Behind the storyline that seems slow and boring, the drama genre movie always presents a real message and feels present as a mirror of life. A good drama-movie can bring us into our lives again and can smile with relief or weep when the movie ends.
Drama genre plus musicals? Upps, might feel bored being double. But wait until you finish this one movie.
The Greatest Showman is worth watching with plot and music that are full of meaning.
Casts and Production Team
If all this time we know Hugh Jackman as the figure of "Wolverine" who is great in "action", then in The Greatest Showman, Hugh Jackman plays as "P.T Barnum" who is great in singing and dancing.
All of the cast of The Greatest Showman are indeed required to be able to sing and dance so that this movie will truly be a favorite "show" for anyone who watches it.
The other players are Michelle Williams as Charity, Barnum's wife. On the other side of the story, there is also Zac Efron (as Philip Carlyle, a nobleman who became Barnum's business partner); Zendaya (as Anne Wheeler, a Trapeze artist); and Rebecca Ferguson as Jenny Lind, a famous Swedish singer.
The Greatest Showman is Michael Gracey's debut movie, whose story was written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon. Released in December 2017, the movie has grossed more than $420 million worldwide, or can be called the fifth best-selling musical movie of all time.
Music Director
What about songs and music in this movie? As a musical drama movie, of course, the song that blends with the choreography becomes the heart that enlivens the movie.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, they previously managed to bring the beauty of song and music to La La Land. They also handle all the soundtracks of The Greatest Showman.
All the songs written by the two of them, totaling 12 songs, all of which have inspirational life messages and successfully reinforce the story in this movie.
The Greatest Showman won the Best Original Song "This Is Me" at the Golden Globe Award.
Someone's Success Comes from the Point of Destruction of Someone's Life
The Greatest Showman is a movie that is inspired by the true story of a showman named "Phineas Taylor Barnum (P.T Barnum)" who was successful with the circus show.
At the beginning of the movie, told Barnum who had a clothes tailor father and they lived in poverty. Barnum's father works for the rich "Hallet" family. Starting from the story of Barnum's friendship with the Hallet family's daughter, Charity, Barnum finally married Charity in adulthood although Charity's parents did not approve of their relationship because even as they grew up Barnum still did not have anything to make Charity happy.
Charity is not only a physically beautiful woman, but her beauty of heart has succeeded in accepting Barnum, who is considered by her father as a poor person. Charity sees Barnum as someone who is able to make her happy in their own world.
Barnum and Charity have two beautiful daughters named Caroline and Helen. Their life is simple but looks very happy. Barnum's work at that time was in shipping companies.
Their lives then reaped a big problem when Barnum was dismissed from the company because the company went bankrupt. But thanks to the encouragement and love of his wife and two children, Barnum managed to get an idea to make a circus show and then recruit "strange" people to succeed the circus show.
Barnum successfully became a "showman" along with his business partner Philip, after experiencing the stress on his life. However, life's problems never stop. The great ordeal then came not only having an effect on the Barnum circus show career, but also on the Barnum household in danger of being destroyed. This happened because Barnum was not satisfied enough, Barnum invited the cooperation of the famous singer "Jenny Lind" whose beauty bewitched Barnum and also succeeded in "bewitching" all the spectators so that at that time Barnum's show business expanded rapidly to various countries, but at the same time fell for failing to be professional in his collaboration with Jenny Lind.
On the other side of the story, Philip is shown in love with Anne but their love is blocked by caste because Philip is a nobleman, and Anne is just a Trapeze.
You have to witness firsthand how Barnum solved the problem, and also a Philip who tried to win Anne's heart who refused Philip because Anne realized their caste was very different and Philip's parents did not approve of their relationship.
Favorite Quotes
The Greatest Showman not only presents inspirational quotes that are worth keeping even after this movie is finished, to remind us of the struggles of life and have a big heart to be able to face every big problem.
Here are some of the favorite quotes for Definisi Luka version:
- Comfort, The Enemy Of Progress
The falling point in someone's life can finally make that person's life successful if the human being is brave enough to take the risk to rise and step into the insecure zone.
People who come from the most cluttered points in their lives, usually will have a greater chance of success because they have to fight any inconvenience and break down the limits of abilities that have never been crossed.
That was then experienced by Barnum to be as successful as it was in his time.
- When You're Careless With Other People, You Bring Ruin Upon Yourself
People who have been successful will usually treat others at the price of money. They no longer care about others as fellow human beings. In fact, in many cases, successful people can forget to care for the people closest to them who have made it successful.
In this movie Barnum also experienced this. Barnum forgot about his beautiful family who always encouraged him and forgot about the family of "freaks" who raised his circus name. Barnum focused on Jenny Lind, who at that time looked very bright. This also became the point of the destruction of Barnum's business.
This quote is a favorite because it is perfect for reminding us that other people want to be valued not with money, but with caring as a fellow human being.
- No One Ever Made Difference by Being Like Everyone Else
A quote that is already quite popular but is indeed very appropriate to be a reminder for us not to be afraid to be different and unique. Remind us to dare to step out of our comfort zone and be ourselves!
We can make a big difference in life to achieve success, because we become different from others and we succeed in presenting different things into things worthy of being enjoyed by others with positive benefits.
- The Noblest Art Is That Of Making Others Happy
This is our favorite quote! This inspires us to continue to make works that can bring others to happiness.
So we should make something that can bring happiness to others, because that's the most noble art of life!
Conclusion
The Greatest Showman deserves to be a movie list with the family so that more love and togetherness will emerge in our family.
The combination of music, choreography, and a non-boring plot will make us think again about the meaning of musical drama, that musical drama is not always boring!
Cinematographic and brilliant visual effects make the scenes in this movie successful in making our hearts warm and filled with feelings of happiness as well as emotion!
As choreography Ashley Wallen has managed to fill various scenes of this movie very well. This musical drama movie does not feel "empty" or there is no dance and singing scene that feels useless and must be discarded in this movie. The choreography created created a balance in the musical and non-musical situations of the movie as a whole.
Rating
There is one thing that feels lacking in this movie about the emotional side of his wife Barnum (Charity). I am sure many viewers would want to explore more about Charity's feelings because Charity also became the most influential figure for Barnum's life as well as being the person who felt the most hurt when Barnum was dazzled by his own success.
Our team (Definisi Luka) gives an 8/10 rating for The Greatest Showman.
Do not forget to reconsider this musical drama movie as your target with your family or you watch it alone when you are experiencing the hardest days of your life. The Greatest Showman will be a good encouragement for you to rise from your downturn.
Image Source:
Trailer
- Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/316029-the-greatest-showman?language=en-US
- Critic: AA
Regards,
Definisi Luka and The Team.
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