From City Journal
RYAN L. COLEEvery day, a procession of pedestrians, coming and going through Lower Manhattan, passes by a small white obelisk looming out of Trinity Churchyard. Underneath, little noted by the nearby foot traffic, rests the revolutionary who fathered democratic capitalism. Despite his immense accomplishments, Alexander Hamilton remains one of the least lamented and most misunderstood of the Founding Fathers. Hamilton, unlike George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, has no huge monuments to his memory in the District of Columbia. So it’s fortunate that filmmaker Michael Pack has made such an imaginative new documentary about the great man.
Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton, premiering April 11 on PBS, is a collaboration between Pack and historian Richard Brookhiser, whose narration lends the film its wry personality. Like the pair’s earlierRediscovering George Washington, the film has little in common with the bland, fiddle-laden, solemnly narrated documentaries so common in the 20 years since Ken Burns’ Civil War. Instead of following that overused formula, the duo turn Hamilton’s history into an engrossing travelogue that connects his legacy to the twenty-first century. Over the course of two hours, they trace Hamilton’s life from his mysterious origins in the Caribbean, where the locals still sing his praises, to his alma mater, Columbia University, where students now barely recognize his name, and across New York City—itself a testament to his vision of a dynamic America where all, regardless of station, could rise through determination and talent. Along the way an incongruous lineup of commentators, ranging from Rupert Murdoch to Gore Vidal, Antonin Scalia to Larry Flynt, Henry Paulson to Bernard-Henri Lévy, provide their insights and observations.