Hamilton Reminds Us How Lucky We Are To Be Alive Right Now
Film critics have ignored the art of the concert film since D.A. Pennebaker’s incredible Monterey Pop (1968), and there are very few so-called “concert films” that deserve your attention. Most of them are live recordings of concerts to give audiences a glimpse of what they could’ve seen if they experienced it live and never once uses cinema’s sensibilities. The 2016 live recording of the Broadway phenomenon, Hamilton, joins films such as Monterey Pop and Jonathan Demme’s Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids (2016) to reinvigorate the concert film genre and remind audiences that these films can blossom a particular form of art.
Director Thomas Kail unleashes the moving image’s beauty to present a visually striking version of Hamilton that you will never be able to see it live. The story of the first-ever United States Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda), is now amplified by cinematic flair, which differentiates it from it being a “camera recorded play.” Kail retains the actors’ physical (and lyrical) performances through its camera, which gives the audience a private eye’s view of the play. In doing so, he expands the visual canvas the Richard Rodgers Theater offers to make us visualize a world beyond the stage. The film does half of the work for us — presenting the show in all of its 160-minute glory (minus the three f-bombs that Disney censored to preserve a PG-13 rating), with all of the razzle-dazzle live theater offers…and then some. Our work becomes simple when tight close-ups of actors invite us to step in the late-1700s United States until we don’t see a stage anymore. Instead, we see an actual world, filled with liveliness and joy that you can’t help but being quickly swept away by Hamilton’s imaginary grandeur. It’s almost seamless. There’s no stage anymore — but a universe that only cinema can unleash with its camera. There’s nothing more magnifying than a moving image, and Hamilton fully understands its power.
Kail is also able to unleash Hamilton’s visual sensibilities by its editing, which retains the essence and spirit of live theater. He’s capable of doing that by juxtaposing the actors’ quasi-burlesque physicality with its fantastic (and insanely memorable) songs. The songs work with the stage and the light, motivated by cuts that punctuate the sheer dynamism we see on-stage. The cuts are never random but unleash a form of emotion — which is the #1 rule to make the audience forget about everything else (according to film editor Walter Murch). You slowly start to bubble up in your tears as you’re witnessing something written, performed, choreographed, staged, directed (and the list goes on) from the heart by a real genius. You slowly feel liberated through its visual aesthetic, its acting, its dancing, its music, until you start drowning in your puddle of tears. When The Schuyler Sisters hits, and they start singing, “Look around, look around at lucky we are to be alive right now,” my emotions took the better of me. I became utterly blown away by the creativity on display, but, more importantly, the emotion that the actors convey. My state of entrancement started here and never left, even after the intermission.
Hamilton’s stage production is spectacular. However, the film can make it feel even more grandiose through its eye-bubbling visuals and performances that punctuate through its sumptuous cinematography and seamless editing. You no longer think that you’re watching a “camera recorded version of a play” (as some people want to point out needlessly), but an essential piece of contemporary American culture that has made its mark since it premiered and became an instant classic. Everything you were told about Hamilton is indeed true. I was a bit skeptical before going in, because of how over-marketed and talked about the show was — fearing to be overhyped, but no. Hamilton is a show you must see at least once in your life — because they’ll never be another one like it, With the film now released on Disney+ for July 4th, now is the perfect time to embark on its sweeping theatrics and look around to realize how lucky we are to be alive right now. Don’t fret, there is hope that the world will become in balance with itself, and Hamilton is another reminder that our best days do lie ahead.
