Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot | |
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Directed by | George Seaton |
Written by | Emmet Lavery |
Produced by |
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Cinematography | Haskell B. Boggs |
Edited by | Alma Macrorie |
Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 34 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot, often called The Patriot, is a 1957 orientation film produced by Paramount Pictures and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. As of 2014, it is the longest-running movie, having been shown continually at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center since March 31, 1957. On September 20, 2002, it was seen by its 30 millionth viewer. [1]
As museum orientation films go, Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot is a landmark, both because of its high production values and structure.
It was filmed in May 1956 at Colonial Williamsburg. [2] Whereas the usual 35mm flat-screen 1.33:1 ratio cinematography would have been considered extravagant for an orientation film, Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot was filmed and exhibited in VistaVision, a high definition widescreen film process with approximately the same negative size as 35mm still (SLR 135) photography, also oriented (and traveling) horizontally through the camera. It was a unique VistaVision film in that it was shown with six-channel stereo sound, whereas most films in that process were either shown in mono or in Perspecta sound. The music for the film was composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann, who was at the time best known for scoring several Alfred Hitchcock films.
Moreover, where previous museum orientation films (and many present day examples) are simple travelogues, with little or no narrative content, Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot told the story of Virginia's role in American Independence (up to the point of voting to propose independence at the Second Continental Congress), from the point of view of John Fry (played by a young Jack Lord), a fictional Virginia planter elected to the House of Burgesses. While it was filmed almost entirely in and around the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, and points out a number of the historic buildings by name, it is overwhelmingly a dramatization of history, rather than a travelogue.
A pair of specially-designed theaters, each seating 250 persons, were built for showing the film as part of the new visitors center being built at the time. [3] It was previewed for an audience including the Governor of Virginia Thomas Stanley and members of the Virginia General Assembly on the evening of March 30, and formally opened March 31, 1957. [3]
In the early 1960s, the film was translated into several languages for personal speakers that could be used by international visitors. [2]
Showings of the film were temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, [4] but have since returned. It currently airs four times a day at the Colonial Williamsburg Regional Visitor Center, twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. [5]
By the 1990s the film was showing its age, with severe fading problems in the original negatives and differing shrinkage rates in the separation masters that had been made as a backup. [6] As a result, even new prints looked no better than a 16mm orientation film would have looked.
In 2001, an extensive digital restoration effort was begun, [6] the result of which debuted (in relatively conventional 70mm DTS prints) in 2004. This is generally regarded as coming as close as present-day technology permits to replicate the clarity of the film as originally shown in the late 1950s. [6] It is estimated that despite the 35 minute running-time of this film, the restoration required enough digital storage to hold several feature-length films.
Jamestown Settlement is a living history museum operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, created in 1957 as Jamestown Festival Park for the 350th anniversary celebration. Today it includes a recreation of the original James Fort, a Powhatan Native American town, indoor and outdoor displays, and replicas of the original settlers' ships: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery.
Williamsburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.
James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg.
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia.
The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets that attempt to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
The Historic Triangle includes three historic colonial communities located on the Virginia Peninsula of the United States and is bounded by the York River on the north and the James River on the south. The points that form the triangle are Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown. They feature many restored attractions and are linked by the Colonial Parkway in James City and York counties, and the City of Williamsburg.
The Wren Building is the oldest building on the campus of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Along with the Brafferton and President's House, these buildings form the College's "Ancient Campus." With a construction history dating to 1695, it is the oldest academic building still standing in the United States and among the oldest buildings in Virginia. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Technirama is a screen process that has been used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid-1960s. The process was invented by Technicolor and is an anamorphic process with a screen ratio the same as revised CinemaScope (2.35:1), but it is actually 2.25:1 on the negative.
The Capitol at Williamsburg, Virginia housed both Houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the Council of State and the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia from 1705, when the capital was relocated there from Jamestown, until 1780, when the capital was relocated to Richmond. Two capitol buildings served the colony on the same site: the first from 1705 until its destruction by fire in 1747; the second from 1753 to 1780.
The Fifth Virginia Convention was a meeting of the Patriot legislature of Virginia held in Williamsburg from May 6 to July 5, 1776. This Convention declared Virginia an independent state and produced its first constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
The Raleigh Tavern was a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was one of the largest taverns in colonial Virginia. It gained some fame in the pre-American Revolutionary War Colony of Virginia as a gathering place for legislators after several Royal Governors officially dissolved the House of Burgesses, the elected legislative body, when their actions did not suit the Crown. It was also the site of the founding of the Phi Beta Kappa Society on December 5, 1776.
Parke Shepherd Rouse Jr. was an American journalist, writer and historian in Tidewater Virginia.
Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America located in the southeast area of Virginia. It is in Province III. The diocese includes the Hampton Roads area, Richmond south of the James River, most of the region known as Southside Virginia, and both Northampton and Accomack Counties of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
"Give me liberty, or give me death!" is a quotation attributed to American politician and orator Patrick Henry from a speech he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. Henry is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the convention to pass a resolution delivering Virginian troops for the Revolutionary War. Among the delegates to the convention were future United States presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
Leora Dana was an American film, stage and television actress.
The history of the College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It fulfilled an early colonial vision dating back to 1618 to construct a university level program modeled after Cambridge and Oxford at Henricus. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.
The Forgotten Village is a 1941 American documentary film—some sources call it an ethnofiction film—directed by Herbert Kline and Alexander Hammid. The film was written by John Steinbeck, narrated by Burgess Meredith, and with music by Hanns Eisler. The film was released by the film distribution partnership of Arthur Mayer & Joseph Burstyn.
The President's House is the residence of the President of the College of William and Mary in Virginia in Williamsburg, Virginia. Constructed in 1732, the building still serves its original purpose and is among the oldest buildings in Virginia. Since its construction only one of the college's presidents, Robert Saunders Jr., has not moved into the building, which is let for free to the president. The President's House is William & Mary's third-oldest building and the oldest official college presidential residence in the United States.
The Bodleian Plate is a copperplate depicting several colonial buildings of 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as several types of native flora, fauna, and American Indians. Following its 1929 rediscovery in the archives of the Bodleian Library, it was used extensively in John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg. The plate has been tied to Williamsburg resident William Byrd II and may have been produced by English illustrator Eleazar Albin and engraver John Carwitham. It is dated to the 1730s.