Date: 2018
Director: Michael Gracey
Actors/ Characters: Hugh Jackman/ P.T. Barnum,Michelle Williams/ Charity Barnum, Zac Efron/ Phillip Carlyle, Zendaya/ Anne Wheeler, Rebecca Ferguson/ Jenny Lind, Keala Settle/ Lettie Lutz
Summary: Celebrates the birth of show business, and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
Review
The release of films such as La La Land and now The Greatest Showman could potentially mark the return of the grand and elaborate movie musical that reigned over cinema screens through the golden age of Hollywood. Fun family entertainment of high quality is hard to find at present however I would argue that The Greatest Showman is a good pick for all the family as it was an enjoyable watch although somewhat problematic at times.
This film is, to put it bluntly, extravagant. The visual design of the production is wonderful from the costumes to the set everything screams luxury. For a film pretty much made for the purpose of entertainment, and Hugh Jackman's self satisfaction, the over-the-top nature of the film's design works really well and connects it to the classic movie musicals of the thirties and forties.
For me, the best part of the film was, in fact, the soundtrack and choreography. I lovemusicals and choreographed dance sequences on screen, there's something about the elaborateness and scale of a musical that just sums up the grandeur of Hollywood. Justin Paul and Benj Pasek co-wrote the songs for the film and I can definitely hear their influence in each of the pieces they have written. Each song has a fantastic build to it and the chorus are all extremely catchy and equally unforgettable the soundtrack has been stuck in my head for a good two weeks now. The choreography was also wonderful it blended traditional styles such as tap dancing and ballet with more modern dance.
Prior to seeing the film, I had heard of the troubling history surrounding the central character: P T Barnum. Now that I have seen the film I agree that using P T Barnum as the main subject was not such a good idea. P T Barnum was an exploitative, cruel and selfish man who cared about one thing and one thing only: business; he committed many acts of animal cruelty, kept slaves and even sold tickets to an autopsy to make profit. Using someone with such a dark history for a family film is quite problematic and although I could pick up undertones of the real P T Barnum's flaws coming through in his representation in the film there is no doubt that his character has been massively sugar coated. I can't understand why Hugh Jackman actively chose to play such a malicious character regardless of the fact he has been toned down, instead the film could have used inspiration from Barnum and created a fictitious character in his place.
I did have quite a few issues with the progression of the film's plot and the problematic representations within the film. The film set's itself up as a fun family musical all about accepting ourselves as who we are and learning to be proud of ourselves. To continue the problematic representation of P T Barnum, he treats the performers in his 'circus' extremely unfairly and sees them as a means to make money rather than the people they are. During the song This is Me, P T Barnum shuts his 'freaks' away from the world not letting them into the party with high society showing that he doesn't truly value them as people. The song focusses on the notion of people standing up for themselves and accepting who they are however there is no shift in the treatment of the 'freaks' or in the narrative of the film where the song should signal a change in the progression of the film it doesn't affect a thing and becomes merely another entertaining number. Not a single one of the 'freaks' have character development within the film other than the acts they perform within the circus which is as back thinking as the people in society back in the time of the film's context.
Zendaya's character of Anne is perhaps the only 'freak' that has character development and that is only because of her romance with Phillip- played by Zac Efron. Honestly I am aware of the problematic nature of that fact however I really enjoyed this on screen romance I thought the couple had a huge amount of chemistry and watching them perform Rewrite the Stars was truly magical.
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