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. 

Blast from the Past 23 - Sports movies and underdogs

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From April 2007

Sports movies and underdog

Why do people like the underdog so much? I just watched Coach Carter, which for those of you who have not seen it, is yet another movie about a team who is not good getting a good coach and working hard and becoming good. It was a really good movie, I admit that I and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it brought up the question for me, why do we like the underdog so much? Why don't we like the champions? I mean how many movies are there out there with an underdog rising up and becoming the best? Have you ever seen a sports movie about a team who is already the best? I haven't. And in all those underdog sports movies how are the champions portrayed? The are jerks, they are bullies, they are mean. And what happens? The underdog team beats the great jerky champions, the unbeatable. But when they beat the champions, they become the champions right? Does that mean that they are going to become jerks too? And then in a few years when another underdog team is good, will they rise up and beat our underdog team? Now that would be interesting, lets make a sequel for one one of those sports movies, what would happen? who would we cheer for? And another thing that bothers me about these movies, they only show the reaction of the underdog team which, because of the nature of the movie, probably won. Now Coach Carter was slightly different. The team doesn't always win. And they then show us their reaction, they are of course sad, depressed, wishing they had won, thinking that maybe they just weren't good enough. What they still didn't show is that in all those other games, which they won, the other team felt the same way. That is one of major issues with sports, in every competitive game someone wins and someone loses. Someone goes away thinking they are the best, and someone goes away thinking that there is something wrong with them. And all we look at is the one that won. It doesn't matter how hard you work in life, how much you want it, how much you try, there is always going to be someone better than you. And even if you do somehow manage to become the best of something, then you still have to work at it because there are all those people under you trying to get to where you are. And if you are on top and someone is making there way up to beat you, who are people going to cheer for and wish to succeed? The person under you trying to take your place, everybody is hoping that you will fail. Why is that? I think it's because people see themselves in the underdog. Most people are obviously not the best of anything so when they see someone else who is not the best come in and take on the person who is the best, and win, it gives them hope that they can do that too. Hmm, well I thought I had more, but I guess that is all I have to say. So I will end this note/blog now, and let you all think about how right I am :) and come up with your own conclusions on how this applies to your life :)

Blast from the Past 13 - Bruce Almighty and Doing God's Job

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From December 2006


Bruce Almighty and Doing God's Job

I watched Bruce Almighty this afternoon and it was interesting. I have seen it before but it was different this time. I saw more than just a movie this time, I saw a meaning behind the movie. The plot is about Bruce, who never seems to get what he wants. He works as a reporter, but he wants to be an anchor. He thinks that he gets all the wrong stories and he wants better ones. He wants more money and more things. Then another guy gets the job he wanted and his life seems to fall apart. Just as it seems that his life couldn’t get any worse he gets beeped. His beeper keeps going off until he finally gives in and calls the number. He is offered a job and told to go to a warehouse. At the warehouse he meets God. During his troubles Bruce gave up on God at asked why God wasn’t doing a better job. During the meeting God gives Bruce his powers. Bruce eventually discovers that he is not doing a good job at God’s job. He doesn’t know everything so when he didn’t know the consequences of his actions.

The part of the story that really made me think, though, is that Bruce thought that he would be better at being God than God is. This is a thought that probably most of us have had at some point. Of course we don’t just come right out and say it, but it is there deep inside. When we pray and think that what we pray for has to come true because we know that it is best for us, we are trying to do God’s job. When we see the troubles of the world and think that God should do something about them, we are thinking that God is not doing it right. I know that I have been guilty of these kinds of thoughts many times. This attitude is complete arrogance, we think that we know better than God does. God knows everything, including the future, he knows what is really best for us. Bruce Almighty convicted me of the fact that I have been arrogant. I never thought that I would learn a spiritual lesson from such a mainstream movie, but I did.

Blast from the Past 12 - Stranger Than Fiction

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From November 2006


Stranger Than Fiction

I watched the movie Stranger than Fiction a couple of weeks ago. It was an interesting movie, but a little weird. The basic story is that this guy, who is a tax man, is going through his regular life, which is really boring because he is too organized; he even counts how many steps there are to the bus stop. Anyways, as he is going about his regular life he starts hearing a voice. It only comes every once in a while, and only when he is doing something completely normal for him. And the strangest thing is that no one else can hear it but him. As he starts listening to the voice, he realizes that it is narrating his life. He learns to live with the voice until he hears it foretell his imminent death. This of course freaks him out and he immediately starts trying to find a way to stop his death. Along the way he befriends a Literature teacher, who helps him find the author, and a woman named Ana whose bakery he is auditing.
One major issue that the movie brings up is the inevitability of death. Yes everybody is going to die at some point in their life, that is a given, I don’t think that anyone would dispute that. But if you knew how you were going to die and you had a chance to change it would you? He eventually finds out how the book is going to end and he has a chance to stop it from being written. He has a chance to stop himself from dying in that way. But the way he was going to die was very poetic and meaningful. Given this choice would you choose to allow yourself to die like that knowing your death would be meaningful? I don’t think that I would. I don’t want my death dictated by anyone but God. I think that we should live life to the fullest knowing that we could die at any moment, but not looking for or expecting it.




This next section is questions for people who have seen the movie. You can read them if you haven’t seen the movie, but they might give away the ending, and they probably wouldn’t make sense.
If the lady hadn’t been writing the book, would the events have happened to Harold anyways? I said no, because she changed the ending … or did she?
Could he have not gone to the bus stop? What would have happened if he didn’t? I mean if the lady kept writing the book, but he didn’t go to the bus stop. If he wasn’t there would the kid have gotten hit by the bus?
Were the people in her other stories real too? All the characters in this one were real.
After she wrote the ending, leaving him alive, she told the professor that she would go back and rewrite the book. When she rewrote the book would that have changed his life at all? Would it change his memories?
When he called her, the author wrote herself into the story. How could she do that? And who did she think that he was calling in the book?