I believe that both Hamilton and 1776 do a decent job giving the viewers the historical story of what is happening. I have seen Hamilton many times, but this last viewing of it made me look at it differently. It taught me that the writers of Hamilton, and even 1776, glorify its heroes and do not give enough credit to the working class. I understand that these musicals have a timeframe that they have to be within, so explaining every detail is impossible. So technically these stories do not give nearly the full picture of what happened; however, they provide the viewer with some historical knowledge that would have been left unknown.
The prime example of the two is Hamilton. A near-forgotten founding father got his legacy reborn with the creation of this play. He played an integral role in the Revolution, but history seems to forget his name when teaching the lessons in class. I think the common topic that we seem to be focusing on right now in class is about forgotten history so this assignment fits perfectly with that.
In both of the soundtracks, the music that is sung by the leaders and “heroes” is upbeat and strong, portraying them in this way. The music also allowed the audience to stay engaged in these long stories about history and made them more popular than if it was just a documentary.
That is a good point about the working class, and one that I never really thought about. I always thought of Hamilton to be shedding light on the “forgotten” Alexander Hamilton, didn’t even really think about the fact that there was an entire nation of people who is hardly talked about.
I also really liked how you mentioned the lack of attention towards the working class in history. We often praise the leaders & the rich people of history and forget that they are people too. The movie 1776 was able to portray the founding fathers as normal people, which reiterates the fact that history tends to glamorize our leaders.
I agree with your point about the negligence of the middle class, however i dont view this as a suprise as the same thing has occured throughout american history classes, and other films about wartime heroes as well as founding fathers for the past many years. The recognition of the middle class is critically important in histroy, but i hoenstly beleive that it is soemthing that will be neglected in the fututre as well as the past; which is wrong.
I agree that explaining every detail is impossible, so these films do not give the full picture, but they removed some of the focus away from the popular “heroes” and put some focus on the people who did a lot in history that are not talked about significantly. I also liked how the music was indeed upbeat when the heroes were portrayed , because it definitely helped me stay engaged like you mentioned.
Yes ma’am!! All they do is glorify the heroes. There is almost no middle-class representation– as always. I also agree with you about Hamilton having a completely new legacy all credit to this musical. I personally would not give a crap who Hamilton was if wasn’t for this play.
An important topic that you bring up it the rebirth of Alexander Hamilton. Prior to the music and play coming out, I always knew who he was, but never knew what he did for the nation as it was growing. Now it seems the opposite has happened. Thousands of people know who he was and what he did for the country now that the musical has become one of the most popular shows in recent times.
I wonder if Hamilton proves that dramatization can make any historical figure entertaining if it is done well. If “Hamilton” was actually “Henry” (Patrick Henry), would it have been as popular?
I agree with your point that the songs that represent our “heroes” are played with upbeat and entertaining lyrics and instruments. It gives the leaders a very good reputation. As we learned, these songs are teaching us a lesson and the lesson we receive from them is that these leaders were positive, happy, and courageous. Whether this was the case or not is a totally different story.
I really like the statement “glorify its heroes.” I think you bring up an interesting point that the working class doesn’t really get any credit in either of these movies. I agree with you that because of this, the movies then aren’t explaining the full picture.