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The Greatest Showman | 2017 | PG | - 3.3.2

A musical film based on the story of P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) and how his imagination and salesmanship inspired the creation of his sensational circus. Also with Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Anne Wheeler, Rebecca Ferguson, Austyn Johnson, Cameron Seely, Keala Settle, Sam Humphrey, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eric Anderson, Ellis Rubin, Skylar Dunn and Daniel Everidge. Directed by Michael Gracey. [1:45]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - Men and women performers wear costumes that reveal cleavage, bare abdomens, and bare legs to the hips; we see a man's bare chest and abdomen and a woman's partial bare buttocks. Women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage in several scenes.
 A woman kisses a married man onstage in front of a crowd and while photos are being taken; we see the photo in newspapers accompanied by the word "Scandal." A man and a woman kiss, touch hands and dance together in several scenes. A man and a woman kiss. A woman holds an unconscious man's hand and kisses it, and then kisses him when he wakes up.
 A woman leans toward a married man and the man tries to leave but she becomes angry and tells him that she will quit a tour that they are on. A boy and a girl hold hands and walk together in a couple of scenes. A boy and a girl write each other letters expressing their devotion to each other. A man touches a woman's hand and she gasps and then grips his hand; the man drops her hand when another man and woman see them and he is afraid of what they will think. A woman swings on a trapeze to face a man who appears smitten. A woman rests her head on the shoulder of a married man while they sleep on a train.
 A man and a woman sing and swing on trapezes while singing about wanting each other. A woman tells a man that she was born out of wedlock and that she has never felt worthy of her position in society because of that.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A fight breaks out and a man throws a lantern that sets a building on fire; the people in the building run out to safety and one man runs back to save a woman, and then another man runs in for the first man and the building collapses (they come out charred and one is unconscious). Several men fight with others in a street and one man spits on a man as he walks away (we do not see injuries but we do see saliva). Men and women protest with signs and burning torches about the performers in a circus. We see an unconscious man in a hospital bed with charred and bloody wounds on his face.
 A boy steals a loaf of bread and is chased by a man who takes the loaf back; the boy sits on the ground and a person with a scarred face leans over to hand him an apple. A boy's father appears ill and we see the boy grieving by a grave later. A young boy is shown dressed in tattered clothing and his shoes have holes in them. A boy yells and chases a carriage as a girl is taken away to finishing school. A man closes the door on circus performers to keep them away from a formal event. A woman, with her children, leaves her husband when they are evicted from their home.
 We see a man tattooed over his entire body, we see a man covered with fur (he's called "Dog Boy"), we see an extremely tall man, an extremely overweight man, a bearded woman, conjoined twins, an albino person and a man has fleshy horns. A man of small stature is stared at as he leaves a room.
 A woman attached to a wooden circle spins as another person throws knives at her for a show. A guillotine cuts off a wax figure's head and it flops away from the mechanism. A man riding a horse in a show fires two handguns in the air. A woman on a trapeze swings and knocks a man to the ground (there are no injuries). A trapeze artists swings and fall into the arms of several people on the floor (he's unharmed). We see lions leap through hoops and elephants pose during a circus performance where audience members sit nearby.
 Many men seated at desks in a large open room are shown using adding machines until a man tells them they have all been let go because the company has gone bankrupt.
 Several audience members jeer and mock performers in a circus in several scenes. A man says to his adult son, Have you no shame?" when he sees the man with a black woman and calls her "the help." Many people of society watch performers in a circus enter Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen of England and they gasp and turn away. Girls remark about another girl smelling of peanuts and they walk away laughing. A man makes a disparaging remark to the Queen of England and she laughs heartily. A young girl is taught how to hold her tea cup and sip her tea until a boy makes her laugh and she spits out her tea; she is reprimanded and the boy is slapped in the face by the girl's father. A man tells another man that his adult daughter will tire of him and his life of having nothing and will return home. A girl is startled and screams when she sees a stone lion with its mouth open. A woman and her two young daughters play and pretend to be shooting each other with bows and arrows and guns. People are described as extraordinary and unique. A woman asks her husband if he wanted to rub his success in her parents' noses. A man says, "Comfort is the enemy of progress." A man talks about people being "hoodwinked." A man talks about "being treated like dirt."

LANGUAGE 2 - A derogatory term for African-Americans, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (freak, crazy, thief, garbage, fake, fraud, criminal, prima donnas, clowns, king of conventional, oddities, nasty, fancy friends, insignificant, dirt, a tailor's boy, small minded people), exclamations (shut-up), 3 religious exclamations (God No, Oh God, Thank God).

SUBSTANCE USE - People drink champagne in several celebratory scenes, two men in a bar drink shots of rum, people in a bar drink mugs of beer, people drink champagne after a ballet recital, a man drinks from a flask and shares with another man who also drinks, a man drinks excessively at a bar, and a champagne bottle is opened and spurts champagne.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - P.T. Barnum, Barnum & Bailey Circus, honesty, making people smile, joy in life, stories, happiness, collateral, bullying, wealth, class distinctions, scandal, society, selling virtue, freedom, thriving off controversy, progress, destiny, publicity, heart break, death of a parent, eviction, infidelity, disappointment, bi-racial relationships, celebration of humanity.

MESSAGE - A man's station is limited only by his imagination.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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