Juliet Waldron

Loved this movie when I first saw it as a child. It actually ages pretty well, for a production of this time. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a part for Christopher Lee. :)

America wasn't ready for this particular truth yet--especially in 1995. This beautiful, well-researched and marvelously well acted movie was made by Merchant Ivory, from whose shop only the very finest period work comes. At the time, this movie totally knocked my late 18th Century loving self out, particularly Nick Nolte's performance as Jefferson, a man who saw himself as an enlightened, cultivated, genius and philosopher. Of course, he was and his Declaration of Independence proclaims this, I can't argue with any of that. His actions in the world, however, were those a wealthy privileged planter who had absolutely no insight at all into who and what he truly was. The careening folly of the rich "liberal" French aristocrats with whom he socialized is painted in excruciating detail, as we see a society on the brink of implosion. "No Justice, No Peace." As true then as it is today.