Disney +: Hamilton is a vibrant musical that travels from US history to the present day

Hamilton (EE. UU./2020). Address: Thomas Kail. Script: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ron Chernow. Photography: Declan Quinn. Music: Lin-Manuel Miranda. Edition: Jonah Moran. List: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Philippa Soo, Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elize Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff. Duration: 160 minutes. Available in: Disney +. Our opinion: very well

Hamiltonit is not cinema. It is the record shot live, with cameras, direct audio and a montage similar to that of any feature film by one of the most successful, influential and engaging Broadway musicals of recent times. Two hours and 40 minutes at the service of a work that, beyond its artistic merits, has become a key space for political confrontation in the United States, strongly installed during the period of the presidency of Barack Obama (whose second term coincided with the sensational premiere of the musical) and expanded in the troubled years of the Trump administration.

This literal expression of movie theater was made in 2016 in a New York theater with the participation of the original cast of the set, led by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Born in Manhattan to a Puerto Rican family. Author of the lyrics and music and interpreter of the protagonist, Miranda assumes the figure of Alexander Hamilton as an example, reference, inspiration, model and beacon of the nation he imagines as an artist and American citizen belonging to an ethnic minority.

Hamilton was one of the founding fathers of the United States, a pivotal man in shaping the central government that emerged after the declaration of independence in 1776, Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington’s presidency, a fervent promoter of federalism and a pioneer of what From his momentum came from the alternation between parties to seize power from elections, one of the pillars of the American political system and the functioning of its democratic institutions.

But in Miranda’s view, Hamilton is not just a historical figure. Its spirit and heritage take on immense contemporary value which is embodied in the multiracial character of American society today and in some of its artistic manifestations. Rap, hip hop and Latin rhythms are the vehicles through which Miranda travels with energy, conviction, captivating melodies and cutting remarks that time of political forging, ardent discussions and big questions that she finds today as a mirror. The cast, made up of talented black, Latino and other ethnic minority actors and singers (the only white performer, Jonathan Groff, embodies the King of England, George III), further underlines this statement of principle.

Anyone unfamiliar with US politics and history will be a little perplexed by such a vivid portrait of events that it might seem very alien at first glance. But one also feels that Miranda’s push is enough to go out and discover that world and join the awareness of a debate that the path towards the recent presidential elections has made even more complex. In that context, Hamilton it’s a musical from start to finish (one of the best we’ve seen in recent years) and should be evaluated as such. In that dimension it is very attractive. Cinema is something else. It has nothing to do with it.