Finally, Hollywood Entertains with The Greatest Showman

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

I don’t really go to the movies, much, anymore.  Well, let me rephrase that.  I don’t go to the movies willingly, anymore.  My wife loves to go to the movie theater, so we go, but I always leave disappointed.  Hollywood’s leftism is a part of the problem.  I am not a fan of giving money to an industry dominated by pagans, homosexuals, and Marxists.  I spent two years in the industry, myself, back in the mid-90s.  I was an extra in two films, and did two commercials.  I ran out of money and time, but I don’t regret dropping out – despite having two vouchers.

Over the last decade, or so, I have noticed that Hollywood, both in the film industry, and on television, has run out of ideas.  We really don’t see original stories, anymore.  We are no longer entertained.  It’s either vulgar and profane comedy that is not funny, bloody shoot-em-up adventure films who use the exact same formula with each passing story along with a enough ammunition to launch a small war, horror films that rely on shock gore and plenty of sharp objects, dramas with boring story-lines and political messaging that doesn’t interest anyone unless it was written by Nicholas Sparks, or science fiction and fantasy string of films so dependent upon modern special effects, comic books, or seventies blockbusters that the characters are flat and the stories are either too simple, or simply a rewrite of past tales.

On occasion I hear that a new movie is something different, or it’s a part of a series from old that I may be willing to watch (i.e. the Star Wars films), so I go to Temeku, a local theater with a reduced price for movies that have passed from the main theaters, but is not quite on video or streaming services, just yet.  My wife appreciates it because she likes to go to the show, and I appreciated it because we can spend an evening at the movies for less than ten bucks.  She grins through the movie, I usually fall asleep about half way through.

Tonight was one of those nights we decided to take in a movie, and for the first time in a very long time, a movie impressed me beyond words.

The Greatest Showman.

I grew up being exposed to musicals.  I had an aunt that made sure we always caught the latest Broadway hits.  I loved musicals, on stage, or on film, and I also have always loved pretty much all of the films from the fifties and prior.  As the decades passed by, while the films were still worth watching, they were slowly losing the splendor of a lost era.

By the dawn of the new millennium, Hollywood had essentially lost me.  Around 2010, they began to repel me.

Then, along came The Greatest Showman.  Everyone I had talked to who had seen it could only rave about it.

I had to at least give it a chance.

The talent was phenomenal.  The music was fun and upbeat.  The story was relateable, and tear jerking.  It paced well, and was fun and entertaining.

Original, and entertaining.

I haven’t been able to say that in a long time.

Thanks, Hollywood, it’s about damn time.  The Greatest Showman, so far, is the greatest film of the century . . . and that’s saying a lot when it is coming from a guy who normally prefers science fiction.

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary