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| The Greatest Show On Earth (1952) |
This film totally dedicates itself to the life of the circus. With all the highs, lows, thrills and spills included, it also had lots of romance, drama, comedy and even action!
As much as I loved how the film captured the raw behind-the-scenes life of those in the circus, I felt that much of the 150-minutes could have been left in the cutting room. I felt like the some of the performance and parading spectacles they showed were very dry, and probably would have been more entertaining if you were actually sitting there watching it live. The film felt a little over-dramatic at times and the film certainly was quite dated.
I felt that this film had some great aspects to it, though. I liked how it captured the spectacle that was the magic of the circus, taking us behind the scenes of how the 'cogs' of it worked, and how life was on the road when being part of a circus family. It also captured the reality of having a circus financially, and the battle between the joy of the circus and profitability for those higher up the chain. It had some cameo appearances and also captured the essence of the circus being an escape from the realities of the world outside of it.
This being our third film in colour out of the Best Picture Winners certainly was disappointing in my view following An American In Paris. Yes it made the circus come alive to a point on screen with all the flamboyant costumes they had, but I felt the filming for it was done in black-and-white style and could have been done so much better.
Why did it win Best Picture? I felt that it captured the heart of the circus, and the theme of despite what happens the 'Greatest Show On Earth' must go on was ever present. It also probably won for the extravagant costumes too. Considering the amount of animals, actors, performers, audience members - it was probably a huge movie to make just with that in itself and was a spectacle of the screen at the time when many have been used to seeing the circus live.
