On 15 September 2018, I finally watched The Greatest Showman, the then fairly recent (late 2017) film musical directed by Michael Gracey, and starring Hugh Jackman as Phineas T. Barnum, with Zac Efron playing his junior business partner Phillip Carlysle, Rebecca Ferguson as the 'Swedish Nightingale' Jenny Lind (Rebecca's singing voice being provided by Loren Allred), and Sam Humphrey as Charles Stratton (aka General Tom Thumb).
During the late 1800s, Barnum's incredible museum of freaks and oddities (most famously including his 'Feejee mermaid', an eyecatching taxiderm gaff created by deftly combining a preserved monkey's head and torso with the body of a fish), followed by his spectacular big top circus starring all manner of very special, very different performers, revolutionised showbusiness not only in the USA but also across the entire globe.
Due to its massively popular soundtrack, #1 in the album charts for months, I'd already heard all of the major songs, but with the very notable exception of 'Never Enough' (fast becoming a standard) I wasn't overly impressed with them. Hence I feared that the movie would prove to be that most paradoxical of productions – a musical that wasn't very musical.
Happily, I was proved wrong, because, having previously listened to its songs only as stand-alone tracks, when listening to – and (crucially) viewing – them in context, as set pieces in the film, they became much more memorable, very ably evoking and then complementing the feelings and sensations conveyed by the visuals. This is especially true of 'This Is Me', which in 2018 deservedly won a Golden Globe Award as Best Original Song – Motion Picture. Click here to watch the poignant but triumphal scene featuring it, and sung by Keala Settle as Lettie Lutz, a bearded lady.
Needless to say, comparisons with the much earlier stage musical Barnum (containing one of my all-time favourite musical theatre songs – 'The Colours of My Life') are inevitable, because they were both inspired by Barnum's life and career. Moreover, both of them take liberties with the facts, but The Greatest Showman much more so – certainly, it cannot be considered to be a factual biopic in any sense, any more than the Danny Kaye-starring film musical Hans Christian Andersen could in relation to Denmark's world-famous purveyor of fairytales.
But just like the latter musical, The Greatest Showman has a magic all of its own that transcends factual reality anyway, and I was fabulously entertained by it throughout. So by that token, The Greatest Showman definitely succeeds, and how! An awesome film, one of the best that I have seen for a very long time, it is also one that through Barnum's company of unique performers offers a very telling, timely message for everyone, everywhere, throughout all of the ages – "who ever made a difference by being like everyone else?"
And on the remote chance that you have yet to view it yourself, click here and here to view a couple of official trailers that very succinctly but successfully embody and embrace the magic and also (here) the music on offer in The Greatest Showman.
And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
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