I decided for the first time ever, to watch Alexander Hamilton on Disney+. For me I had heard about it and even though I had heard such great things about Hamilton the musical itself and how ground breaking it was, I never once thought to take the time to sit down and watch it. I’m glad this class gave me a reason too however, because it really did live up to my expectations for it. Even without the in theatre experience which I don’t doubt is an experience that cant be created through my own screen, this musical was truly outstanding.
To talk about the film in length would take a while since there is so much the film is about, however the really encaptivating story of how Hamilton started from nothing and through his effort, determination, and his sheer intelligence was he able to reach the top of the American government and contributed many great things to America. I think out of the entire Musical however, my favorite song was “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”. It’s at this point of the story that we begin with people starting to recognize Alexander Hamilton and recognizing how Alexander Hamilton is sort of the forgotten founding father (well, before this musical came out.) On top of that the song is just beautifully written and one of the thing about the song that really speaks to me is how Eliza sings her parts at a slower pace, without really rushing in comparison to the other songs. To me at least it shows how carefully crafted these songs are, how these songs are engineered to tell a story just through the tempo themselves. From Alexander’s previous song “The World Was Wide Enough” where his tempo is fast throughout the song, signifying throughout the song how much he is rushing because his time is soon.
It’s through these realizations about the music within the musical combined with my increased understanding of the arts from this course was I really able to appreciate the actual work of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Connecting it to the themes of our course, to the themes of understanding and diversity and identity. To see how people communicate how they moved through struggles, no different from how Alexander came from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the top. To see and visualize that through various songs and through that, to see how he moved in his life through Art itself. This semester has taught us how art is a medium for story telling in of itself and how all art is able to tell a story no matter the form it takes, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is able to do that with every character here, from the lyrics they sing to the way they say it, to the tempo and instruments used. During “The World Was Wide Enough”, when he cuts all of the song all together to hone in on his final moments before his death, to really drive that impact, which is something only an art could do.
I really loved watching Hamilton and even though the experience could have been better in an actual theatre, that wasn’t enough to take away the hard effort that was put into Hamilton to make it the sensational musical it has been known for and lived up to the title for me.
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