The Greatest Showman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Greatest Showman Blu-ray Movie Review

Barnum 2.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 5, 2018

Even some diehard fans seemed geniunely surprised when Meryl Streep proved to be a more than capable vocalist in the film version of Mamma Mia!, this despite the fact that the iconic actress had already cut loose (musically speaking, that is) in a number of previous films such as Death Becomes Her and (especially) Postcards from the Edge. There never seemed to be the same amount of shock and awe surrounding Glenn Close, arguably one of the few female performers able to give Streep a run for her Academy Award money, but an actress who ironically hasn’t had much of a musical presence in film. That said, her more than memorable turn in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version of Sunset Boulevard was so well received and well publicized that I suspect many of Close’s fans who had never set foot in a Broadway theater still knew of it, and simply accepted the fact that Close was a woman who acted and sang with equal facility. That said, I’ve found it genuinely curious that very few younger fans of The Greatest Showman I've quizzed seem to have heard of a musical Close co-starred in before essaying the legendary role of Norma Desmond, a show which in fact brought Close her first Tony nomination. In 1980, composer Cy Coleman, lyricist Michael Stewart and librettist Mark Bramble, with some flashy direction by Joe Layton and a star turn by Jim Dale (an Academy Award nominated lyricist himself for Georgy Girl), brought Barnum to the Great White Way, where it was met with largely rapturous reviews and ran for over two years, topping 850 performances. Barnum bore certain similarities to another Coleman musical which would come along around a decade later, The Will Rogers Follies, in that it deliberately exploited a show business setting in order to offer a kind of “meta” presentational aspect. In the case of Barnum, the circus was both part of the plot and part of the spectacle of offering something unusual on the stage of a major Broadway musical. (The recent revival of Pippin took a somewhat similar approach, with “Cirque” like elements added into its tale.) Perhaps because Barnum, for all its worldwide success (none other than Michael Crawford took on the title role for the West End production, right before he tackled a little project called The Phantom of the Opera), never achieved the level of renown deemed required for a cinematic adaptation, there was no film version ever made (and the early eighties were of course not a halcyon era for the film musical in any case). The Greatest Showman traffics almost unavoidably in much of the same material that Barnum did, and, like its theatrical predecessor, it also exploits the whole circus aspect, offering a level of glitz and grit that often outshine any of the perceived backstage drama.

While some of the 20- and 30-somethings I’ve personally spoken to had no idea of Barnum, I can tell you two folks in this general age range who most likely did, and that would be The Greatest Showman’s songwriting pair of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, hot off their success (as lyricists only) with La La Land. While their score here is decidedly contemporary, eschewing the kind of combo vaudevillian — Broadway ambience that Coleman and Stewart brought to Barnum, they cover some of the same basic emotional material as the much earlier musical, and in one case seem to echo one of Barnum’s best remembered songs, “The Colors of My Life”, as Barnum (Hugh Jackman), his wife Charity (Michelle Williams) and their two adorable daughters sing about how “the brightest colors fill my head” as they dream of a better future.

And in fact The Greatest Showman actually covers much of the same actual story as Barnum did, including Barnum’s romance and marriage to Charity (the role Close played in the Broadway musical), the founding of the Barnum Museum which in turn gave way to the more peripatetic “circus” concept, and, perhaps most saliently, Barnum’s “did he or didn’t he” dalliance with the so-called Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson). Also, much like Barnum on stage, The Greatest Showman thrusts the viewer directly into the circus (and/or museum) environment, offering spectacle that is obviously contextualized within the Barnum tale itself, but which provides its own “meta” aspect as an example of what a modern film musical can deliver.

The basic plot of The Greatest Showman is perhaps appropriately in true Barnum fashion pure hokum (or as he might put it, humbug), with completely predictable obstacles raised every twenty minutes or so which are just as easily overcome with a little song and dance routine. There’s the family drama between Barnum and Charity, one that brings a certain class consciousness into play, since Charity comes from a well to do family and Barnum is a self-created concoction who comes from nothing. There’s also a fairly ridiculous sidebar to this drama when Barnum hires society playwright Philip Carlyle (Zac Efron), in order to bolster his bona fides with those uppity wealthy Manhattanites, and Carlyle becomes smitten with Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), whose mixed race status makes her “inappropriate” as a love interest. There’s a whole coterie of “freaks” that are part of Barnum’s show as well, including Charles Stratton (Sam Humphrey), a tiny person who takes the stage name Tom Thumb, and Lettie Lutz (Keala Settle), a bearded lady.

