Hamilton (PG-13), on Disney+
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streaming sites: Disney+

Caution: spoilers, if you don't know early American history, I guess.

This movie is stitched together from three different performances of the Broadway play in June 2016. The play was originally performed in 2015, and immediately became a major cultural phenomenon. So, I've been wanting to see it for a long time, though there was no chance I'd ever get to see it in a theater. Eventually it was made into a film, which was supposed to be released theatrically in 2021, but instead it debuted on Disney+, on July 3, 2020.

I'll be honest, a lot of the time I just barely got the gist of what was going on, especially in the first act. (When I watched this movie on Disney+ with my cousins, we started using the subtitles feature in Act II, and I kind of felt like I needed it less than I did in Act I.) But whether or not I always knew what was going on or who all the characters were, I always enjoyed the songs. But of course the main thing I can say about the plot is that it is about Alexander Hamilton. He was an orphan who immigrated to America, and at the start of the play, in 1776, he makes some friends who are all revolutionaries. One of them was Aaron Burr. He also meets the Schuyler sisters: Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy. Though Alexander and Angelica obviously have feelings for each other, he marries Eliza. Anyway, he very much wants to fight in the American Revolution, but ends up being an aide de camp for General George Washington, a job that basically involved writing. Though he does eventually get to lead a battalion, or whatever. After the war, he becomes Secretary of the Treasury in the newly formed nation, the United States of America. He's also involved in certain aspects of figuring out how the country will actually work. And, a lot of other stuff happens that I don't want to get into. I will say that he has a political enemy: Thomas Jefferson. Eventually, Washington decides not to run for reelection as President. Jefferson wants that position, but as we all know, the second President of the USA is John Adams. After his term, Jefferson runs against Burr, and everyone wants to know who Hamilton supports. And though Burr is his friend and Jefferson his enemy, Hamilton sides with Jefferson, because he feels Burr doesn't actually stand for anything. So, Jefferson wins the election, and Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel. Oh... also we see King George III a few times throughout the play. He's pretty amusing.

Well, I guess that's all I want to say, but I've left out a lot of plot points and important characters. But as I said before, the songs are all great. And the play has a lot of humor, as well as drama and some tragedy. And it's an interesting story on both personal and political levels. And... there are a number of things I've seen that were inspired by the play, including a parody of a famous "Got Milk?" commercial; and a cover of one of the songs from the play; and a musical episode of "Black-ish" which somewhat copied the style of "Hamilton" for a song or two; and a parody called "Prancerton" on Taraji's White Hot Holidays; and a Hamilton-style parody of World Burn (from "Mean Girls: the Musical"); and probably some other things. (And I'm sure there have been lots of such parodies or homages that I'm not aware of.) It's all good.