An Empire of Reason

Docudrama about the debate surrounding New York State's ratification of the United States Constitution. Historical figures wear modern dress and use familiar language to help today's audience understand firsthand the forces that shaped this country two hundred years ago. The argument, characters, passions and debating points are historically accurate, but the language and the medium of the debate is modern in form. Present day newscasters and commentators play themselves, reporting on the events of the 1780s as though they were occurring now.

Cast

Cokie Roberts

as Self - Host

William F. Buckley Jr.

as Self

Walter Cronkite

as Self

John Chancellor

as Self

Phil Donahue

as Self

Robert MacNeil

as Self

Andrea Mitchell

as Self

Al Roker

as Self

Forrest Sawyer

as Self

Jamey Sheridan

as Daniel Shays

Reviews

Similar Movies

Reimagining A Buffalo Landmark

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.

⭐ 10.0🤍

JFK

Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.

⭐ 7.6🤍

Ray

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

⭐ 7.5🤍

A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy

Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy was a television special featuring the First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy on a tour of the recently renovated White House. It was broadcast on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1962, on both CBS and NBC, and broadcast four days later on ABC. The program was the first ever First Lady televised tour of the White House, and has since been considered the first prime-time documentary specifically designed to appeal to a female audience.

⭐ 9.0🤍

President Kennedy's Birthday Salute

President Kennedy's birthday celebration was held at the third Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, and more than 15,000 people attended, including numerous celebrities. The event was a fundraising gala for the Democratic Party. Features Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK.

⭐ 7.3🤍

Three Sovereigns for Sarah

Nineteen people were hanged and one man pressed to death, while hundreds went to jail during the "witch hysteria" of 1692. THREE SOVEREIGNS FOR SARAH offers an accurate portrayal of the Salem witch trials, with real characters and original transcripts woven into the dialogue. The film is a powerful, moving story about three loving sisters accused of witchcraft.

⭐ 0.0🤍

The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone

An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain.

⭐ 6.0🤍

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer

An in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

⭐ 6.4🤍

The Human Factor

How US politicians and diplomats, over the past 25 years, have come close to achieving something almost impossible: securing peace between the State of Israel and its Arab and like-minded neighbors, mired in a struggle both dialectical and violent since the early 20th century, due to historical and religious reasons, entrenched offenses and prejudices, and the invisible and tyrannical hand of third countries' geopolitical interests in the area.

⭐ 7.0🤍

Clues to Adventure

This MGM Passing Parade series short presents how separate events led to the creation of three provisions - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and prohibition of the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments - in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights.

⭐ 6.0🤍

Joy

A story based on the life of a struggling Long Island single mom who became one of the country's most successful entrepreneurs.

⭐ 6.5🤍

Buffalo '66

Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.

⭐ 7.1🤍

Vindicating Trump

Character assassination. Political assassination. Legal assassination. An actual assassination attempt. They will try anything to stop Trump. We can’t let them!

⭐ 5.5🤍

1968: A Year of War, Turmoil and Beyond

The Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the May events in France, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the Prague Spring, the Chicago riots, the Mexico Summer Olympics, the presidential election of Richard Nixon, the Apollo 8 space mission, the hippies and the Yippies, Bullitt and the living dead. Once upon a time the year 1968.

⭐ 8.0🤍

Frozen River

After her husband deserts her, working-class mother Ray Eddy is in great need of money to find a home. Lured by the possibility of easy cash, she joins Lila, a widowed Mohawk who earns a living by smuggling immigrants from Canada to the U.S. across the St. Lawrence.

⭐ 6.6🤍

Nobody's Fool

A rascally nearing-retirement man juggles a workers' compensation suit while secretly working for his nemesis and flirting with his nemesis' young wife. As his estranged son returns, he faces new family responsibilities, while a banker plots to evict him from his home.

⭐ 6.9🤍

Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America

Jeffery Robinson's talk on the history of U.S. anti-Black racism, with archival footage and interviews.

⭐ 7.8🤍

The Work and the Glory II: American Zion

Divided by their diverse reactions to a nascent ideology, the Steeds struggle to hold together as the strength of their convictions and their filial bonds are tested. The stirring narrative of the faith that led a persecuted people to Missouri and beyond is one of the most poignant untold tales of American history. It is the account of a valiant struggle to exercise the rights promised by a fledgling nation.

⭐ 6.4🤍

You Can Count on Me

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.

⭐ 6.8🤍