Historical Inaccuracy: A look into The Greatest Showman
Released on December 20, 2017 (USA) and starring Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum), Zac Efron (Philip Carlyle), Michelle Williams (Charity Barnum) and Zendaya (Anne Wheeler) to name a few and directed by Michael Gracey. The Greatest Showman follows the rags to riches story of Phineas Taylor Barnum, a dreamer who starts a circus in order to give his family a better life. The film has a 7.8/10 rating in IMDB and a 6/10 average rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to an 87% audience rating. It’s a film that is loved by the general public for its music and message but does have a sizable group of people who criticize it for its portrayal of P.T. Barnum as being historically inaccurate and “candy coated” to suit the movie. Historical inaccuracies in films are not uncommon. The most well known films, Oscar nominees even have their own historical mishaps but somehow The Greatest Showman has gotten tons of backlash for its sugary presentation of P.T. Barnum and his band of freaks. It’s interesting how that attribute of the movie is the main criticism and not everything else. The question is, is it really the main problem of the movie?
Oscar nominees such as Braveheart and Argo, to name a few, are known for their historical inaccuracies but aren’t as heavily criticized for it at least as of present day, given people moved on. The Greatest Showman’s historical inaccuracy backlash is understandable. It’s loosely based on the story of P.T. Barnum’s success story running a circus. Showing how Barnum used to exploit on people’s curiosity and “craving” for entertainment by using people with physical abnormalities, charging people money in order for them to witness living giants, dwarves, bearded ladies, furry humans and more. He also had some animals such as horses, elephants and tigers to perform tricks in front of a paying crowd. The movie did leave out a lot of important and well known points in Barnum’s life such as his owning of a slave Joice Heth, lying about her real age and performing a live autopsy on her corpse when she died, his “discovery” of the Feejee Mermaid, one of his attractions called “What is it?”, whose real name was William Henry Johnson and several more changes to P.T.’s real life such as his age when he started running a circus.
But that’s how movies do it. They leave out several points and events from their source material in order to fit their narrative. The Greatest Showman having painted P.T. Barnum mostly different from who he really was isn’t different from movies like Titanic, Marie Antoinette or Shakespeare in Love that have changes from their source material. What Barnum did in real life was terrible, that’s a given, but he did what was socially accepted at the time with the exploitation of humans with physical abnormalities. People like them were not seen as people with a genetic disorder much less as regular human beings. They were looked at as animals, probably worse, as freaks of nature and Barnum exploited on that social mindset. He used people’s interest of the unknown and weird and created stories for the attractions for the audience to wonder who or what they are and pay to see them live.
How things went in The Greatest Showman, though, is so far apart from history that they can change P.T.’s name, keep all the other characters and maybe it won’t be looked at as strongly in the context of historical inaccuracy. Yes it’s a terrible representation but that’s what the internet is for, to help educate the public should they wonder who P.T. Barnum was in real life.
Also the movie is a musical, with the plot that speaks about self acceptance and self confidence, breaking barriers and staying true to oneself. Although Barnum was still a bit of a shrewd con-man for several parts of the film.
Of course it’s not historical inaccuracy that gave the movie the ratings it got but the highs and lows the movie itself contains. First of all, the songs are the best part of the movie. They’re catchy and speak good messages. Plus the choreography is so good especially in A Million Dreams (A personal favorite).
Secondly, the cast is pretty likable for the most part. Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron are their usual charming selves and Michelle Williams is commendable for her performance. The addition of Zac Efron and Zendaya’s relationship in the story was a fine attempt, not really big in the grand scheme of things but a welcome piece of the movie. The movie does have some interesting use of color. All the regular townsfolk are seen wearing dull blues and grays while Barnum, family and friends are wearing colorful garments to stand out from the crowd, probably symbolism that they’re fun dreamers and entertainers. Speaking of fun dreamers, there’s one critic in the movie who rightfully so disapproves of Barnum’s exploitation of the circus attractions. He’s being portrayed here as anti-fun and anti-enjoyment who doesn’t like a simple laugh from a circus but rather enjoys high class entertainment like Jenny Lind’s (Rebecca Ferguson) performance. He’s Barnum’s somewhat foil for the most part but reconciles with Barnum a bit in the end.
Lastly, there are some shots that do look good in the film, for example, the scenes with Barnum and his wife Charity inside their mansion have a good depth and look into where their relationship is at.
Now the flaws. For one, it has too many elements in the story that the movie only to get left out as the plot moves along. It introduces us to people like the bearded lady, Tom Thumb and the rest of the attractions, aside from Zendaya’s character, get left out for most of the film aside from their song numbers. Then it introduced Jenny Lind who is only there to sing a pop song (for an opera singer no less) then become involved in this brief love triangle between her, Barnum and Charity. And the rift between Barnum and Charity, solved in a couple seconds of conversation and it’s purpose was to be the worst case scenario for the choices Barnum makes in the film. For the most part, the circus attractions, Jenny Lind got little characterization. The relationship between Barnum and the attractions is not believable. They’re shown to get little interaction with Barnum cause most of the time he’s out doing something else. Lastly, probably nitpicky, is how dizzying some of the fast cuts and camera angles are for some of the song numbers such as from This is the Greatest Show. All in all, it’s a by the numbers type of movie that checklists plots and events that people won’t remember as much as the song numbers that carry this film.
The Greatest Showman is not the first movie nor last movie to leave off information regarding its source material and it is fair to say they have misrepresented the real P.T. Barnum. Given it’s not a historical film it’s understandable why the movie left out key areas of Barnum’s life. They wanted to show the glamor, how dreams do come true and how the good guys win in the end. Overall, it’s a pretty above-average movie that is somewhat well intentioned with the good messages and catchy music. It does have its problems but is brought up with a likable cast and an earnest spectacle. If you love musicals, addicting songs and a light hearted movie, then The Greatest Showman is definitely worth the watch.
