Aaron Burr, Part 2

Aaron Burr, Part 2 (directed by Dana O'Keefe) In this unusual and stylish re-telling of Burr's duel with Alexander Hamilton, history is re-imagined by Burr in a modern retrofitted narrative. Starting out with a James Bond, circa-1970s visual style, the two figures appear as secret agents, with a jaunty jazz score accompanying Burr's contextualization of the engagement. As each minute unfolds, Burr repeats the engagement again and again while giving his biased re-assessment of the faults of history. Director O'Keefe shoots Burr back and forth through time periods as his contempt for Hamilton climaxes in a hilarious final missive. At the end of this comic, intelligent, and innovative film, I found myself amazed that only nine minutes had passed.

Aaron Burr was Vice President of the United States when he engaged in a duel with politician Alexander Hamilton over a specific piece of writing by the latter directed at the former. The duel left Hamilton mortally wounded and Burr up on charges of murder which, although acquitted, ended his political life and left him with different versions of the story to become historical facts. In this short film Burr defends himself.

Although this sounds like a dry historical piece, that illusion will be ended within minutes of starting the film since it very quickly gives an unusual spin as it uses tough modern music to create a mood. Smartly using the original tracks made famous by hip-hop samples (thus getting rights easier I guess?) the film setups up narrator Burr as a dashing anti-hero, badly treated by history but unrepentant over his actions and quick to dismiss any of the nonsense suggestions around the noble Hamilton and the way history has treated his image since. The reenactments for the film are done across all manner of times and places, with energy and humor throughout and it works well with the bitter and harshly funny narration and the clever structure of the whole film.

It is hard to describe but it is very pleasing in tone, style and content, producing a funny, clever and irreverent telling of history.

Dana O'Keefe has created a very strange film--one that most Americans probably wouldn't understand because it's about one of our country's founding fathers, Aaron Burr, and most have no idea who the heck he was. As an ex-American history teacher, I am quite familiar with him and the reasons he became a rather infamous figure. Oddly, while the film re- imagines Burr as a sort of hipster version of James Bond, much of the film is also based on real events! While Alexander Hamilton (the man Burr killed in a duel) is today revered and Burr is forgotten, in reality Hamilton himself was a bit of a @#$%! Now I am not particularly fond of Burr--but Hamilton was indeed a man who often got himself into trouble because he was so very rash. The duel could have been avoided-- but like affairs with married ladies, Hamilton was actually a guy who was awfully self-destructive! Now I am not saying the film is 100% accurate--far from it. But it does put an interesting spin on the case and also makes you laugh--provided you have some idea who these two guys were!

The film is generally well made, though the battle scene could have been MUCH better had the strobe light been used more effectively. Worth seeing, however, and the sort of short that history teachers at least are bound to love!