Since childhood, young Phineas Taylor Barnum realized that he had an amazing talent for captivating people with his crazy ideas, vivid dreams and unconventional aspirations. In search of a living, he tried many businesses, but settled on one – on the grounds of an abandoned New York museum Barnum built a circus, which he named after himself. Phineas summoned acrobats and strongmen, fat men and albinos, a bearded woman and Siamese twins under the dome of a magic tent, opening a window to the world for people previously shunned. But his pursuit of fame and success nearly ends in disaster for the ambitious entrepreneur himself – for a moment, Barnum forgot who had stood by him through all the difficult times and for whom he was building his circus empire.
Barnum’s actual circus lasted until mid-2017 and was closed due to a catastrophic decline in attendance and protests by animal rights activists
It is naive to believe that embellishing real facts or even outright fabrication in films “based on real events” is a purely domestic invention. Our glamorous Vikings, over-the-top basketball players during the Olympics, or the legendary “28 Panfilovites” are nothing but blunders compared to what Hollywood made of one of the biggest con men of the 19th century, Phineas Taylor Barnum, the man who laid the foundation for the colorful but completely false sky scraper of show business that we are happy to see to this day. Michael Gracie’s The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman, has nothing to do with the real Barnum other than coincidences, which is the film’s main hoax.
However, before scolding the movie for being untrustworthy, let’s point out the positives. Of course, Jackman, dancing and singing in a high top hat, is extraordinarily good, especially if you keep in mind last year’s “Logan”, where the actor skillfully portrayed a wreck – in the “Showman” Hugh seems to have dropped a decade and again surprises with his ardor and charisma. Great in the movie put musical numbers. Yes, you should be prepared for the fact that this is a musical where the songs are subtitled, but it is not a huge problem – the lyrics are accessible to any schoolboy, so there is time to both understand the meaning and watch the spectacular choreography. Finally, the screenwriters, for better or for worse, have managed to turn Barnum’s highly questionable biography into a fairy tale story about dreams, love, freedom and equality. Given the recent grand bargain, it’s safe to say that Fox has, in this case, given a proper Disney screen presence.
Moreover, from not the most unsightly story of “the showman’s” scam the authors and actors were able to put together an instructive, though Hollywood-style straightforward and naive, tale. The main character gathers freaks and freaks of all kinds under the roof of his circus and convinces them that each of them is beautiful in his own way, and his strange artists really open up, bring the owner a fabulous profit, and then welcome them into a welcoming embrace after Barnum suddenly gets the idea to impress the high society of America with a tour of a European opera diva. Along the way, the viewer is also told a beautiful love story – Phineas has been courting Charity since childhood, for her sake makes the initial savings, and then invests all his income in the home and two charming daughters, one of whom wants to become a ballerina. What a role model!
And now it’s worth turning to official sources and see who Phineas Barnum really was. Oh! This character was worthy of an entirely different movie and certainly didn’t deserve to be played by the thoroughly positive Jackman. Barnum lived a life of lies, fraud and deceit, beating money out of his viewers, partners and creditors by any means available. The film mentions a couple of “machinations” in passing, such as taking credit against non-existent collateral and falsification of circus performers’ data, but it’s nothing compared to what the real “showman” was up to, – He had no shame in passing off an 80 year old woman as Washington’s 160 year old babysitter, selling a potion that made blacks turn into whites, showing a big tuna with a monkey’s head sewn on, telling the audience they were seeing a mermaid.
Despite extensive preparation for the role and the efforts of Rebecca Fergusson, who played the singer Jenny Lind, the actress had to be re-vocalized – her singing did not sound like the voice of the greatest diva of her time. In the film, viewers hear the voice of singer Lauren Allred.
For this man had no boundaries, no morals or obligations, he repeatedly deceived partners, diverted the state around his finger and openly profited from his artists. And he did it not for the sake of his beloved wife and daughters – the real Barnum was married twice, and he had as many as four children.
