On Feb.3 of last week, I woke up and rolled over to look at my phone as I normally do in the morning. I had several notifications from different news outlets announcing that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association released their list of nominations for the Golden Globe Awards. I normally don’t really care about award season, but I thought I would check to see if there was any movies I saw this year on there.
I scrolled straight to Best Motion Picture, Drama and Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy to get a general idea of what was on the list, and when I did, my jaw dropped. The recording of the 2015 hit musical “Hamilton” was on the list for Best Musical or Comedy.
I was immediately furious. How could it even be nominated for a Golden Globe? It’s not even a film! But then, I stopped myself and asked, why do I think that? Why isn’t a live recording of a piece of theater a film? I think I have come up with a couple of reasons why.
First, whenever a person logs onto their Disney Plus and watches “Hamilton,” they aren’t engaging with the art as a film, they are engaging with it as a stage musical. Film as an artform has its own language, as most mediums of art do, that helps to get its message to the audience. It uses the editing and cinematography to help the audience understand the story and engage with the story in a way that is unique to film. The recording of “Hamilton” doesn’t really attempt to do that. The director, Thomas Kail, uses close ups and wide shots try to enhance emotion, but it is and always will be limited due to the staging and lighting already being set, as well as going on the stage and behind the characters is not really an option.
Therefore, the audience engages with the film as a documentation of the show rather than a true adaption of source material into a movie musical. And notice I did not use the word “documentary,” as those types of films also have their own language through which they speak to the audience. The audience of the “Hamilton” recording looks past the camera work being done and engages with the blocking, lighting and acting as that of a stage musical. They understand they are watching a piece of theater and not a film.
Also, Lin Manuel Miranda is nominated for his role as the titular “Hamilton” in the recording. First, I don’t think Miranda is the best actor in “Hamilton.” Regardless, there should not be any acting nominations for the show. Stage acting and screen acting are very different and should be determined with different metrics. Generally, stage acting tries to give larger performances so that the audience, who are not very close to the actors on stage, can understand what emotions are being expressed. Screen acting is the opposite and employs much more subtle performances. There can be acting styles from both mediums that crossover from time to time, but it makes more sense to recognize screen acting with film awards and stage acting with theater awards.
Second, the effort of the team behind the recording changes from creative to documentation. I can never know for certain what the team behind this recording were thinking when they worked on this project, but I doubt they thought their purpose was to create a film, as much as recording a version of a creative property that already exists and sharing that recording with more people for a smaller price for admission. I’m not trying to downplay the effort that went into making a project like this, it’s just not the same effort that goes into making a film. I see it the same way as nominating a live recording of the Super Bowl for a Golden Globe. It just doesn’t sit right with me.
All in all, I just think it is a bummer that “Hamilton,” a property everyone knows is a safe bet and has already been recognized with a record number of 16 Tony nominations and 11 Tony’s, is being nominated for film awards. It takes away that slot for new films that could have received that same recognition. Especially in a year where not a lot of big studio movies came out, some smaller, more independent movies could have been recognized. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science have already announced that “Hamilton” will not be eligible for any Oscars, which I think is a good move (obviously). So, I guess at this point I am just crying out into the void since the problem has sort of been solved already. But I couldn’t let this one slide before I could complain about it
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