Tod Browning did the world a favor when he made this film. The vast majority of the commentaries here on IMDb attest to the brilliance of this work. When I was around ten years old, over fifty years ago living in Washington, DC, the biggest attraction, other than the Redskins, was when the circus train would come to town. The train would snake thru town past Union Station to settle in the old fair grounds on the banks of the Anacostia river. Elephants, lions, monkeys, midgets and bears - oh my. Children and adults would watch for days as the 'Big Top' rose mightily above the dusty ground,,and then the big day came, the opening of the grand circus.
The Big Top, the sideshows, a feast of sights and sound,,and smells. The Big Top brightened with fantastic acts, beautifully costumed women, men and animals. But to me, the real treat were the sideshows with sword swallowers, bearded ladies and human contorsionists. But to experience the circus and sideshows after dark, well lets just say that surreal was an understatement.
...Now to the subject at hand, Tod Browing's 1932 movie,'Freaks'. The characters in this film were not actors but persons who through twists of fate or misfortune were born 'unnormal'. What makes this presentation even more interesting is to read the biographies of so many of these people, the human torso, the bird lady, the pin heads and more. The film so faithfully depicts the strife of old time circus life, or more accurately sideshow life, that one marvels, often with fretted brow, at the sights presented so boldly on the screen. One cannot help but imagine the lives led by these individuals beyond what is depicted, the sadness, the self pity, the depression yet reveling in their comradery. The thought of 'living a life' as a sideshow freak. This is not a horror only because of the strife of the misfortunates but more by the behavior of the cast who were whole bodied and healthful. True, Browning exploited these individuals but no more so than the exploitation present in scores of sideshows so common in that time in history, when mentally ill and handicapped persons were subject to horrors more terrible than were ever splashed upon the silver screen.
See this classic and reflect upon our own fortune. Today this film would be considered to be outrageously politically incorrect but politics has nothing to do with it. The 'unnaturals' presented here are honest and lovable.
The Big Top, the sideshows, a feast of sights and sound,,and smells. The Big Top brightened with fantastic acts, beautifully costumed women, men and animals. But to me, the real treat were the sideshows with sword swallowers, bearded ladies and human contorsionists. But to experience the circus and sideshows after dark, well lets just say that surreal was an understatement.
...Now to the subject at hand, Tod Browing's 1932 movie,'Freaks'. The characters in this film were not actors but persons who through twists of fate or misfortune were born 'unnormal'. What makes this presentation even more interesting is to read the biographies of so many of these people, the human torso, the bird lady, the pin heads and more. The film so faithfully depicts the strife of old time circus life, or more accurately sideshow life, that one marvels, often with fretted brow, at the sights presented so boldly on the screen. One cannot help but imagine the lives led by these individuals beyond what is depicted, the sadness, the self pity, the depression yet reveling in their comradery. The thought of 'living a life' as a sideshow freak. This is not a horror only because of the strife of the misfortunates but more by the behavior of the cast who were whole bodied and healthful. True, Browning exploited these individuals but no more so than the exploitation present in scores of sideshows so common in that time in history, when mentally ill and handicapped persons were subject to horrors more terrible than were ever splashed upon the silver screen.
See this classic and reflect upon our own fortune. Today this film would be considered to be outrageously politically incorrect but politics has nothing to do with it. The 'unnaturals' presented here are honest and lovable.
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