The Greatest Showman

Dir: Michael Gracey

2017

*

The Greatest Showman is proof that mediocrity rules. If you look under the reviews on IMDB you’ll see a string of comments such as ‘Ignore the critics, this film is great’, written I imagine by the same people who have been watching the same audition-style television programs for the last few decades not realising that they are watching the same thing over and over again. P. T. Barnum is a fascinating historical character, not a particularly nice man in truth, but someone it would have been interesting to learn more about. This film is largely (almost entirely) fictional and a tad bit insulting to the many people who suffered him back in the day – including the slave he kept thanks to a legal loophole. He exploited the vulnerable and profited from marketing racism to the masses. There was a great show back in the 1980s called Barnum originally starring Jim Dale but was later played by Michael Crawford whom was more famous in the role. I saw the Michael Crawford version and was blown away by it. It had great songs and plenty of action but it didn’t shy away from the darker side of Barnum and it also showed how he was reflective of the bad things he had done later on in life. It was enjoyable but still questionable in taste. The Greatest Showman isn’t quite ‘Springtime for Hitler’ but it sugar-coats a man and a legacy to uncomfortable levels without any regard to truth or indeed ethics. The people thinking I’m reading too much into what is a ‘light-hearted musical’ are the very problem. It is not their fault though, we as a society are force-fed mediocrity daily and have been for years. Little by little, anything of worth has disappeared from the mainstream and where is should be accessible. The story begins in the late 19th century, P. T. Barnum and his troupe perform a show at the circus. In a flashback to Barnum's childhood where he and his father Philo, a tailor, work for the Hallett family, he becomes infatuated with their daughter, Charity. Though Charity is being sent to finishing school, Barnum reassures her they will not be separated. The two keep in touch through letters until they meet again in adulthood, eventually marrying and raising two daughters, Caroline and Helen, in New York City. They actually had four children but their third, born two years after Helen, died aged 2 and as this is a happy and fictional tale, the last two children are erased from history. They live a humble life, although Charity is happy, Barnum dreams of more. We then see Barnum as he loses his job as a clerk at a shipping company after the company goes bankrupt. Taking a risky bet, he takes out a large loan from a bank, deceiving the bank into accepting his former employer's lost ships as collateral. He uses this loan to buy Barnum's American Museum in downtown Manhattan, an attraction showcasing various wax models. Again, this is complete nonsense. Barnum had several businesses over the years, including a general store, a book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and a statewide lottery network. He started a weekly newspaper in 1829 called The Herald of Freedom in Danbury, Connecticut. His editorials against the elders of local churches led to libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in imprisonment for two months, but he became a champion of the liberal movement upon his release. He sold his store in 1834 and moved to New York City because lotteries were banned in Connecticut, cutting off his main income. He began his career as a showman in 1835 when he was 25 with the purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman named Joice Heth, whom an acquaintance was trumpeting around Philadelphia as George Washington's former nurse and 161 years old. Slavery was already outlawed in New York, but he exploited a loophole which allowed him to lease her for a year for $1,000, borrowing $500 to complete the sale. Heth died in February 1836, at no more than 80 years old. Barnum had worked her for 10 to 12 hours a day, and he hosted a live autopsy of her body in a New York Saloon where spectators paid 50 cents to see the dead woman cut up, as he revealed that she was likely half her purported age. I guess they couldn’t find the music to go with that slice of truth. Initially, sales are slow; on the suggestion of his children to showcase something "alive", Barnum searches for "freaks" to serve as performers for his museum. This attracts a large audience despite protests and poor reviews, prompting Barnum to rename his venture "Barnum's Circus." Searching for ways to further his reputation among the upper class, Barnum meets playwright Phillip Carlyle and convinces him to join his venture. Carlyle is mesmerized by Anne Wheeler, an African-American trapeze artist, but he hides his feelings. The very idea of Barnum hiring an African-American as an equal in his circus is insulting. Barnum was a producer and promoter of minstrelsy. He was once involved in a hoax about a weed that would turn black people white. During a trip, Carlyle arranges for Barnum and his troupe to meet Queen Victoria. Afterwards, Barnum meets Jenny Lind, a famed Swedish singer, whom he convinces to perform in America, with him serving as her manager. Lind's first American performance is a rousing success. While Barnum gains favour with the aristocratic patrons, he begins to distance himself from his original troupe, refusing to socialize with them. Dejected, they decide to stand against their local harassers. Carlyle and Wheeler attend the theater together one night, only to run into Carlyle's parents, who are blatantly racist toward Wheeler, causing her to leave. The hypocrisy is painful. Carlyle chases her and tries to convince her that they can be together, but she rejects him despite her feelings towards him. As Barnum takes Lind on a US tour, Charity feels isolated from her husband as she stays home with their daughters. While on tour, Lind begins falling in love with Barnum, but when he refuses her advances, she calls off the tour and kisses him at the end of her last show, which is photographed by the press. This never happened, indeed, Lind began to despise Barnum. The blatant commercialism of Barnum's ticket auctions distressed Lind and she persuaded him to make a substantial number of tickets available at reduced prices. Lind soon became uncomfortable with Barnum's relentless marketing of the tour, and she invoked a contractual right to sever her ties with him. Barnum returns home to find his circus on fire, caused by a fight between the protesters and the troupe (more fiction, the fire was actually more likely to be insurance fraud). Carlyle, who had tried to save Anne not knowing she had already escaped, is rescued by Barnum amid the chaos but suffers severe burns. Most of the sets and props are destroyed. Word of Lind's cancellation and Barnum's public intimacy also reaches New York, resulting in his mansion being foreclosed upon and Charity taking Caroline and Helen to her parents' home. Depressed, Barnum retreats to a local bar, where his troupe find him there and explain that despite their disappointments, they still consider themselves a family that needs him (ugh!). An inspired Barnum resolves to start anew and not let ambition overtake his loved ones anymore. Meanwhile, the injured Carlyle wakes in a hospital with Anne by his side. Barnum leaves and finds his estranged wife, and they decide to mend their relationship. Faced with the financial difficulty of rebuilding the circus, the recovering Carlyle steps in, offering to use his earnings from his share of the circus's profits to rebuild it under the condition of becoming partners, which Barnum happily accepts. As rebuilding the circus in its original location would be too expensive, Barnum rebuilds it as an open-air tent circus by the docks. The revamped circus is a huge success, and Barnum gives full control of the show to Carlyle so he can focus on his family. The reality is that he carried on working until he was an old man. He ditched Carlyle and remarried within months of his wife’s death. The film is a vomit-inducing CGI mess. I found the songs to be as uplifting as stubbing one’s toe on a hard step and as catchy as a fire alarm. I love both Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams but I’m sad that they were involved with this. There is nothing about this film that I enjoyed but it seems I’m in the minority. Barnum wins, and in his own words "There's a sucker born every minute."