A very dynamic music hall

What a great film! Inspired by real facts and the real life of PT Barnum, the 19th century American showman, “The Greatest Showman” is a beautiful fable about the circus world which focuses on the way society looked at people’s appearances and their social class. A look that caused a lot of rejection of all people who were different.

The noblest art is that of making others happy.

P.T. Barnum

This musical is dynamic and easy to get caught up in. It has humanistic values and shows the struggle of an entrepreneur, with its ups and downs.

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In the real story, PT Barnum stayed with his wife Charity until her death in 1873 and then married Nancy Fish, a famous American actress, with whom he stayed for 17 years.

Where does the word “Barnum” come from?

PT Barnum gave his name to the rigid tents that are so widely used in live entertainment around the world to form circus tents. In the film, we see that he and his partner realize that they can’t afford to buy a building after theirs burns down and that’s when PT Barnum gets the idea to buy a cheap vacant lot and put up a big rigid tent: the circus was born.

The freaks

It was common practice at one time to pay to go and watch people who were different and who were even locked in cages because they had a deformity or some other physical feature that scared people. Society at the time was attracted to this type of curiosity and some live performance entrepreneurs made a real living out of it. This disappeared over the years as morals changed and it was no longer allowed to pay to ogle humans for their defects.

These people, who were called “freaks” in English because they provoked fear by their physical appearance, are often represented in films as endearing characters, with a big heart, who are ultimately much more human than the people of good society and who are present when everything goes wrong and everyone else has fled. We often see films contrasting the society of the wealthy and of appearances with the society of strong human values such as friendship, mutual aid and solidarity found among the rejected.

Even if PT Barnum always had the intention of making money with his shows, he nevertheless gave these people a place in society. Thanks to him, they found friends, family and a place to live, whereas until then they had been totally recluse, and even hidden by their own families who were ashamed of them.

In a word, I recommend this film both for the good time, the entertainment, the high artistic quality images, the enjoyable and meaningful songs and for the reminder to never trust appearances in life.