I hate The Greatest Showman more every moment 

I actually loved Ghost in the Shell, even though so much people gave it crap.

You know a movie is weird when its romantic duet is just a woman trying to explain racism to her boyfriend.

I guess it wasn't the greatest show, man.

"He's not even interesting enough to cheat on his wife, just slimey enough to think about it" is such a great line 😄

"there is an elephant in the room... it's CGI, it looks horrible" I cant stop laughing

The thing that bothers me about “This is Me” is that the freaks sing it immediately after Barnum is actively embarrassed by their presence and they go to the circus....to perform the song.....and therefore make more money for the man they’re angrily singing about. What.

"There is an elephant in the room. It's CGI and it looks horrible."

i think the reason they had the whole jenny lind plot in there is so they could still have a "barnum's reputation is ruined" moment without addressing any of the ACTUAL reputation-ruining terrible things he did

From what I read, Jenny Linn historically was the one that rejected Barnum. Like he apparently harassed her a lot and she kept saying no. So the movie is even farther pulled from the history.

“a mean spirited character assassination against a woman who died in 1887” im crying

“He’s not interesting enough to actually cheat on his wife. He’s just slimy enough to think about it.”

What bugs me is the character of his wife, who, as a child, had a brief expression of a plucky personality but then just got boiled down to 'wife'. Why is she supporting him this much?

As a former choir kid, every time I hear “This is Me” I get war flashbacks. What did they put in that song to make every single choir director go absolutely fucking feral. Sometimes the same person made us perform it in more than one concert. I hate it with every fiber of my being

My favourite thing that makes no sense about the Bearded Lady is that her armpits are shaved, in an era that doesn't even care about armpit hair.

I feel like this musical was trying to ride off of Hamilton, so they just spun a wheel full of famous dead guys and landed on PT Barnum

My in-universe theory about the "Siamese Twins" is that just like how Barnum was doing stuff like making the tall man look even taller on stilts, he just hired two random Asian guys with similar haircuts and mustaches to stand close together at all times.

my dad describes the movie as "some music videos strung together by a crappy plot" and I totally agree

If they wanted to make a fun circus musical why didn’t they just make one about a fictional guy instead of a slaveowner so that I didn’t have to see people all over twitter saying things like “PT Barnum is a precious bean”

A person who does trapeze is a trapezoid

this is like the equivalent of if in 2047 they make a hyperpop musical where Onision is the hero

when i need to stop missing my ex so bad i think about how much they liked this movie

"What are you afraid of?" said the white guy in 1880

PT Barnum's actual first "freak" was an 80 year old black woman who he claimed was over 160 years old.

I love Hugh Jackman, but I'm SO TIRED of leading men cast opposite women who are at least a decade younger.

As a circus artist, I just have to say that most of us acrobats are very sick of hearing the songs from this damn movie and/or performing at GS themed corporate events. If I hear Rewrite the Stars or Never Enough one more time, I will tear my ears off. The songs aren't even that good! I also looked at the clips from the movie and the circus is barely there and just not accurate to the time for the most part.

I absolutely adore how this girl looks like the quietest, nicest librarian I've ever seen and then she starts describing stuff and it's straight up Savage. I want her to be my best friend

I like how the only 'freak' who was allowed to find love was the conventionally beautiful one (meanwhile Barnham is cheating on his life-long sweetheart for literally no reason). This movie really infuriated me.

Why did they think they could just... romanticize a really gross historical figure? Like sure Hamilton is like a funky rap version of rich white slave owning politicians, but like it's self-aware enough that you don't really root for him in Act 2. It's fully acknowledged that Hamilton cheated on his wife and kinda sucked as a person while still making him an interesting protagonist

"You didn't have a beard when you were a baby" she might have, we don't get enough of a backstory to say for certain. So I'm choosing to believe she was born with a full beard.

“gummy” and “rubbery” are not words I want to describe horses ever

"edgy, knockoff fallout boy" The fact that P!ATD covered this song makes this statement 4x better

The funniest part about “The Other Side” being the only song that can’t be divorced from the context of the musical is that it’s the only song that got popular for internet artists to use to make AMVs with their OCs or characters from their favorite shows. The most in context song is the only one people will use completely out of context. To be fair, it’s also the least sanitized/boring song in the movie, so it makes sense.