If the story and even some of the songs in The Greatest Showman are on the tepid side, this is a film musical that seems to understand it’s, well, a film and a musical. All of the sung sequences are really magnificently staged, even if some curmudgeons may find some of the quick cutting and hip hop-esque dance moves questionable. But director Michael Gracey, helming his first feature film after working in visual effects, has an unmistakable command of the idiom, investing the songs with a lot of inventive framing and purely cinematic touches. Presentationally, The Greatest Showman is actually on the audacious side, something that supports one of its subtextual theses as embodied in its Academy Award nominated anthem “This Is Me”.

The Greatest Showman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Greatest Showman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Digitally captured with a variety of Alexa cameras and finished at a 4K DI, this is another home run from Fox's Blu-ray division. Director Michael Gracey and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey go for the gusto from the opening moments, drenching some of the interior scenes with almost chiaroscuro lighting, something that actually helps little pops of color like Barnum's bright red topcoat really emerge from the surrounding darkness with some pretty incredible fine detail (watch for example in the first close-up of Barnum and see how the pill on the shoulder of the topcoat is easily visible). There are a number of really gorgeously lit scenes throughout the film, and there's a probably intentional patent unreality to several scenes, as in the golden hued beachside moment where a young Barnum professes his love to Charity. Detail levels are excellent throughout, however, despite some rather dark moments at times, though the CGI backgrounds can often look rather soft, something that only adds to the slightly dreamlike quality of the film. The palette is really deeply burnished throughout, offering some gorgeously saturated reds and purples. As is usual with Fox, there are no issues with compression anomalies.

The Greatest Showman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Greatest Showman features a sometimes raucous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix. The completely, unabashedly anachronistically contemporary sounding score features a lot of low end (including percussive effects like stomping feet), and the songs resonate vividly throughout the soundstage. The big set pieces in the "museum" (which, for all intents and purposes, is rather like a "one ring" circus) offer excellent immersion in terms of things like audience reactions. Some moments, as in a huge conflagration late in the film, also provide ample ambient environmental effects placed impressively throughout the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Greatest Showman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Family Behind The Greatest Showman (1080p; 14:05) features some engaging interviews with cast and crew, along with other elements including a table read and rehearsal footage from the 81st Academy Awards.


• The Songs (1080p; 1:10:07) is going to be Musical Theater Heaven for a certain kind of nerd (ahem), with nice featurettes devoted to each tune in the score.


• The Spectacle (1080p; 32:12) does much the same service for other elements of the production like characters and choreography.


• Galleries

  Concept Art (1080p; 2:55)

  Storyboards (1080p; 35:22)

  
  Note: The galleries offer either Manual Advance or Auto Advance options. The timings are for the Auto Advance option.

• Music Machine (1080p; 56:14) provides direct access to each song sequence in the film, with a Sing Along option also available.


• Sing Along (1080p; 1:44:49) presents the entire film in Sing Along mode (i.e., colored subs for the sung moments).


• Audio Commentary by Michael Gracey


• Theatrical Trailers (1080p; 4:38)

The Greatest Showman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While I rated La La Land a half point higher than the movie score I'm giving The Greatest Showman, I have to say in some respects I actually enjoyed this musical more than last year's "Best Picture winner" (wait. . .what?). As completely inappropriate to the time period as the Pasek and Paul tunes are, they work, at least for the most part (I personally found the Jenny Lind number pretty lamentable, but that's probably just me). Michael Gracey really stages this film impeccably in my not so humble opinion, and my hunch is both younger folks who loved La La Land and older folks who pine for the days of the Freed Unit will find something to enjoy here, even if the whole thing doesn't appeal to them. Fox has provided a disc with top notch technical merits and appealing supplements. Recommended.