The Greatest Showman?
Two days ago, I surprised myself watching The Greatest Showman, a musical produced by Michael Gracey which came out on December 8th, 2017. The musical is starring Hugh Jackman (who got nothing to prove anymore) who’s a biopic of P.T. Barnum, Zendaya the Instagram queen… And Zac Efron who participated in this fashionable (although old-school) musical as well, after the great success of High School Musical about ten years ago. This cast alone is cool!
The Greatest showman is a tale about empowerment. Indeed, Barnum went from owning nothing to building his own circus and show, although going through lots of ups and downs. He hires people who don’t fit to standards, making them stars and turning their difference into a real strength; especially with the song “This Is Me”, sang and danced by the whole crew.
I’ve first heard about it through friends and family: the word of mouth did a great work here. But we heard about it more especially online. Literally everybody was obsessed with the soundtrack; to the point that it became top one in the UK album charts, and in the US in second place (which was originally number one). Music was this film’s best asset. You know when you’ve heard about something a lot (a little bit too much), and you end up watching it just to get it over with? Well now I am obsessed too… And part of these people who keep talking about it to anyone they find!
This movie was a real breakthrough. Some say there is lots of songs, but not much story. I often see these people as the rebels in the film, who go on strike and are completely against the show. Well I surprisingly liked it, despite some bad comments. I even catch myself rewatching a particular sequence in the film: the “Rewrite the Stars”, a Zac Efron and Zendaya trapeze duet. I find the scene spectacular, which leads to a pretty magical atmosphere. They had to make an effort as a team in order to make this scene involving singing, dancing, gliding in the air thanks to ropes, and even a trapeze! Both actors performed the majority of their roles, including stunts. Zac Efron even said “there was no real way we could rehearse it. […] We were up in the air. We were elevated, and they had to adapt and constantly change as we figured out what the number was, because we didn’t know what it was going to turn into.”