I’ve been giggling at “I came here to watch a guy hit a lion with a chair” for a solid two hours now

Holy crap, the twist you came up with where Jenny Lind couldn't sing and the Bearded Lady came out to take her place would have been AMAZING.

This movie is one of the most American things ever. It’s a movie that glorifies a man who might have loved circuses at one point but eventually was only in it for the money while making a villain out of the person known as a humble philanthropist.

“‘This Is Me’ sounds like something P!NK would sing” *P!NK: releases a cover of A Million Dreams*

I actually liked The Greatest Showman, because I just told myself it's all fiction. But I totally had the same reaction to the collective characters of the "freaks." So their whole arc is learning to be brave and love themselves... yet almost none of them have names. They are known only by their "deformities" or defining physical characteristics. (Bearded lady. Tall guy. Albino.) Give them names, darn it! In the inevitable stage musical that's going to come out of this, give them names - fake or real, it's fine, just don't list "Fat Man" in the program.

No comment on the movie itself, but the fact that a black woman was used as a novelty in this movie is actually accurate to PT Barnum. He used many other races, both alive and taxidermied bodies in his shows. It was a weird thing for them to be accurate about.

I watched the movie with a friend and thought it was boring then Lind appeared. As a Swede it was really offensive, this women was great in life and used to be on our money to see her as a this homewrecking villan was infuriating

Does anyone else come back to this every 6 months or so just because they love Jenny's politely savage style of criticism? She doesn't upload enough dangit

As a disabled performer I would like to personally burn every copy of this movie. It’s erasure of ableist exploitation and the fact that the ~freaks~ only find self-love through external validation and exploitation aren’t bad enough, it also just has to have the most obnoxious soundtrack that I’ve been forced to do curtain calls to. 💀

I always found it funny that Anne (Zendaya's character) wanted to not be see and kind of blend into the background so she wears a lime green dress to go to the theatre

Also remember the man has a manipulation tactic named after him. The "Barnum Effect" is defined as: ...a common psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.

I misread this as "the greatest snowman" until 19 minutes into the video.

17:32 I cannot for the life of me remember who said this but it was a really great writer. He described the transition between dialog and music should be natural. When a character is so overwhelmed with emotion that words alone can't convey what theyre feeling the character starts to sing. And when music alone cant, they dance. It's difficult to explain, but this is why some musical interludes feel like we're pausing the movie to hear a cool song and others feel like a natural progression. It's one of those skills that's only noticed if it's not there.

Jenny Lind, one of the most famous opera singers in history, singing a flat, pitchy pop song was the biggest slap in the face of this whole film.

"Because they're not allowed to speak, I forgot." I CACKLED

30:43 made me cackle, the idea that hugh jackman was so giddy about being in a musical that he couldn’t contain his expression is pure gold.

Everytime someone mentions "this is me", I try to imagine the song in my head and I come up with Camp Rock's version.

"a wicked seductress here to tempt hugh jackman away from his freaks and his family" me

Lind trying to seduce Barnum was especially dumb because a big part of her tragic backstory was that her parents weren't married. You'd think that she'd be the first to hesitate to have an affair with a married man

"I didn't come here to watch an albino breakdance. I'm here to see a man hit a lion with a chair, okay?" is up there as far as Jenny Nicholson quotes go

This missed opportunity of him saying “this is the greatest show” at his daughter’s recital 😭

So you're telling us that a movie that this could have provided representation and catharsis for people with physical disabilities through the allegory of the 'freaks', while also getting able-bodied people to empathize with their very real struggles of both physical and social nature; while instead the 'freaks' are denied the dignity of a character or an arc and are just pity puppets to make able-bodied people feel inspired and good about themselves, while reducing their struggles to a "you got to love yourself" message? ...I guess the movie does keep in line with the spirit of P.T. Barnum's freakshows.

It's a musical where the less you know about the real P.T. Barnum, the more likely that you will enjoy it. (Real-life Barnum was a manipulative, opportunistic con-man.)

Omg the pop song for Jenny L. made me so sad that they didn’t take this opportunity to make a good modern opera piece.

