The son of a poor tailor grows up to be a visionary who risks everything to become the greatest showman on Earth.
The dream to make it in life… The ambition to embrace who you really are and to be finally accepted and rewarded for it. That’s what The Greatest Showman is about. Based on actual events and real people, the film’s narrative is accompanied by, arguably, the most moving songs you’ve ever listened to in a musical. They lack neither a political statement nor a social message, and they make you want to sing and dance to their rhythm. Eleven songs were written by lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won the Oscar for La La Land (2016). No matter how much I praise them and the songs, I will not do them justice.
The visuals are unique, gripping, and mesmerising. Everyone performs stellarly and works amazingly with one another as if they were all meant to work together. Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Keala Settle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and the rest of the cast purely shine and dominate the screen, and months of preparation finally pay off.
Michael Gracey’s directorial feature debut makes The Greatest Showman the Rocky (1976) of musicals. Call it however you wanna call it, praise it to the best of your abilities, and listen to everyone else telling you how great it is… the audiovisual outcome of the thousands of people working on it can be fully appreciated only by watching it. It spent years in preproduction, with all studios fearing that an original musical of that budget [$84,000,000 (estimated)] might not perform well. Still, against all odds and against ferocious competition, it made $436,949,634 worldwide.
Watch it while thinking about where you are and where you want to be or where you were and where you are now, and you’ll find your heart skipping a beat – more than once.
Please, don’t forget to share and subscribe. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
To me it would be a horror to watch a film of this kind but as you have suggested it and raved about it I will have to give it a go and as a very good friend of mine would say “at some point”
Your friend sounds wise… About the film, give it a go and you won’t regret it.
I first watched The Greatest Showman during our 2nd Lockdown stint in the UK and it touched my heart immediately.
It aroused all sort of emotions for me and brought my senses back to life after being cooped up and made me feel alive again.
It is a tremendous film and the review describes it accurately and with feeling.
So glad you loved it, Marina. Cinema is meant to evoke emotions and offer the appropriate escapism. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that during lockdowns it is what all of us were seeking. If it even offered one shred of hope, it fulfilled its purpose. Thank you for your comment.