The Greatest Showman (2017)

The greatest showman follows a very embellished story of Phineas Taylor Barnum. The film has been modernised to tackle many everyday issues including bullying and discrimination while including many catchy songs that will get you tapping your toes and nodding your head. In the film we see Barnum trying to build up a life for his wife and kids, which he tries to do by starting a museum of curiosities most of which are dead and/or stuffed. After assembling a few living curiosities (mixed with real, fake or exaggerated) he creates a safe haven for those who are usually cast out from society. Naturally the main character loses his way forgets what it’s all about and gets a large serving of humble pie after losing nearly everything, and then a big musical number at the end to show the happy ending and everyone together as a family. 

The cast list for this musical is impressive to say the least having big stars like Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson as part of the main cast along with lesser known but by no means less impressive Keala Settle. All having the opportunity to show off their vocals in some fantastic showtunes which are catchy and easy to sing along to. 

The Greatest Showman was directed by Michael Gracey which is the first feature length film he’s directed which is a massive jump from directing music videos and sitting in the visual effects department. This movie was analysed as something that was going to be a huge flop by analysts and movie critics, but in fact was so successful that it is now being converted to a show in broadway in the States. 

The films main character P.T Barnum was in fact a real person, who was known as a businessman, politician and most importantly a Showman! All these traits are shown throughout the film while Barnum was moving up in society and selling his show to people higher up in class and changing himself to fit with those ideals of the upper class. 

While many of the acts you see in the film are accurate (yes he really did go on tour with a swedish singer named Jenny Lind) there are many things that the movie do not show you from Barnum’s career. Let's go through a breakdown:

-Barnum went to jail for publishing false information while running his own newspaper

-He then coerced a businessman to give him the money after giving him stock details of a company   he didn’t even own!

-He used black faced minstrel acts

-His first ‘act’ was an elderly slave named Joice Heath who he claimed was a 160 year old who was the nurse of George Washington.

Yet despite the dark story of Barnum in real life, The Greatest Showman is a light hearted enjoyable family film, with memorable music and if it had included the darker side of reality it surely would have ruined the film for me. I personally was not aware this was based upon a real story until I researched into it later on. Regardless of if you know the true story or not, it is a highly enjoyable musical and would recommend anyone to at least give it a try!