Sons of Liberty Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Sons of Liberty Blu-ray Movie Review

What, wasn't 'Sons of Anarchy' available as a title?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 19, 2015

One of the fondest memories of my childhood is of attending a touring production of Broadway’s 1776 with my father. My Dad, a literalist and no special fan of musical theater, wasn’t especially swayed by the production, but I was swept away by the whole wonder of seeing “historical” figures come alive, and in sometimes unexpected ways (John Adams was an annoying curmudgeon! Ben Franklin was an acerbic clown!). If 1776 reinvented America’s Founding Fathers in a blatantly theatrical and at times at least historically inaccurate way, History’s Sons of Liberty does much the same thing (and arguably more so), albeit this time without much singing and dancing attending the festivities. As “historical fiction” (a phrase History itself has used to describe the show), Sons of Liberty is often quite enjoyable, if just as often way too contemporary feeling for its own good. As an actual CliffsNotes review of what led up to the Revolutionary War, it is (to use a technical term) a load of hooey. The miniseries opts to mimic Gangs of New York rather than Revolutionary fare like, well, 1776 in its early going, though in this case it might be more appropriate to say “gangs of Boston,” which are depicted as out of control marauding bands of men intent on little more than punching each other senseless. Rather quickly, though, courtesy of some anchoring narration by Sam Adams (Ben Barnes), the plot begins to center on British oppression, in this case of Adams himself.

Though evidently divorced rather dramatically from the actual historical record (there are actually several online articles detailing this miniseries' manifold departures from fact), Sons of Liberty posits Adams as having invited the umbrage of the British by not performing his duties as a tax collector, thereby assuming the debts of the nonpaying citizenry himself. That has left him owing thousands of pounds, with the result being an arrest warrant issued for him. That in turn leads to the first of several fanciful (to put it mildly) sequences, wherein Adams, in an 18th century version of The Bourne Identity, goes all “parkour” on the Redcoats, madly scrambling over any number of seemingly insurmountable obstacles to get away from the soldiers.

The meandering plot soon involves a foppish John Hancock (Rafe Spall), a well to do importer who has worked out a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangement with Governor Thomas Hutchinson (Sean Gilder), something that Hutchinson uses to his advantage when those aforementioned gangs run amok and destroy the governor’s mansion, ostensibly because of the Redcoats trying to track down Sam Adams (virtually all of these plot points have little to do with the actual historical record). When Hancock’s well meaning attempts to calm the Adams acolytes down while also winning Adams over by paying off his debt runs afoul of Hutchinson’s martinet tendencies, the British (in England) are alerted, leading to the first incursion of additional troops which will ultimately lead to more overtly revolutionary activities on the part of the colonists.

Meanwhile Sam’s more conformist cousin John (Henry Thomas) attempts to keep his hipster relative in line, while also urging Sam to get over a recent tragedy and back into the romantic swing of things. Sam and Hancock team up to smuggle goods into Boston, developing a patently non-historical scheme which involves special coins minted by one Paul Revere (Michael Raymond-James). Ben Franklin (Dean Norris), then in England, also attempts to quell the incipient riots erupting back in his “real” homeland. The first episode finally tips over into the first “real” showdown between British troops and colonists, leading to a heartrending massacre.

With the fanciful main characters in place, the second and third episodes of Sons of Liberty gets into some of the more epochal events leading up to the Revolutionary War, with the second episode detailing the exploits which would become known as the Boston Tea Party, and the third episode finally getting to actual battlefields like Lexington and Concord.

History (and its progenitor “History Channel”) have always had at times rather tangential connections to actual honest to goodness history, with many of the network’s offerings tipping over into hyperbolic fictionalizing or (in the case of some of the channel’s pseudo-documentaries) apocalyptic overkill. Sons of Liberty has style to spare (maybe too much, in fact), but the fact that it has recast its substance so dramatically means this miniseries, however passingly entertaining, begs the question as to why it was made in the first place. One of the featurettes included as a supplement offers one of the writers talking about how many times History executives must have heard a “Revolutionary War pitch” for a series, and how he wanted to bring something new to the table. That’s certainly a laudable goal, but in reconstituting these iconic figures as post-modern characters is a risky gambit and one which never resonates very well, instead seeming to stand out like a sore (too contemporary seeming) thumb.

Performances are generally quite winning throughout the miniseries, though it’s obvious that the creative staff wants to offer up dashing young (too young, in fact) actors like Ben Barnes who seem to be more teen heartthrob than iconic historical mover and shaker. Director Kari Skogland has also worked on Vikings: The Complete Second Season, stuffs the series full of visual bells and whistles, something that provides a certain amount of energy but which also tends to draw attention to the fact that the overall strategy with Sons of Liberty seems to be modernizing without much care as to whether “the facts, and just the facts” are part of the presentation.

Sons of Liberty Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sons of Liberty is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and History with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Director Kari Skogland and cinematographer George Steel play rather aggressively with things like color grading, texture (some scenes are "distressed" looking), and other bells and whistles, some of which tend to give the miniseries a somewhat soft ambience. Contrast is at times a bit anemic, leading to minimal murk in dimly lit sequences. Even in aggressively color graded (or desaturated) sequences, detail is still often quite commendable, and close-ups can reveal excellent fine detail. A couple of establishing shots look even softer than the bulk of this enterprise, and some of the CGI is also on the soft side. A smattering of noise creeps into some of the darker sequences, but other than some very brief banding there are no huge problems to cause concern.

Sons of Liberty Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

History offerings tend to be fairly bombastic, and from the first LFE blast that opens Sons of Liberty, it's obvious that this miniseries' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is going to be no exception. Relentlessly noisy as so many History shows tend to be, there's near constant immersion courtesy of any number of sound effects dotting the surrounds, not necessarily limited to more obviously impressive moments like battle scenes with gunfire or cannon blasts. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and is well prioritized, and the enjoyable score (which includes a theme by Hans Zimmer) is nicely placed throughout the surrounds. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide on this problem free track.

Sons of Liberty Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lensing Liberty (1080p; 9:37) offers an overview of some of the challenges faced by getting various things like the big set pieces like battles filmed for this miniseries.


• Choreography of War (1080p; 9:08) has some good behind the scenes footage of various fight scenes being planned.


• Men of Independence (1080p; 16:46) provides a bit more information on several of the historical figures who show up in the series.

Sons of Liberty Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you "don't know much about history," chances are you'll enjoy large swaths of Sons of Liberty. The show is unabashedly modern in intent and framing, something that will probably speak to younger audiences who couldn't care less if the "real" Sam Adams was neither the near alcoholic nor the dashing young man he's portrayed as being here. Very stylish at times (something else that will provide allure for younger audiences especially), Sons of Liberty often has very little to do with the actual historical record, which seems to be the direction that the now ironically named History seems to be taking. As a starting point of investigation rather than a definitive summation of epochal events, Sons of Liberty may at least spark some heated discussions among those who do know the actual history being portrayed. With caveats noted, and with an understanding that the technical merits of this release are largely excellent, Sons of Liberty comes Recommended.