Photo courtesy of 21st Century Fox

Greatest Showman swings audience emotions with music

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The Greatest Showman is a musical which celebrated the birth of show business as well as expressing the feeling of joy when one is able to achieve their goals. This movie was based on and inspired by Phineas Taylor Barnum’s ambition of achieving his dream, which was to start a circus. Barnum is a man who grew up with his father, who was a tailor. Barnum was a natural salesperson, selling snacks and cherry rum to soldiers by the age of 12. Barnum also tried a variety of businesses from newspaper publishing to running a boarding house. Barnum opened two museums which both ended up burning down. Eventually, Barnum ended up starting a circus, which is what he is now known for.

The movie revolves around the character Barnum, played by Hugh Jackman, who went from having nothing to having everything he could ever dream of and more. The Greatest Showman follows Barnum throughout his entire life to show how he was able to reach his dreams. It gave insight to the hardships that Barnum had to encounter as well as the highlights of his journey.

Barnum started his circus with many different types of people who were avoided by the citizens. The main star that was part of the circus was the trapeze artist Anne Wheeler, played by Zendaya Coleman. Barnum partnered up with Phillip Carlyle, played by Zac Efron, in order to promote his circus more. The music, such as “This Is Me” and “Rewrite The Stars,” helped develop the emotions in the scenes that linked with the song. The song “This Is Me” was powerful since it showed how the “not so normal” people were now accepting themselves. It showed so much realism of how people discriminate if you are not like them. The message in this song definitely brought light to the fact that no one is really the same. The movie also showed the feelings of the citizens, who disliked those who performed in the circus, and the feelings of those who were asked to join the circus. A history of discrimination against those were “not normal” was thoroughly shown in the movie by having people protest against the circus, expressing their disapproval of Barnum’s business.

There was a scene from the movie where Barnum was trying to persuade Carlyle to help promote the circus by working for him. This scene was intense because Carlyle already considered himself successful. This scene was joined with the song “Other Side,” which made the scene much more intense. Watching this scene got me to the edge of my seat since I was convinced that Carlyle was not going to join Barnum, however I was completely wrong. Carlyle agreed to partner up with Barnum with a percentage of the show. This caught me off guard, but after evaluating the scene and the lyrics in the song, I realized that Barnum is convincing. Barnum and Carlyle teaming up brought me joy since, I wanted the best for Barnum and now Carlyle, an experienced showman, was going to help promote the circus.

Overall, the movie revolves around Barnum’s journey of getting to where he wants, however, it was still able to bring light to the problem of society. The movie displayed the hardships in history that occurred in the past, the birth of show business came, and how hardships that attempt to keep you away from your dreams could be overcome. The Greatest Showman has now become one of my top favorite movies. I was not entire interested in this movie, but now that I have watched the movie, I was very intrigued and would watch this movie over and over again. It gave me more insight into the discrimination that happened in the passed and expressed emotions with music, which is the best way to express emotions. In the end, I would highly recommend this movie, The Greatest Showman, for others to watch.

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