Hamilton (2020) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

Here's video of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bob Iger making the announcement on Good Morning America:

 

[Jeff Adkins]

This is very disappointing to me, as this would work so much better on a big screen. To me, this is the perfect film to throw into theaters later this summer. I don't think it would need a huge marketing campaign, as it probably would get plenty of free mentions in the press. It wouldn't need to make a ton of money in the way that Tenet does.

I was really looking forward to seeing this on a large format screen. Perhaps it will get a limited run at some point.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I think there are plusses and minuses to this distribution model.

The plus is obviously that we get to see it much sooner than we would have otherwise, and it's a great thing to have available during quarantine. It also maintains and boosts the Hamilton brand (for lack of a better term) while Broadway and live theatre all over the world is shut down, so that works out for the show's producers as well.

The downside is that it would have been cool to see it in a movie theater on a big screen, and that its success at the box office might have prompted more live taped shows to consider a release in this way. Now, they won't have that data point of the film's box office success to spur that sort of thing.

But we get see Hamilton on July 3. So that's a good thing.

 

[Mark-P]

So all the explicit language in Hamilton is fine for Disney+ but Splash and other Disney classics have to be censored? Give me a break!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Being that it hasn’t yet been shown on D+, I believe it is premature to suggest that they don’t have an issue with the language.

 

[Robert Crawford]

So all the explicit language in Hamilton is fine for Disney+ but Splash and other Disney classics have to be censored? Give me a break!

Like Josh, I wouldn't say that now as we just have to wait until July 3rd as it will probably be censored by then.

 

[Greg.K]

I'm virtually certain that the f-bombs will be censored. Especially since Lin-Manuel Miranda has already indicated that he was ok with that.

I wonder if there will be a disc release? I wouldn't want it to be censored in that situation.

 

[Jake Lipson]

There is already a clean version of the Broadway cast album that takes out the F bombs, and that was released long before Disney had anything to do with this. I am sure that the Disney+ version will mimic the edits that were made for that.

Like I said, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a smart guy. He chose to sell this to Disney instead of other companies who wouldn't have needed to edit a word. He knew what he was doing and chose the value of the mass audience Disney will bring to it over a few F-bombs.

I hope a Blu-ray release is forthcoming, but since Disney+ is so new, there hasn't been a disc release for anything that debuted on there yet. So, Disney's policy relative to physical media releases for Disney+ content is unclear.

 

[Greg.K]

Lin-Manuel has a very strong working relationship with Disney (Moana, Force Awakens, Mary Poppins Returns, Duck Tails, etc). I'm sure comfort level in who he was working with was a factor as well.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Yes, absolutely. He knows the people at Disney very well and he knows that they will protect the integrity of his creation. Also, like most of us, Lin-Manuel Miranda grew up loving the Disney film musicals. He literally named his son Sebastian after the character in The Little Mermaid. I imagine it must be a thrill for him to have Disney releasing the film of his musical, and that probably makes up for the loss of a few F bombs.

Warner Bros. also has a working relationship with Miranda via the movie version of In the Heights, which pre-coronavirus was originally supposed to open in theaters just a few days before the Hamilton movie is now dropping on Disney+. I'm sure they wanted Hamilton as well, and they could have put it on HBO Max unedited, as there is no family-only restriction with that platform. He chose Disney, and he knows what comes with that.

So, if he's fine with it and it's his show, why are we not fine with it?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

This is very disappointing to me, as this would work so much better on a big screen. To me, this is the perfect film to throw into theaters later this summer. I don't think it would need a huge marketing campaign, as it probably would get plenty of free mentions in the press. It wouldn't need to make a ton of money in the way that Tenet does.

I was really looking forward to seeing this on a large format screen. Perhaps it will get a limited run at some point.

I don't see any reason it can't. This kind of project usually goes Fathom anyway, so I don't see why they wouldn't at least give it a handful of showings eventually...

 

[Jake Lipson]

Trailer:

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

More camera angles than I expected.

 

[Jake Lipson]

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Well, that explains it. I'm guessing that they were lip syncing to the audio from the first matinee for all of the close-ups and dolly work; otherwise, I don't know how you'd get a seamless audio performance.

 

[Jake Lipson]

This is getting a little confusing because we are discussing the Hamilton film here, and in the music forum, and in the Disney+ thread.

In at least one of them, there was some discussion about the language in the film.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has answered this on Twitter following the news that the film is rated PG-13.

I literally gave two fucks so the kids could see it:
1. In Yorktown, there's a mute over "I get the f___ back up again"
2. "Southern *record scratch*kin' Democratic Republicans."
You can sing whatEVER you like at home (even sync up the album)!
Love you. Enjoy.

So that's that. Personally, I'm fine with this because there's no way they would put it on Disney+ with that kind of language, and the exposure it will receive there is absolutely worth sacrificing two F words that most fans know anyway.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

So that's that. Personally, I'm fine with this because there's no way they would put it on Disney+ with that kind of language, and the exposure it will receive there is absolutely worth sacrificing two F words that most fans know anyway.

Based on the fact that one f-bomb has apparently been left intact, I would say it those two edits were very specifically targeted to get a PG-13 rating from the ratings board.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Based on the fact that one f-bomb has apparently been left intact

Yes. But not even really to the degree that the full word is heard. On the explicit version of the cast album, in the song Say No To This, if you listen to the lyric very carefully, Miranda says "fu--" but trails off without finishing the word. So you don't hear the "-uck."

I would say it those two edits were very specifically targeted to get a PG-13 rating from the ratings board.

Absolutely. What's sort of funny in this situation is that it's not being released to theaters, so it didn't have to get rated in order to go on Disney+. But I also have no objection to it because being on Disney+ will get it such a massive audience that the benefits of being associated with Disney far outweigh the negative of losing two curse words.

 

[TravisR]

As someone who out curses most sailors, even I can't get too concerned by deleting two "fucks". It's not like they're editing The Wire or The Leftovers or Deadwood or The Wolf Of Wall Street where the profanity is a near constant assault and integral to the way the characters speak.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Plus, the edits are being made with the approval and cooperation of the author of the piece. It's not like it is being censored if he chose to make the change. So if he's okay with it and it's his own work, everybody else should be okay with it too.