was indeed the kind of spell binding orator whose words did move men. Henry was one of the leaders of the Virginia bar as well as a Delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, his summations to the jury were legendary.

That aroused a lot of jealousy among his contemporaries. Thomas Jefferson whose forte was writing not speaking, trained as a lawyer as a young man. I recall reading Dumas Malone's multi-volume Jefferson biography where Jefferson wrote in his diary about how hard he worked on researching precedents and that all Patrick Henry did was bamboozle juries with bull. Nothing's changed in over 230 years as far as lawyers in this country. Jefferson gave up law practice and it was Patrick Henry's stock in trade.

He was a mercurial man Henry, you never knew which side of an issue he'd wind up on. He was at various stages after the Revolution, a Federalist and an anti-Federalist whatever the mood struck him.

Don't look for consistency with Henry, but this film will give you a good idea what he was like in his glory days of the Revolutionary War.

Despite an half-decent effort from John Litel as he takes to a church in Virginia as Patrick Henry to espouse liberty from British colonial rule, the rest of this is all a rather lacklustre and overly theatrical costume drama with some serious over-acting. The presence of neatly suited and booted characters like "Moses" isn't deemed relevant as these privileged white folks pontificate about liberty and freedom whilst just about every manual function in their lives is carried out by slaves. It's that hypocrisy that becomes a little harder to stomach as this sets about illustrating, albeit inadvertently, that for the vast majority of women and for just about everyone of colour in Virginia, and elsewhere, all this would result in is a change from wigged and proud gents in London to equally wigged and proud gents closer to home. Had they just stuck to allowing Litel to deliver a complete version of Henry's rousing and impassioned speech as if it were a monologue, then it might have worked. They didn't, and what we have here is a borderline and nauseatingly simplistic critique on the glories of the as yet unformed USA versus the supposed and exaggerated tyrannies of the Old World. I found this to be annoying, sorry!

Give Me Liberty (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-winning short from Warner gets extra credit for featuring a great performance by John Litel as well as being shot in Technicolor. The movie has Litel playing Patrick Henry, the man who would eventually rise up before Virginia legislators and demand that they join the American Revolution by giving the classic "Give Me Liberty" speech. I must admit that I found the direction to be too laid back and at times my mind actually wondered away from what the story was actually about but with Litel's performance it's impossible not to at least be entertained. Litel would play this character in three short films with this being the first and he perfectly nails the character. The fiery energy he brings to the film will have you wanting to stand up and cheer and especially during the final speech. The other big benefit was that the film was shot in Technicolor and while the film doesn't look as good as future films it's still an early part of history.

John Litel stars as Patrick Henry in this Warner Brothers Technicolor Short. It's a stodgy affair, with snippets of Henry's inflammatory speeches scattered here and there as folks in 18th-Century costumes spend most of their time posing, waiting for Litel to break loose and announce "Give me liberty, or give me death!"

The Warner Technicolor shorts were intended as prestige pieces, meant to show off the expensive three-strip process in an edifying manner. One of the strengths of the Technicolor process was its flexibility, and the entire film seems to have been given a beige wash, suggesting parchment, or old, oxidized paper. The print that plays on Turner Classic Movies is a little fuzzy, but quite watchable.

This is WB doing a Vitaphone Technicolor short on Patrick Henry. The highlight is his bombastic inspirational speech inside the Virginia legislature as he argues for arming the militia and abandoning any more negotiations.

With Europe in turmoil, it's easy to see the subtext in this freedom-loving historical short. It's pumping up the patriotism. It feels like a poor version of Masterpiece Theater until we get to the big speech. There is no doubt that the speech is a big crowd pleaser and I'm sure that the audience of its day loved it. This did win the Oscar for color short. The Technicolor probably helped a lot.