by Chris Marshall:
The Greatest Show on
Earth is definitely not great, and I’m not entirely convinced it took place
on Earth. The circus is a bizarre, frightening place that shares only the most
basic similarities with our planet; it is populated by humans, some of which
look like people you’ve actually seen before in your life. Most do not.
1952’s Best Picture winner allows you to spend over two and
a half hours with this collection of life forms, and I, at least, did not feel
particularly enriched for having done so. The whole thing takes place within
the confines of a traveling circus. While some children may dream of running
away and joining circus, I wanted nothing more than to run away from the circus
itself and never go back.
The best I can tell, the movie is just an excuse to show various
unrelated circus acts in glorious Technicolor, but there is a main story
holding everything together (very loosely). There’s a love triangle—just like
every other Oscar winner, it seems like—except this one is a little different
because it involves Charlton Heston[1]
and two trapeze artists. Everything was going fine between Brad (Heston) and
Holly until The Great Sebastian, the world’s premiere trapeze act, joined the
tour. But Sebastian, quite typically for a Frenchman, ruined everything.
