Hamilton - a movie review by Amanda

 

I had heard Hamilton was good but I didn’t really know what to expect.

If you haven’t seen it, Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers, told in operatic format (I think?) the entire movie was in song, all the dialog was in song. But not opera type song. It was rap, hip hop, etc song. That was interesting, I’d never seen a movie like that. Also it is a video taping of a play, not a traditional movie. The play is historical fiction. We kept looking things up to see if they were historically accurate, and most of them were. 

It is available on Disney +. 

*disclaimer* there are some spoilers in here. Although if you know much history or you are inclined to google a historical character while watching a movie you will find all the spoilers anyways 🙂

Here are some of my thoughts on the movie

1. Dueling or any type of fight to the death is perhaps one of the stupidest ways to resolve conflict ever.

2. If you don’t believe in dueling do not wait until the count of 10 to protest. There were many opportunities to stop the duel before the count of 10. Why did he wait and then shoot toward the sky? Why not turn down the duel when it was first proposed? Why not actually talk in person instead of sending seconds? If the other person is not willing to take back their words, and you are not willing to take back yours then why not just walk away? Why agree to a death fight? The whole point of dueling is that one or both of you must die. You cannot both go on living in this world together. He knew that and still entered the duel and still sent his son to a duel. 

3. In the matter of the mistress the most important line is “when she put her lips on mine I didn’t say no”. He had a choice. He knew it. It was a tough choice. But still a choice. 

4. I loved the multiculturalness of it. Most of the founding fathers were African American. The whole cast was a variety of skin colors. I feel like this movie did a good job of showing that skin color does not matter. They showed, fairly historically accurately, the life of European American founding fathers with African American actors, and I found it just as believable. I don’t feel that the story would be any different with any skin color. Because people are people. Human nature is universal. 

5. I loved the portrayal of King George as a scorned lover. That was hilarious.

6. It was interesting that the guy who killed Hamilton was also the narrator. It really showed how their lives were intertwined. (That’s not a spoiler, that was said in the first scene).

7. This is not a movie that you can work while watching. It is incredibly fast paced and all the dialog is in song so you have to be paying attention to catch everything. 

Overall, very good movie. I feel like I need to watch it again to catch all the things I missed. Enjoyable, entertaining, and educational. There are parts, especially the mistress and the fall out from the mistress, and the duels that might be harder for young kids. If you are willing to have hard conversations with your older kids it would probably work for them. I felt like it helped me understand history a lot more. But it wasn’t dry or boring, it was very entertaining. I might include this in our American History curriculum when the kids are older.