Review: Hamilton Is the Best Movie of 2020
In 2009, a Tony Award-winning lyricist debuted part of his next project in front of a tough crowd.
The man was Lin-Manuel Miranda, the story was Hamilton, and the audience was a who’s who of White House officials.
I’m not making this up:
At the time, In the Heights had just dominated The Tony Awards, but Hamilton wouldn’t arrive for another six years.
In a strange conflagration of events, the movie release for In the Heights got delayed.
At the same time, its successor is unexpectedly available on Disney+.
Here’s a five-years-too-late review of Hamilton, which a smarter person than me would have watched in a playhouse long ago.
The Backstory
A few months ago, The Walt Disney Company purchased the rights to a movie presentation of Hamilton.
The existence of this 2016 performance was an open secret in the industry, and a bidding war ensued for the project.
Disney intended to release it in the fall of 2021, anticipating significant awards contention for Hamilton.
Then, the pandemic hit. An ally of Disney, Lin-Manuel Miranda warmed to the idea of the movie debuting on streaming services first.
Since Miranda created Hamilton, his opinion mattered mightily. From Disney’s perspective, the idea of releasing this movie on digital seemed ideal.
The fall of 2021 feels like forever from now. Meanwhile, the presence of Hamilton WILL sell Disney+ subscriptions.
By this point, the hype for the Broadway play feels as significant as anything in modern pop culture.
Hamilton has shattered Broadway box-office records and become a global phenomenon.
Several members of the cast have become quite famous.
Jonathan Groff stars on Mindhunters, Daveed Diggs is currently chewing scenery on Snowpiercer, and Renée Elise Goldsberry kicks ass on Altered Carbon.
Basically, Miranda looked a few years into Hollywood’s future and plucked out these stars to anchor Hamilton.
Anecdotally, I have a secondary interest in the story.
A few years ago, a dear friend of ours, one of my favorite people on the planet, earned a role in a major production of In the Heights.
She spoke fondly of Miranda’s genius and triggered my wife’s interest in Hamilton.
For several years, I tried on no less than five occasions to buy tickets to Hamilton productions anywhere within eight hours of us.
Demand was so off the charts high that I could never find good seats, preventing my wife from fulfilling a dream.
I never felt worse about that than when I finally watched Hamilton.
What Is Hamilton
At this point, if you’re unfamiliar with Hamilton, you may feel better served to go in blind.
Any description of the project does it a disservice.
At its core, Hamilton is a loving tribute to the founding fathers of our country, only Miranda relays the entire story arc through song.
The sheer daring of the attempt exemplifies his bravado, which is important.
I strongly suspect that when Miranda read about Alexander Hamilton, he sensed a kindred spirit from a different era.
Like many pop culture fans at the start of the 21st century, Miranda felt a connection to The West Wing, one that triggered his interest in governance.
Somehow, Hamilton lovingly pays homage to the founders without boring the audience.
Look, I’m a massive fan of this sort of stuff, but PBS never wins the ratings war against network sitcoms for a reason. Most people don’t find history engaging.
Well, Miranda’s Hamilton quest is to make history come alive through toe-tapping dance sequences and, yes, beatboxing while spitting rhymes.
Here’s a clip that will help you make sense of this bit of cognitive dissonance:
You’ve never seen anything like that, right? Don’t worry. Up until February of 2015, NOBODY had.
Miranda reset expectations for the storytelling. The only question here is how well this style translates to the screen television.
Who Is Hamilton?
Before I answer that question, let’s talk about the protagonist(s) of Hamilton.
Despite what the title implies, three different characters share the spotlight in this tale.
Hamilton is one, while the man who shot him, Aaron Burr, is another. Most would describe him as the antagonist or an anti-hero.
However, to Miranda’s credit, he resists the temptation to villainize Burr entirely.
Even during the infamous duel, the lyrics provide an explanation for Burr’s actions.
In a way, Burr represents the viewing audience. Sure, he’s a contemporary of Hamilton, but he’s just as confused by the man’s quirks as the rest of us.
Alexander Hamilton mirrors Miranda as a writer of rare renown, a generational talent who became George Washington’s most trusted advisor.
The proverbial smartest man in the room, this founder started from nothing but scratched his way up to the top of society.
Along the way, Hamilton created the fundamentals of the American economic system that are still in place today.
Despite his genius, Hamilton could also be his own worst enemy, another theme of the story.
This mercurial behavior drew his wife to him but would later cause her pain. And this historical figure, Eliza Hamilton, is the third lead in the story.
By the end of the film, I’d decided that her point-of-view was the most crucial to Hamilton and idly wondered if she deserved her name in the title instead.
This…is not a popular opinion.
I guess The Hamiltons isn’t quite as catchy. It sounds like people who have invited you over for dinner, but you’re faking an illness to get out of it.
Anyway, these three characters provide the framework of the story, but they’re far from the only key figures.
Who Is in Hamilton?
In fact, I can prove this statement by pointing out that I haven’t mentioned any of the characters played by Groff, Diggs, or Goldsberry yet.
These three performers portray the King of England, Thomas Jefferson, and Eliza’s sister.
The fact that they became stars in the aftermath of the play speaks volumes about the depth of engaging characters in Hamilton.
You never know when one will sing a counterintuitive love song about murdering your family or explaining why they missed the American Revolution.
In fact, Goldsberry’s character delivers one of the most gripping moments in the movie.
Hamilton, as a stage production, features a revolving circle in the middle of the stage. You’ll never notice it unless you look for it, of course.
Still, this one simple trick allows for some fascinating production elements, such as the moment when a play somehow rewinds time.
