Tag: Michelle Williams

Gail Harris Getty (Michelle Williams) waits for father-in-law, J P Getty.

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

I understand why Kevin Spacey needed to be replaced. Director, Ridley Scott, needed a J P Getty, with whom the audience could be sympathetic.

Christopher Plummer, as J P Getty, fulfills the role of the American success icon, and his daughter-in-law, Gail Harris Getty (Michelle Williams,), walks a very fine line between the good mother and the gold digger.

Contrary to what the ending of this film leads the audience to believe, Gail Getty, married to one of Getty’s sons, John Paul Getty, II, does not end up controlling any of the inheritance money, at all.

Getty’s trust was overseen by his sons, Gordon and Ronald.

This is a pretty heavy-handed departure from the truth, which I suppose can be summed up as an accusation.

In the film, Gail is the one who suggests to her husband that they contact his father for financial help.

And, Gail is the one who contacts Getty for the 17 million in ransom money, to release her son, John Paul Getty III.

J P Getty died just three years after this kidnap incident. It pretty much took its toll on him and his status as an American icon.

After Gail’s son’s ear was cut off, after her son is freed, and after her son has a drug and alcohol stroke (not depicted in the film), Gail is also the one who requests funds to take care of him for the rest of his life.

Gail’s husband, John Paul Getty II, becomes an addict and divorces her for another woman, her son gets kidnapped, and then, her son becomes wheelchair bound, blind, quadriplegic, and unable to speak.

These events do not earn Gail Harris Getty any motherhood awards.

I do not believe that any of this was J P Getty’s fault.

J P Getty’s greatest crime was to be so focused on his career that he became the richest man in the world at that time, putting family and relationships, second.

If being married five times is a crime, he was guilty of that, as well.

Unconditional love was not a J P Getty strength. This imbalance in his life is what caused him a lot of strife and money.

“All the Money in the World,” written by David Scarpa, based on John Pearson’s 1995 book Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty,” is well worth the price of admission.

J P Getty Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty

J P Getty Jr. Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Getty_Jr.

True story:

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9173861/john-paul-getty-kidnapping/

Getty Family:

http://www.tatler.com/gallery/meet-the-getty-family-andrew-getty-history-fortune-getty-images

SYND 18-7-73 ABIGAIL HARRIS TALKS ABOUT THE KIDNAP OF HER SON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdBDlBODjhw

What happened to John Paul Getty III?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eljSzWsaUIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca3ODhI7dW8

The Real Story of “All the Money in the World” by Ridley Scott

http://www.rebelcircus.com/blog/the-real-story-of-all-the-money-in-the-world/

Getty leaves bulk of fortune to son Mark

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1446836/Getty-leaves-bulk-of-fortune-to-son-Mark.html

How Mark Getty grew from the child seen in ‘All the Money in the World’ to be one of Britain’s richest men

https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/mark-getty-all-the-money-in-the-world/

Court Refuses to Alter Inheritance Left by J. Paul Getty to Eldest Son

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-12-14/local/me-3291_1_j-paul-getty

How to Be Rich by J. Paul Getty

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/616693.How_to_Be_Rich

J Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer), I died on 6 June 1976, sitting in his favorite armchair at Sutton Place.

Charlie Plummer as J Paul Getty III.

2/4/2018 # All The Money in The World

Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum surrounded by his circus performers.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Film review by Marlene Ardoin

When P. T. Barnum was fifteen, he became head of his father’s household, which included ten children and his own mother, who was his hardworking father’s 2^nd wife.

In the mid-eighteen hundreds, there were no safety nets to catch you, if you fell off the trapeze of life.

The story told in the film, ‘The Greatest Showman,” touches up the rough parts of his story, but only focuses on a very simplified aspect of his life, which was his ability to create acceptance and dignity for individuals, who did not fit into society’s norm.

The real P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), was a shrewd businessman, a store keeper, a lottery organizer, a newspaper publisher, an author, a speaker, a politician, and a showman, who re-invented himself many times.

He did not start the circus until he was in his 60s.

He had two museum buildings that burned to the ground, before he was forced to come up with the circus tent idea.

Barnum backed the Union during the civil war, which was most likely the reason his museum buildings kept catching fire, not because of what he was displaying in his buildings.

Religious-wise, Barnum was a Universalist and had a solid marriage, which lasted for forty years. He fathered four daughters with his first wife.

When his first wife, Charity (Michelle Williams) died, he married a 2^nd time to a woman, Nancy Fish, who was 20 years his junior, and that marriage lasted another twenty years.

In the film, his partner Zac Efron’s character, Phillip Carlyle, is purely fictitious .

In real life, he met up with James Anthony McGinnes, who had been orphaned at eight years, then adopted by another circus owner, who gave him the name, James Anthony Bailey.

When the two circus’s merged, it became Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. The real Bailey died in his fifties of a horrible skin disease. And, he was about 20 years younger than P.T. Barnum. Not too romantic for a Hollywood film.

The reason I am giving you all of this information, is because, even though I loved the film, “The Greatest Showman”, the real story was so much greater.

So, do the filmmakers go for beauty and romance, or what would happen if the filmmakers attempted to tell the real story in its context? If they had, I think it would have been Oscar worthy.

P.T. Barnum Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/phineas-taylor-barnum-2499.php

https://connecticuthistory.org/p-t-barnum-an-entertaining-life/

History vs hollywood

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/greatest-showman/

James Anthony Bailey Bio:

http://www.circusesandsideshows.com/owners/jamesbailey.html

Universalist Church:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalist_Church_of_America