I could have gotten onboard so fast with a PT Barnum antihero/villain vibe for a musical- if they gave the show some teeth and expressed through the plot 'yes, this is all pretty fucked up' with his look on life being mocking and viciously opportunistic. It could have been interesting.

This movie was a fanfiction made by PT Barnum apologists. It all makes sense. Better-than-real protagonist, evil seductress woman who have to be evil so she can leave without ruining protagonist manliness and hand-waived social issues to prove you are a token good guy. Seems legit Hollywood. Remember kids, it's alright to exploit if you put bread in their table!

They could've done the musical based on Barnum but have It actually be dark. There's enough happy go lucky musicals out there. This couldve been a really deep and dark musical. The slave he bought would have her own song about wanting her freedom away from the freak circus...Barnum could've had his own villain song. The cover art for the the movie poster could've had Barnum holding his hat up looking to the sky and in the background showing chaos with all of his abused circus freaks/animals. Kind of like showcasing the big show Barnum viewed it to be and how the audience viewed it to be but the secrets kept in the back. Idk why they didn't go that route if they were going to have Barnum be a major character.

I agree with everything BUT I think you missed out my favorite part: when protagonist ditches freaks for opera singer leaving them behind like trash he doesn’t want anyone, and freaks have this empowering song about how they matter, and right after that we see that circus continue to fail because apparently they are nothing without their able-bodied talented white boss. This was so ridiculous I wanted to leave cinema theatre 😂

“These songs sound like they were made to be played on the radio” and BOY WERE THEY EVER

I looked up the use of slaves. This from Wikipedia :- P.T. Barnum began his career as a showman in 1835 (prior to this he had operated a general store in Danbury, Connecticut and had an illegal numbers operation, a lottery which was not allowed under Connecticut law). He purchased and exhibited a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman named Joice Heth, whom an acquaintance was trumpeting around Philadelphia as George Washington's former nurse and 161 years old. He moved to New York because private lotteries, the income on which he was then largely dependent, were not illegal there. Slavery was already outlawed in New York And (and had been since 1800, while Connecticut where he came from continued slavery under a Gradual Abolition Act until 1848. In Pennsylvania, where he had bought her, it continued until 1847. He exploited a legal loophole which allowed him to lease her for a year for $1,000, borrowing $500 to complete the sale. Heth died in February 1836, at no more than 80 years old. Barnum had worked her for 10 to 12 hours a day, and he hosted a live autopsy of her body in a New York saloon where spectators paid 50 cents to see the dead woman cut up, as he revealed that she was likely half her purported age.

The mediocre show man

I have so much i can talk about with this movie , I'm disabled and been performing circus stuff since I was around 7ish ... now I'm a masters student focusing on disability and circus and hope to do a PhD in this area. One of the reasons the freak show itself was liberating for people that go through enfreakment is due to the nature of being free to be oneself. Whilst onstage you can be yourself freely and control the image put out, even if that image is laughed at. Another point is that within this space the 'freaks' find comfort in fitting out, together. Something that modern circus practices continue to do - provide a place for fitting in, for those who fit out. The tom thumb wedding was actually because Charles fell in love, they had children and lived happily together. There is evidence of barnum asking for permission to have the fairy wedding from Charles through letters. There are multiple historians that have multiple views on this derrived from the letters. Some say it was a terrible exploitation, others say it was a celebration- I say its somewhere in the middle. Done for good intentions of celebration and getting money, but is actually pretty exploitative. The freaks themselves where often treated pretty horrifically, hidden away, on streets , no family or friends and complelty ostracised by an ableist society. Barnum provided a home, food, companionship , a job, celebraty status (that people still hope for today and gain through some terrible means too , some viral sensations especially fit into this idea of stardom), as was said financial independence and an overall better quality of life. Its actually pretty widely accepted that alot of the atrocities that happened with barnum were due to the ableist structures that ostracised and oppressed so called freaks so much so that an exploitative relationship with some that provided such liberation was actually one of the best things that could've happened to some of them. Disabled people still are seen as lesser with things like the huronia institute lasting into the 2000's. This movie could and should have shown the darker spots of ableism and how the structures in place meant that the only value many marginalised 'freaks' can find in society and arguably within themselves is through their worth in money. If you can make money as a sideshow act then you finally have a place within society. Also as some fun notes , trapeze is actually fairly easy to learn on a garden swing , its not ideal or specially made but as a youngster especially it will make an extremely adaptable and tough performer. Whilst you really shouldn't learn aerial without an instructor , many people do and have. Im a self taught aerialist and performed a few times during my teens. Though since I been in uni and haven't been practicing im definitely outta shape but can still do a solid toe hock (hanging upside down from your feet). Some more fun facts - alot of the side show performers could breath fire, dance, sing, juggle , clown and often could do these better than the main acts. Circus itself is not ableist, it is the structures in place in society that cause it to be so - often leading circus to be a locus of oddballs which when you have an able bodied white straight man as the ring leader is just going to cause inherent problems. I really dislike how jenny lind got portrayed in vice versa to the 'freaks'. Hmm yeah I could definitely go on but this probably really long now ... but if anyone has questions or statements I'd love to talk , answer etc. I really love studying circus and disability so this is my thinggg

