Title: John Adams

Director: Tom Hooper

Screenwriter: Kirk Ellis

Subject: John Adams by David McCullough

Year: 2008

Cast: Paul Giammati, Laura Linney, Danny Huston, Justin
Theroux, Stephen Dillane, David Morse, Tom Wilkinson,
Rufus Sewell, Guy Henry.

Duration: 501’ (total running time)

Production Company: HBO Films, High Noon Productions,
Playtone, Mid Atlantic Films

Production Country: USA

Plot: The plot follows the life of John Adams, focusing
in particular on his role during the American War of
Independence. The events depicted include its political
rise, starting with his election to the First Continental

Congress and peaking with his role as Second President of
the United States. The series then covers his political
downfall and retirement. The finale revolves around his
private life, ending with his death.

Main Source Language: English

Target Dubbed Language: Italian

Target Title: John Adams

Dubbing Director: Sonia Scotti

Dubbing Actors: Massimo Rossi (John Adams), Roberta
Greganti (Abigail Adams), Pasquale Anselmo (Samuel
Adams), Christian Iansante (John Hancock), Roberto
Pedicini (Jonathan Sewall), Michele Gammino (George
Washington), Edoardo Stoppacciaro (Thomas Jefferson),
Francesco Prando (Alexander Hamilton).

Language Varieties in ST: Semi-historical British-
American accents (historical American characters),
British English (British characters)

How would you describe the day-to-day process with the
actors?
I had them listen very clearly to the intonation patterns
and the rhythms and just listen to the British dialect

like a piece of music. This is the basis for accent work.
And then we would say, "Let's try dropping an r' in here.
Let's give a hint of what people would recognize as an
American quality because this is drama and not phonetic
analysis at a university program. We're talking about
painting the picture.

What can we name the accents that are in John Adams?
It's different because you've got the Virginia ones and
the Philadelphia one… I would say "American in the
making."
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/03/theres-a-genera

From the beginning, we wanted to emphasize that
independence was a battle between British Americans and
their brethren in England, not, as so often depicted, a
conflict that pitted Crown officers with plumy Oxonian
accents against patriots with full-blown American
dialects. All our research pointed to the fact that, in
written and spoken speech, America was much closer to the
mother country than had been acknowledged in past
dramatizations.
From our advisors in Colonial Williamsburg, we learned
that one’s residence in America frequently depended on
one’s point of origin in England. Virginia, for instance,
was largely settled by residents of East Anglia—in terms
of dialect and accent a very distinctive region.
Moreover, a goodly number of our characters (notably John
Dickinson) had been educated in English schools and had
acquired the manners and speech of the time and place.
Still others, such as Adams’s Secretary of War James
McHenry, were themselves immigrants whose accents (Irish,
in McHenry’s case) were noted at the time.
Our dialect coach, the gifted Catherine Charlton, asked

me to provide miniature biographies of each character,
from which she was able to reconstruct that person’s
likely accent. Catherine had had past experience in such
linguistic archaeology, having had to essentially re-
invent a lost Native American language for Terence
Malick’s film about Jamestown, The New World. The results
of the painstaking craftsmanship are evident in the rich
tapestry of accents heard throughout the series, which we
regard as accurate an approximation as can be reached at
this distance in time, without the benefit of recording.

https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2008/03/accents-in-john-
adams.html

Function of Language Varieties in ST: British vs.
American, time and place, portrayals of real people

Dubbed Language Rendition: Standard Italian

Instance Description: (Independence, Episode 2) Adams,
Franklin and Jefferson have met in order to draft the
Declaration of Independence. Whilst reading through
Jefferson’s writing, they discuss whether some parts are
to be altered.

