All the triumphs and tragedies of Thomas Paine's life are here in this film of the acclaimed one-man play To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine, shot in front of a live audience at the Lillian Theatre, Hollywood. Thomas Paine, a man largely forgotten and greatly misunderstood, is ironically quoted by all and every political faction in America today. Yet his ideas about democracy, equality, slavery, pensions, healthcare, education and morality would have created a very different kind of nation if they had been acted on. He was a man who changed the world, only to have the world he changed turn its back on him. The man who ignited revolutions would die largely ignored and distained, yet he was at the epicenter of world events when he wrote his books, literally transforming nations through the power of his words. Thomas Paine was one of the world's most provocative writers and worst politicians, a very nearly deadly combination. He lived by the creed that "one must always speak the truth as one sees it, no matter the consequences" and what an extraordinary life it was. It is time to hear and discuss and debate Thomas Paine again, since, as he said, "we have it in our power to begin the world over again".
