Please answer the following question: Build a movie plot around this: What event was Jacob present for in 1944? Hartford circus fire
Answer:
When Jacob Jankowski,parents dead and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted circus owner. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.The movie begins with an elderly man (who is actually Jacob - Hal Holbrook) outside after a circus performance, looking for his ride, when younger workers notice him and ask if he is lost or needs to go back to the home. He insists that he doesn't belong in a home and becomes quite upset when they persistently ask, but then apologizes for his rude behavior. The young men bring him inside from the rain, and while one man goes about calling the old folks home, the other notices Jacob looking at the pictures hanging on the wall. The young man is shocked to find out Jacob knew about the circus and even more impressed when he says he was there, right in the middle of it. It is explained that it was the most famous circus disaster in history. The young man passes him an old photograph of a young woman sitting on an elephant's trunk, and Jacob tears up. The young man asks Jacob to tell him what happened in 1931, and so the story begins.The movie flashes back to 1931, as a young man (younger Jacob - Robert Pattinson) was preparing to take his final exam at vet school. He lived at home with his parents who had left Poland to seek a better life in America. The police show up during his exam to break the news that his father and mother were killed in a car accident. After identifying the bodies, he ends up throwing up in an alley.The news gets worse when it is explained to him that the bank is taking all his family's...