Instance Start Time: 0’13’’

Instance Duration: 3’10’’

Instance Web Link:
https://youtu.be/C7o5kWrbJJE?t=13
ST Instance Transcription:
Adams: This is something altogether unexpected, not only
a declaration of our independence, but of the rights of
all men. No, this is well said, sir. Very well said. "The
Christian King of Great Britain "has waged cruel war
against human nature itself in the persons of a distant
people who never offended him, captivating and carrying
them into slavery in another hemisphere.”
Franklin: Yes, you lay the evils of slavery at the feet
of the King, but you say nothing of slavery itself, sir.
Now surely, if the trade is outlawed but ownership is
not, then those unfortunate Negroes still in servitude
will become a more lucrative commodity.
Jefferson: That's not what I intended, Dr. Franklin.
Slavery is an abomination and must be loudly proclaimed
as such, but I own that neither I nor any man has any
immediate solution to the problem.
Franklin: Oh, well, it is no matter. The issue before us
is independence and not emancipation.
Adams: Dr. Franklin, this document is – is something.
Franklin: Something our friends in the Congress will
debate. But I will be very surprised if they will
countenance an attack on slavery.
(The men silently agree about this.)
Franklin, reading: "We hold these truths to be sacred and
undeniable, "that all men are created equal" Etcetera.
"Sacred and undeniable." Smacks of the pulpit.
Jefferson: Does it?
Franklin: These truths are self-evident are they not?

Jefferson: Perhaps.
Franklin: Self-evident then. Self-evident?
Jefferson: Self-evident.
Adams: Self-evident.
Franklin: Do not mistake me, sir. I share your sentiment.
Jefferson: Every single word was precisely chosen. I
assure you of that, Dr. Franklin.
Franklin: Yes, but yours will not be the only hand in
this document. It cannot be. They will try to mangle it,
and they may succeed.
Adams: There may be expressions which I would not have
inserted if I had drawn it up, but I will defend every
word of it.
Jefferson: Well, it's what I believe.

TT Instance Transcription:
Adams: Bene, questo è del tutto inaspettato. Non solo una
dichiarazione della nostra indipendenza ma… dei diritti
di tutti gli uomini. Questo… questo è ben espresso.
Veramente ben espresso. “Il re Cristiano di Gran Bretagna
ha mosso una Guerra crudele contro la stessa natura umana
nelle persone di un popolo lontano che mai lo aveva
offeso, catturandoli e portandoli in schiavitù in un
altro emisfero”.
Franklin: Dunque, vedo che i mali connessi alla schiavitù
li imputate al re, ma non dite niente della schiavitù in
sé stessa. Ora, di certo se il commercio viene vietato ma
il possesso no, allora quei negri sventurati ancora in
servitù diventeranno un bene maggiormente lucrativo.

Jefferson: Non è quello che intendevo, Dottor Franklin.
La schiavitù è un abominio e tale va dichiarata a gran
voce, ma riconosco che né io né nessun altro ha in mano
una immediata risoluzione del problema.
Franklin: Beh, sì, questo non ha importanza. La questione
davanti a noi è l’indipendenza, non l’emancipazione.
Adams: Dottor Franklin, questo document è…
Franklin: È qualche cosa che I nostril amici al congress
dibatteranno. Ma sarei molto sorpreso se tollerassero
un’attacco alla schiavitù.
(Gli uomini convengono silenziosamente in merito)
Franklin, leggendo: “Riteniamo che queste verità siano
sacre e innegabili, che tutti gli uomini sono creati
uguali” eccetera eccetera. "Sacre e innegabili." Puzza di
pulpito.
Jefferson: Davvero?
Franklin: Queste verità sono di per sé stesso evidenti,
non lo sono?
Jefferson: Può darsi.
Franklin: Evidenti allora. Evidenti?
Jefferson: Evidenti.
Adams: Sì, evidenti.
Franklin: Non fraintendetemi, signore. Io condivido il
vostro sentire.
Jefferson: Ogni parola era stata attentamente scelta. Ve
lo garantisco, Dottor Franklin.
Franklin: Sì, ma la vostra non sarà l’unica e sola mano
in questo documento. Non può esserla. Tenteranno di
maciullarlo, e potrebbero riuscirci.

Adams: Vi possono essere espressioni che non avrei
inserito se l’avessi stilato io, ma ne difenderò a fondo
ogni parola.
Jefferson: Beh, è quello che credo.