We’re back after a summer break, and the film is 1776 – chosen very intentionally for its timeliness as we all think about what democracy means before the election. If like me you haven’t seen it in years, now is a good time. And 52 years after its original release, 1776 – based on the 1969 Broadway musical – remains an altogether astonishing portrait of America’s birth pangs.

Seldom has a stage musical been transferred so reverentially to the screen. Much of the Broadway company traveled West, most notably Ken Howard as Jefferson, Howard DaSilva as Franklin and William Daniels as the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams (his term, by the way).

The late Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards, who wrote it, used to say: “The first thing we are invariably asked is ‘Is it true? Did it really happen this way?’ The answer is Yes. We took some dramatic liberties, of course, but none of that has done anything to change the historical truth of the characters, their times or the events of American independence.”

Maybe the most extraordinary thing about this musical – and critics pointed it out at the time – was that although everyone came into the theater knowing how the story would end, the debate kept audiences on the edge of their seats, in movie houses as well as on Broadway.

Is the 1776 film “cinematic”? Barely. Is it riveting? Bet on it.