They don't make them like this any longer - and thank god for that, after about an hour something finally approaching diverting finally happens, only to be immediately buried under a pile of parades. After that you wont notice much as you'll have lost all will to live.
And Jimmy Stewart is utterly awful in this!
Jeeze man, it's just a movie. You make it sound like some sort of torture, and what do you mean by losing all will to live? If you hated it that much why didn't you just turn it off? I can understand, everyone can understand if you didn't like this picture, but if you're saying you "lost all will to live" over watching a movie, you need to seek help or something.
share[deleted]
You're right, this excuse for a movie is one of the biggest piles of parrot poop I've ever seen in my life.What was in the water supply of 1952 to cause this film to win the Oscar for best picture?
¡ ° ¨ now playing : 'Angel' - Polly Browne ¨ ° !
Anybody who thinks this is boring is just not a circus lover. I remember Ringling Bros. when they were in the tent and it was just like the movie portrays it---because it was filmed at the circus! Their show was absolutely dazzling. And the work involved in putting the whole thing together was awesome!
shareThabnk you!! I think folks are being way too hard on this movie. No, it did not deserve the Oscar for Best Picture, but it is entertaining nonetheless and the train wreck is spectacular (for 1952).
shareI have loved The Greatest Show On Earth since I first saw it on television when I was a kid back in the sixties. It's colourful, noisy, shamelessly hokey and fabulously entertaining.
You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.
Hey, stop complaining - it ain't that bad, the train crash scene was pretty ambitious for it's day but's it's a good scene...It was Charlton Heston's big break, can you honestly think of another actor to play Judah Ben-Hur. No I hear you say? Well if it wasn't for this film, none of that would have happened
'Meet the new boss...Same as the old Boss'
[deleted]
The train wreck was great for 1952. I think it did deserve best picture......I liked when Dorothy sang " Lovely Hula Wana Lady " that was some of the best footage in the film.......and when they showed Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the audience watching her sing......it was ALL GOOD.......
shareSpeaking as (sometime) performer (no, not in circuses), the parades are necessary evils. In a three-ring circus, there had better be something going on all the time.....and if you're going to do a high-wire act, or a wild-animal cage act, it's going to take a little time to reset the rings. The parades (or "specs", short for "spectaculars") gave the paying customers something to look at while the roustabouts did their thing.
And you also got a little more work out of your performers in the bargain.
Watched this recently on TCM a couple of weeks ago. I really have only two complaints. The endless parades with their themes. For some reason the Ringmaster intoning "Picnic in the Park" grates but call me nit picking because I was more interested in the storylines then the acts.
My real complaint was the total lack of enthusiasm on the childrn watching the show. I kept thinking they were actually on a film lot in a room where they are told to look at a blank wall and return the appropriate state back at it. Watch it next time. Those kids are zombies.
Yeah what's up with the kids? they look as if they've been lobotomized. or maybe they really see the circus for the disturbing freak show that it is and were merely stunned.
Too bad they're all in their 60's now, or you could get them together in small groups and tell them how they'd be better off watching, say, Halloween III or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than that disturbing, cotton-candy "fresk show" they were so "stunned" by.
shareIf you think it's boring, you must not like circuses in the first place.
Today, seeing the animals is cruel. They belong in the wild or in a wildlife park (the closest thing to being truly in their natural environment).
And I HATE clowns!
I remember watching this for the first time as a child. It was on television. I was enthralled. I'm in my mid-forties now and nothing has dimmed my love for this movie. It is one of my all time favorites and I enjoy watching it with my family now. The kids love it!!
It certainly is better than any of the horrible movies Hollywood puts out today that they deem to call "Best Picture".
Oh, any by the way, I think Jimmy Stewart was absolutely wonderful in this...he turned in a marvelously, poignant, touching performance. Who can forget his last scene where he gives his little puppy to the little girl "because I can't take him where I'm going". A heartbreaker.
I rather think the "boredom" you cite is within you...not the movie. But then your kind of nonboring movie would probably be "The Dukes of Hazzard"...a truly mindless and nonsensical film.
shareShut up.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
This is a DeMille film...and as such it's main purpose is to entertain...and no one entertained better than DeMille. There are no deep philosophical messages here, no secret meanings or agendas...just loads of fun. DeMille movies are always fun oriented, as well as aimed at the widest audience possible.
Yes some of the dialogue was corny, as was a good deal of the acting...but it was well done and I think held one's interest for well over two hours. DeMille targeted his movies to the everyday people and their everyday events. I think that's what I like about his movies.
If you don't like DeMille movies...well then, walk on.
What a load of bollox by that imbecile North_Londoner. TGSOE is terrific and Jimbo Stewart is one of the best things in it.
"The internet is for lonely people. People should live." Charlton Heston