In a standard movie, this special effect is painless to implement. For a play, it requires everyone to move backward…on a spinning circle.
I get nauseous just thinking about it, yet the performers can dance and sing IN REVERSE without missing a (literal) beat.
You may never even notice this, but it’s one of those subtle ways that Hamilton elevates itself over every other Broadway play that came before it.
As for Diggs, he steals every scene he’s in, whether he’s dismissing Burr as a buzzkill or strutting through his return to America.
Diggs plays two characters in this story, as do a couple of other people.
However, his presence in this play/movie somehow outshines Miranda, the actual creator and titular star of Hamilton.
Who Is Burr?
Similarly, Leslie Odom Jr. somehow finds the ideal balance as Aaron Burr, the arrogant but insecure contemporary of Hamilton.
Miranda’s story highlights all the ways the two men’s real-life histories imitated one another.
In fact, after the war, they both became lawyers who worked next door. Their lives were inexorably linked from young adulthood until one’s death.
Hamilton sought Burr early in life, and then they were together at the tragic end.
Somehow, Odom portrays Burr as a womanizer, an empty suit, a loving father, an admirer of Hamilton, and a social climber.
During Wait for It, the song that I believe is the most important to the story, Odom dazzles so much that when he merely raises a finger, he leaves me spellbound.
Odom delivers the perfect punctuation mark to a song of envy, frustration, calculation, and ambition.
Every great story needs a villain strong enough to threaten the protagonist.
Friday #Ham4All pic.twitter.com/98QY8Hk5Kw
— Leslie Odom, Jr. (@leslieodomjr) July 2, 2020
In this instance, Miranda deftly infuses Burr with enough of a presence that the politician seems convinced that he’s the hero of the piece.
That’s why I consider him a different kind of protagonist inasmuch as an antagonist.
Odom’s work is so remarkable that the movie would collapse without his conviction and passion.
Few movies I’ve ever seen have placed so much emphasis on the antagonist critically evaluating the protagonist.
I think this song, Wait for It, is when I fell in love with Hamilton totally and unequivocally forever.
The Music of Hamilton
When Hollywood adapts Broadway plays into movies, the music often falls by the wayside a bit.
Film producers often misunderstand the spirit of the play. See Rock of Ages or, more recently, Cats as examples of this failure.
By filming a live show of Hamilton with its original cast, Miranda and the film’s director, Thomas Kail, avoided this transgression.
Instead, we receive Hamilton as it existed in 2016, a time when the group already claimed several hundred performances under their belts.
Kail filmed three presentations of Hamilton and then pulled the best recreation of each song.
This part matters since Hamilton includes almost no standalone dialogue.
The show careens from one lyrical masterpiece to another. The only break is a one-minute intermission at the midway point of the 160-minute show.
In staring at my computer tonight while I rewatch Hamilton, I realize that I struggle to pick a favorite song.
I adore almost all of them, which is saying a lot since there are 46 of them.
In other words, I was incredibly invested in a 46-song soundtrack with some modest amount of acting between some of the pieces.
I’ve actually heard at least 70 percent of the songs already, as my wife plays the soundtrack frequently on Spotify.
However, most of them didn’t come alive until I watched the accompanying performances.
Christopher Jackson, who plays George Washington, is particularly compelling as a wise man who can’t persuade his younger charges to listen.
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story comes across as a mentor trying to stop his protégé from self-sabotaging, even though he knows it won’t happen.
I mean…😱 https://t.co/ytgTfmXEgz
— Christopher Jackson (@ChrisisSingin) July 2, 2020
These little moments punctuate the conflict of Hamilton, an examination of the perils of naturally gifted people.
Final Thoughts
Hamilton is obviously a masterpiece as both a play and a movie.
Did anyone else bawl their eyes out but still manage to give a standing ovation to their TV? Entire cast of #Hamilton killed it!!! Every single cast member deserves their own #Tony! pic.twitter.com/lReLxmXU38
— NifflersRule9 (@SynSol9) July 4, 2020
In fact, I’ll quote a dear friend here. He posted this after watching Hamilton for the first time:
“Imagine that everyone you know tells you about a thing. They all say it’s great, without exception. It’s the best thing ever. The thing is unbelievable. Even people who don’t like things say that this thing is amazing.
You’re pretty sure that there cannot be a way that thing possibly lives up to what everyone says about it. Things can’t be that good.
Yet somehow the thing not only lives up to the hype, it exceeds it.
That was Hamilton. I’m absolutely blown away.”
One word: grateful. @HamiltonMusical! pic.twitter.com/WDxsXC0a68
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) July 3, 2020
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment.
If Hamilton had come out in 2021, I’m reasonably confident it would have finished as my favorite film of next year.
I feel like a complete idiot for not buying (well, scalping) those tickets and taking my wife a few years ago.
If you’re one of the fortunate souls who saw Hamilton in person, I’m incredibly jealous of you.
For me, watching the best movie of 2020 will have to do. Yes, it’s only early July, but I’m already able to call it. Nothing will beat this.
Presuming that you have Disney+ and haven’t watched Hamilton yet, stop what you’re doing and start the movie.
His name is… Alexander Hamilton 🎶⭐️ Start streaming the musical event of the Summer, now on #DisneyPlus! #Hamilfilm pic.twitter.com/YURFzt8r05
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) July 3, 2020
If you don’t have Disney+, buy it. Hamilton alone justifies the purchase.
I expect to watch the movie dozens of times (I’m up to three already), and I will one day finally take my wife to watch the play.
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