The Greatest Showman

Sarah DeCosta

A young boy has a dream. He dreams of a world which is full of light, excitement and magic. The Greatest Showman shows the journey he takes from transforming his dreams to a reality and eventually into a worldwide sensation. With a cast including Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Zendaya, the show sells tickets by the dozen. When initially finding out about the film, I was sceptical about the ethics of it. The film seemed to romanticise and glamourise human zoos. However, I assumed that if Zendaya, an inspirational and empowering activist was standing behind it, I must be wrong. The first sequence was moving and the soundtrack for the film was phenomenal. It told a story which could not be put into words.

However, the dark side of P.T. Barnum began to unravel as the movie progressed. Barnum discarded his wife and children from his life to improve his already prosperous show by going on tour with an opera singer. She was put on a pedestal above the other performers and he began to treat them like the rest of society did, like freaks, only he was still using them to make money. He had driven them to believe it was not a ‘freak show’ but a display of their individuality, and this turned out to be a lie. This character could not be seen as a hero to me anymore.  Upon doing research about the film my suspicions were unfortunately confirmed. I found out that The Greatest Showman is inspired by the story of the real-life P. T. Barnum's creation of the Barnum & Bailey Circus and the lives of its ‘curiosities’.  P.T. Barnum is no hero and the fact that a film was made celebrating him disgusts me.

Joice Heth was an 80 year old African-American slave, blind and partially paralysed. Slavery had been long abolished but Barnum purchased her for $1000 to take her on tour. It was claimed that she was the 160 year old nanny of George Washington. She was put on display for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and people could take her pulse, touch her and shake hands with her. Even when she died she was exploited;  Barnum sold 1500 people 50 cent tickets to see her autopsy being held, they paid to watch her being dissected and analysed. In doing so Barnum was supporting and promoting ‘scientific’ racism.

William Henry Johnson’s impoverished parents allowed him to perform in the circus in exchange for money to feed the rest of their children. He was an African-American with a condition which meant his head was smaller than usual and tapered towards the top. Barnum purchased the right to display him in his circus. He made him a furry suit and styled his hair to a point to accentuate his sloped head and renamed him ‘Zip the Pinhead'. Barnum claimed to his audience that he had discovered a tribe which was the missing link to humans and apes and Zip was one of them. Zip would then be revealed in a cage, rattling the bars and screeching, dehumanising him. Barnum also hired a ship to steal elephants from their homes and families in Sri Lanka. Nine elephants, including one calf, were forced into a cramped container for four months, one elephant even reportedly died. His circus trained elephants by sticking a hot poker up their trunks.

Another example of the cruelty of Barnum was when he imprisoned two beluga whales in a water tank in the basement of his museum, knowing full well they would soon die (and did, within two days). He used his prediction of a quick death to promote his show, i.e. the animals won’t be here for long so buy tickets while you still can. Some may argue that using CGI animals in the film 'The Greatest Showman' prevents any other animals being harmed for this cause. Whilst this is true, hiding what actually happened prevents the viewer from questioning animal abuse, and in so learning the appalling truth behind the circus that Barnum ran.

It is important to notice that these stories don’t even come close to revealing all the atrocities of P.T. Barnum. In the opinion of Lisa Lange, the vice president of PETA, “it boggles my mind that Hollywood is glorifying a man who got rich by exploiting people with disabilities and whose mercenary and merciless treatment of animals paved the way for over a century of violence and abuse.”

The writers of The Greatest Showman completely ignored the racist history of P.T Barnum and many cases of animal cruelty and it would be wrong to entertain the idea that such events didn’t happen when they unfortunately did. We cannot promote historical figures who exploited innocent people like Sarah Baartman. We cannot glorify men who popularised animal cruelty in circuses and benefited at the expense of others.

There are many alternative routes the writers could have taken to create a box office hit. It would have been easy to  completely fictionalise the plot, having a fictional character replace Barnum, or they could have made a more accurate version shown from the point of view of the tortured performers, and how they fought through suffering, much like in the popular ‘this is me’ song. The writers chose not to do so and instead redacted evidence that portrayed Barnum in a negative light. If you haven’t seen the Greatest Showman yet I urge you to boycott it, as in my opinion it is nothing but a montage of lies.