Now it’s not very often that music from a movie musical makes it into the mainstream world, being played on radio and television on a regular basis, but there is one movie musical that has achieved this, and that is The Greatest Showman. The 2017 Hugh Jackman led spectacular went global, and made stars of its cast members when the music become ridiculously popular. It tells the story of Phineas Taylor Barnum, a bank clerk turned showman who become known as the father of the modern circus.

This is a larger than life story, told in a larger than life fashion. Big bold song and dance numbers push the action forwards and you can’t help but love the characters of bearded lady Lettie (Keala Settle), trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey) and young businessman Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron). There is a wonderful sense of the joy of the circus, magic and happiness whilst touching upon the troubles that Barnum went through to make his dreams come true. But, really that’s where the slight problem with The Greatest Showman lies. It lies in the fact that the truth is only touched upon. The Greatest Showman presents a very clean image, an ideal image of those who felt excluded from society coming together to bring joy to others. Whereas in reality, Barnum’s story wasn’t really that clean cut and simple.

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I have to be truthful, as someone who has seen both The Greatest Showman and a stage production of Barnum, that the film does do it’s fair share of sugar coating. Barnum wasn’t all happiness and light. Yes he did celebrate his acts, but he also lied about them and tried to hide them away when he wanted the limelight for himself. The film only touches on his darker side in the moments before ‘This Is Me’. In reality, Barnum exploited his acts for his own benefits, working them hard and bullying them. But, let’s be honest, nobody would want to see a film all about that. They want to see the side of Barnum that this film highlights. He claimed to be the inventor of showbusiness, he gave people seen as misfits a stage on which to shine and by doing so brought happiness to not only those who watched his circus but to those who performed in it.

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Nevertheless, the film doesn’t cover up the fact that Barnum was a world famous liar. The Prince of Humbug. He could take something and twist it into something completely different. He took an already taller than average man and made him use stilts to be even taller, he created the world’s fattest man and took a young man with Dwarfism and painted him as the famous story character Tom Thumb. Whilst he lead the way for his performers, he was in fact a performer himself. He could tell stories and create lies so fantastic that they just had to be believed. He was also a prime example of how someone can come from humble beginnings and find greatness. Hugh Jackman brings the character of P.T Barnum to life wonderfully, and it is clear that he feels a great sense of pride in playing the role. He believes in Barnum and what he wanted to achieve and that shows.

In a nutshell, The Greatest Showman is a celebration. It highlights acceptance and the brilliance of individuality. As Barnum once said, no one ever made a difference by being like everyone else. Barnum takes those who believe that they should hide away, and puts them in the limelight, showing them that they are in fact worth something. In the film, we see theatre critic James Gordon Bennett give Barnum’s show a bad review, calling it humbug but he does tell Barnum something that makes him want to keep going. He states ‘Putting people of all shapes, sizes, colours, putting them on stage together and presenting them as equals, another critic might have even called it a celebration of humanity’

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As well as talking about the story of The Greatest Showman, and why it really should be celebrated, we can’t talk about this film without seeing it as a work of art in itself. The cinematography is visually stunning. There are wonderful bursts of colour and light surrounding Barnum at all times, as if he can inject life and colour into anything him, no matter how dark it is. There are so many scenes I could highlight just for their visual beauty, from Charity and Barnum dancing on the rooftops, to Phillip and Anne swinging on high ropes and trapezes. It’s just beautiful. Combine the gorgeous scenes with the exquisite hair, make up and costumes alongside the extraordinary choreography and this film is simply a pleasure to look at.

With it’s amazing soundtrack, great appearance and enjoyable story, it is no wonder that The Greatest Showman continues to thrill film lovers. I think that it became a lot more popular then people ever thought it would. It may not have gone down particularly well with critics at the time, for they thought it was too sugar coated, but cinema goers loved it and embraced it. It may not be a true to life retelling of Barnum’s life, but it still takes film lovers on a soaring tale of love, acceptance and the beauty of dreaming.