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Post by Vits on Jul 11, 2018 19:45:27 GMT
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is an excellent production (the combination of directing, cinematography, camera work, editing, choreography and music make every musical number (even the ballads with a simple visual approach) intense) that tries to re-write the stars history in an offensive way. The result is a very good movie that didn't reach its full potential. I don't even understand why they tried to make P.T. BARNUM look like a hero. To make an inspirational story? Well, why not tell it from the freaks' point of view? I also don't see why the script included ANNA & W.D. WHEELER, a brother-sister duo of acrobats. They're discriminated for being black... but that's not the same as being discriminated for a physical deformity. It feels weird seeing them in that group. You wouldn't go to an AIDS march to talk about the importance of defeating cancer, right? Different problems have different origins and different solutions. Also, it's not a coincidence that PHILLIP CARLYLE (P.T.'s partner) falls for the only attractive woman in the circus. What if he had fallen for one of the freaks? Wouldn't that have helped more with the equality message? You know, like that other Zac Efron character in that other musical that fell in love with that other character that was treated differently.The scene where they hold hands for the 1st time felt weird. I'm pretty sure they hadn't even talked before. He lets her go when others look at them and she feels bad. Later, they walk together in public. His parents see them, they judge them and she leaves... which is kind of what he did to her before! She says that he wouldn't understand how she feels because no one has looked at him the way his parents looked at her. Ummm... Yes, he does. His parents were looking at the both of them. I know that she meant that he's white, but racists treat white people who are in interracial relationships the same way they treat minorities. The songs are good and so are the performances, but I don't get why the music drowned the voices out. Isn't that done when the singers are bad? 8/10 ------------------------------------- You can read comments of other movies in my blog (in English, in Spanish or in Italian). |
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Post by politicidal on Jul 11, 2018 23:02:32 GMT
It was the 1800s, the general public probably thought most black people were same as freaks anyway.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 29, 2018 4:40:57 GMT
I have looked forward to this film since I learned that it was being made. I finally got to see a copy after waiting forever on the local library reserve list.
I have never been as disappointed in a film as I was seeing this one.
WHY did they not just start from scratch and write about a fictional showman and his fictional family and his fictional circus instead of presenting this TOTAL FICTION pretending to be actual history ?
Jenny Lind lusting after Barnum and thereby breaking up his marriage? Never happened.
Jenny Lind singing pop songs ? Nope.
Tom Thumb is made to look like he is a dwarf ! He was a "midget" … whole 'nuther medical condition with different physical characteristics.
Museum torched by hoodlums protesting "freaks" ? no.
This whole love affair with the performer … nonsense made up totally ! WHY ?
Beautifully made .. yes.
Costumes … fantastic.
Acting ? All around fine and dandy !
Other than Tom .. most some of the "special people" were similar to those in the old photos.
BUT >> THE LIFE OF P.T.BARNUM it was NOT and as such a major major disappointment to a Circus Fan who knows even the basics of the Life of PT Barnum ! !
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Sept 30, 2018 0:42:57 GMT
It wasn't pretending to be history.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 30, 2018 2:07:01 GMT
It wasn't pretending to be history. BUT it was … it was claiming to be based on the life of PT Barnum yet the plot revolves un-necessarily around total historical inaccuracies. |
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Oct 1, 2018 0:26:09 GMT
No one ever walks into a musical expecting historical accuracy. Do you think "Annie Get Your Gun" was trying to be historically accurate?
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Post by BATouttaheck on Oct 1, 2018 1:19:58 GMT
No one ever walks into a musical expecting historical accuracy
There's inaccuracy and there's total misrepresentation of major facts.
I know about Barnum and feel that the changes were way out of line.
MANY Hollywood Biographies were/ are total balderdash but for me, this one was just too far wrong.
You liked it ? fine.
I did not.. for reasons stated earlier.
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Post by Vits on Oct 1, 2018 8:08:43 GMT
No one ever walks into a musical expecting historical accuracy. Who told you that? |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Oct 1, 2018 12:08:51 GMT
^^^^ exactly ! If a film is claiming to be a "biography" of someone it should stick to facts … set them to music if it's a musical but be at least in the neighborhood of what really happened.
Lind / Barnum one sided romance ... not even in the ballpark reality-wise and now viewers who know no better think that this nonsense actually happened.
There have been other instances of Hollywood-ized " biographies" that are incredibly fictionalized but that's for another time and place and board !
As I said in my first post :
want to make up a story?
go ahead and make up a story !
BUT don't claim that it is the story of a Real Person !
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Post by politicidal on Oct 14, 2018 23:36:26 GMT
No one ever walks into a musical expecting historical accuracy. Do you think "Annie Get Your Gun" was trying to be historically accurate? Hell, there's plenty of awards contenders that completely misrepresent history as it happened and did fine like Amadeus or Braveheart. |
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Post by ellynmacg on Jan 31, 2019 7:48:46 GMT
^^^^ exactly ! If a film is claiming to be a "biography" of someone it should stick to facts … set them to music if it's a musical but be at least in the neighborhood of what really happened. Lind / Barnum one sided romance ... not even in the ballpark reality-wise and now viewers who know no better think that this nonsense actually happened. There have been other instances of Hollywood-ized " biographies" that are incredibly fictionalized but that's for another time and place and board !
As I said in my first post : want to make up a story? go ahead and make up a story ! BUT don't claim that it is the story of a Real Person ! BAT, I wholeheartedly agree with you on the subject of Barnum and Lind. I don't know which aspect outraged me more: her supposed lust for him, or her singing a totally anachronistic "I Want" song instead of the art songs, operatic arias, and hymns that she preferred. Ms. Lind was a highly religious, proper woman (some might even say "stuffy") and would NEVER have behaved in such a brazen, immodest fashion, much less have attempted to seduce a married man. For one thing, having been born out of wedlock, how likely would she have been to indulge in an adulterous affair that could well have spawned illegitimate offspring? (A side note: I wonder if we will ever see a reasonably accurate biopic of the Swedish Nightingale. While The Greatest Showman treated her like a somewhat talented tart/adventuress, the Samuel Goldwyn extravaganza, Hans Christian Andersen, ignored her existence altogether--even though in real life he adored her and begged for her hand--instead having poor Hans fall in love with a ballerina!) All that said, I did enjoy some things about TGS, mostly the production numbers featuring Barnum's "special people". In those, I felt the question of historical accuracy rather a moot point. Maybe because the character of Barnum had less to do in those scenes? |
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