"The Greatest Showman" movie controversy

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The film is being criticized for glorifying a man P.T. Barnum who abused animals, used humans as freak shows, and of course being a racist.

The racism as it often is, is not clear cut. P.T. Barnum produced ministerial/blackface shows and use loopholes to use a couple of slaves but was a strong supporter of the Union.

He was criticized even back then for animal cruelty and his productions often used peoples disabilities for the amusement of others.

I have not seen the movie but if one is to go by the trailer always questionable, the film is a full out glorification.

I saw the teasers for it during the interminable "Coming attractions" sequence before we saw the main movie at the last movie theater I went to.

Am also not quite comfortable with them lionizing the guy who said "there's a sucker born every minute" either.

I don't think of him as being any kind of archvillian either. Just not exactly a hero. And he wasn't as handsome as Huge Jackman either.

The teasers displayed so darn MUCH of the movie that I feel like I have already seen the movie. From the teasers I get the impression that his employees are the ones who rescue him from despair at some point. The circus freaks all tell him that "you gave us all a home" (in one of the teased film clips). And actually... that scene HAD to have been based upon SOME degree of truth. He may have exploited folks with deformities but he gave those same folks a way to earn a living and a home. Thought provoking.

Barnum's main claim to fame was that he paved the way for Wild Bill Cody and the Wild West Show. And Wild Bill Cody in turned paved the way for Hollywood, and the whole media drenched society that we have today. So this movie is kind of Hollywood honoring its own sleazy ancestor! Basically Hollywood looking into a mirror. How unbiased can you be when looking into a mirror?