For me the big problem was trying to make P T Barnum into something he wasn't. He was an exploitative "do anything for a buck" grifter who did NOT treat his performers well. It was all about getting customers in the door and bilking them of as much cash as possible in the process. To try and make him into this noble figure just rubs me the wrong way.

Pick of nits: The drawing at the newspaper is period-accurate. In the 1800s, before Negative and Film Photography were the norm -- It was really hard to print up hundreds of thousands of copies of the same photograph. -- So instead they'd have an artist trace over the photo and make a Lithography master from that.

Actually the bearded lady did have a beard when she was a baby, or at least a child. She was born an extremely hairy child and barnum effectively bought her and forbade her from shaving the beard. So there's your answer

My highlights of this video: 1. The sentence "She angrily dances toward Zach Effron." 2. "Maybe it's not a character choice, it's just that Hugh Jackman really loves being in musicals and he can't help but smile" took a mildly annoying detail and made it adorable.

Man let me tell you, as someone who works in the circus industry, the songs in this movie are the same to us as say, all i want for xmas is you, is to retail workers. They're. EVERYWHERE.

"I didn't come here to watch a albino breakdance, I came here to watch a man hit a lion with a chair"😂

Is it a bad sign that Camp Rock's "this is me" is more memorable than the greatest showman's "this is me"?

i had to play This Is The Greatest Show for like 5 years while in middle-high school band it was agonizing i am beyond traumatized

I must say if you listen to a million dreams with the perspective of it being sung by a megalomaniac who is fine with crushing millions of people to get his way the song hits so much better. I honestly think it would make a grand villain song.

I actually think AHS Freak Show is the superior version of this. Like the freak show owner is seen as a friend and caretaker of them but she is also exploitative and using them for money. It talks about the complex relationships the freaks have to their livelihood and their quest to want to be seen as human and normal.

Am I the only one who cheered when “Remember Me” from _Coco_ beat “This Is Me” for the Best Original Song Oscar?

“This Is Me” is such a blatantly pandering song that it actually makes my soul shrivel up in my body, it could not be more obviously baiting basically every theatre or LGBT+ kid to use it as their personal anthem and that’s the only reason it exists.

15:32 To expand on that point, during the mid 1800s (which is *presumably* when this movie is set), photography wasn’t at the point where you could just snap a picture like that. The exposure time was at least 15-30 seconds long, and the subject had to sit completely still or else the photo would be blurry. So either that was one LONG kiss or the resulting photo ended up just a blurry blob.

I saw this film a month ago and I still cannot get over the fact that the bearded lady had perfectly shaved armpits.

I do circus performance, and I don’t like this movie. The story is poorly-done, the culture of both early and modern circus is misrepresented, and the bad bits of history are glossed over and given a Disney treatment. The first half of the movie is a long, uninteresting prologue. For a circus-themed movie, there’s almost no actual circus performance in it. Also the fact that I (and seemingly you too) can’t remember any character’s name other than Barnum’s is particularly representative of how bad the character development is for the “freaks,” and Barnum himself has the personality of a soggy, greying dishrag. Songs are cute, but they’re feel-good stuff, not particularly moving. The movie’s fun to watch if you don’t think about anything you’re watching at all.

I just wanted to see Wolverine sing with Troy Bolton.

There was a play at the Edinburgh festival in 2011 called 'futureproof'. It was written by a lady called Lynda Radley and it was about the trials and tribulations of a troupe of sideshow performers at the turn of the century. While I was watching this film I just kept thinking about how I'd rather see a musical version of that.

I recently saw a documentary about Jumbo the elephant, who was owned by Barnum for a while, and it just made me hate this movie even more because he was responsible for the death of this one of a kind, beautiful, African elephant

"SPRING-TIIIIIME FOR BAR-NUMMMMM AND SLAVERYYYYY!"

glad i'm not the only one who was annoyed about the OPERA SINGER singing a pop song. i was so salty about it, and all my friends/family thought it was silly of me to criticize that lol

I feel a sense of sick joy knowing that there are actual, genuine reasons to hate this movie lol when i was in school in 2017-18 it was the movie that all my teachers loved. They made us sing 100 dreams at our graduation ceremony (primary school thing) instead of the agreed 100 miles by the proclaimers. They thought they were being SO original then it was ound out that ALL the OTHER primary schools did 100 dreams too. This movie is also shit so i feel very much vindicated :) EDIT: i know its a million dreams but i don't care enough to change it

"Demi Lovato voice* THIS IS REAL THIS IS ME I'M EXACTLY WHO I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GONNA LET THE LIGHT SHINE ON ME

Not really related to the review, but a big reason I never really liked "this is me" as a gay person was that everyone kept trying to tell me it was an anti-homophobia song??? All my fake-progressive kinda-friends would go up to me and tell me how it was their favourite song, or that their dance group did a routine to it. Like what am I supposed to say to that lol, okay I guess?

“This is like a song Pink would sing… about optimism after she had kids.” 🎯

I loved The Greatest Showman until I saw this review, then I realized I just loved the catchy songs.

Can we just...stop making musicals about slaverowners?

this entire video is my EXACT opinion on this movie, it's only enjoyable for the spectacle and how excited my mom gets every time Hugh Jackman breathes

The really funny thing about the songs in this movie is that the only two I ever stumble across now are Rewrite the Stars (which I hear on the radio) and The Other Side (which people love using as an animatic). The one song that actually was plot relevant is the only one I’ve ever seen applied to other things. It’s also the only one I sometimes actively seek out to listen to. It’s almost like the one properly musical song is what people who like musicals actually enjoy. Who would have ever thought that?

There's no other RU-vidr like Jenny lol she's so passionate yet reserved. She can call something hideous and stupid while sounding absolutely polite

It’s funny how The Other Side is popular enough that people use it for animatics in different fandoms, yet it’s the most specific one

Also how did the daughter get pointe shoes so fast, like when you do ballet you start out with canvas shoes and most of the time it takes years for people to get pointe shoes

The thing is, I liked the movie, but I hate that they tied it back to PT Barnum. I recall in my senior year English class of high school, we had an assignment to be one-time pen pals with elementary schoolers. I ended up asking to switch letters because the one who wrote to me was going on and on about how much he loved PT because of the movie, and I found that problematic. Basically I had to switch because I was going to take the time and pages to educate him and I wasn’t allowed to. I feel if they had just made the characters their own fictional people, then there wouldn’t be as much of an issue with the controversial aspects of the movie. It irks me. Also sidenote- what they did to Jenny Lind is THE FREAKING WORST I agree. She didn’t deserve her memory and history to be totally twisted negatively by this. It’s fucked up.

to be honest, I thought this movie was about a random fictitious man and a random fictitious circus

Yeah, the moment Jenny Lynn was introduced I was like, "oh god, this innocent woman is going to be the stereotypical foxy villain, isn't she?" And then when she did my level of annoyance with this movie went from very done with this movie to incredibly done with everything. The end.

Did...did P.T.Barnum write the script for this movie?

“What About Us” by P!nk would actually be a WONDERFUL song to convey some of the complexity you mentioned that the “freaks” would have faced 😂. The music video for it would have fit right in.