rekcilorf I have never understood how Heston and the circus bosses did not know about the extent of Sebastion's injury. You have to think with so much invested in his presence at the show, they would have kept careful tabs on his progress. The circus must have had some kind of insurance for him as well.Still, this movie is a great deal of fun.

Martin Bradley In 1952 both "High Noon" and "The Quiet Man" were nominated for Best Picture. It was also the year that the greatest of all musicals, "Singin' in the Rain" first appeared and yet the Academy didn't think it worthy of a Best Picture nomination, (though they did nominate "Ivanhoe"). So what did the Academy choose as the Best Picture of 1952? Why, that was the year the honor went to Cecil B. DeMille and "The Greatest Show on Earth", the biggest and arguably the best of all circus films, as well as one of the least deserving Best Picture winners of all time; not the worst perhaps but set it beside "High Noon" and "The Quiet Man" and it pales into insignificance.It's an epic that uses the real-life circus of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey as the basis for its spectacular and melodramatic plot and it crams a load of stars onto the screen for effect, (Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Gloria Grahame, Dorothy Lamour and Jimmy Stewart, hiding, not very convincingly, behind clown make-up), and when it's on the high-wire or the flying trapeze it's certainly exciting and without the constraints of the Bible hanging over him, it may be DeMille's best film. So is it the greatest show on earth? Where sawdust and tinsel is concerned it might be but not when you have "The Quiet Man" and "Singin' in the Rain" waiting in the wings.

digitalbeachbum I went to the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus three times in my life. I saw it twice when I was much younger then one more time when I was an adult. I had seen this movie three times before also and always thought it was a good movie. I also have been to the Ringling Bros. Museum in Sarasota.This is a grand movie for its time. It is a gigantic, costly production, much like Ben-Hur or Cleopatra. There are literally thousands of cast members who are in the movie, but are real life Ringling Bros. or some other circus performers. It is amazing to see them work together to put on such a grand performance.The movie is filled with drama, love triangles, jealousy, accidents and conflict. It shows the real life life of how a circus functions all wrapped up in a 152 minutes of run-time. It has one of the most complex productions I know of since Gone with the Wind.However, the movie does not show the dirty side of the circus. While it is all fun and games for the townsfolk who come to see the circus, this move lacks the fundamental truth. It does touch on a little bit of the evils of these circuses, Cecil B. DeMille keeps the viewer from becoming frightened of the circus.Charleston Heston plays the lead role of Brad Braden who is the circus manager. Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, James Stewart, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, Lyle Bettger all play supporting cast members. If you watch the opening credits you see several hundred "acts' being given credit for their performances.As time passes, this movie loses its flavor. I dislike it for what it represents in the story, but support it for the amazing production.

mmallon4 The DVD release for The Greatest Show On Earth plays down its Best Picture win. Hang on, isn't this supposed to be the highest accolade in the film world? Why would you downplay that your film won the award? Probably because the Academy Awards are a farce. Yeah, total shocker. I normally have a rule when reviewing movies not to mention the Oscars because I feel it is so redundant to do so. "How did this beat 'x' picture?", "Why didn't 'x' get an Oscar nomination?", such tiring statements. Best Picture winners attract viewers to a film which they would unlikely watch otherwise and because of this many films get a bad reputation as the film which beat such and such for Best Picture.The Greatest Show On Earth is one such film, made out to be worse than it is due to attracting an audience who would otherwise never watch it if it wasn't for its Best Picture win. The Greatest Show On Earth is tons of fun; at times I had a care free feeling that I was at an actual circus, minus the smell of elephant dung. There is even an appearance of people wearing costumes of Disney characters; good luck trying to put that in a non-Disney film nowadays! The acrobatic scenes are suspenseful and you really get a sense of the scope and awe; the whole thing even feels like it has weight to it, so I can forgive the odd jumpy edit. You could look at it cynically and say it's a commercial for Barnum and Bailey, well it's a very entertaining commercial at that and a very informative one offering a documentary like look at how the circus operates. It's not an easy job, therefore someone as commanding as Charlton Heston is perfect for the role as the person who runs the operations and pulls the strings behind the scenes. The movie packs a lot of material into its run time and I felt like I got my money's worth.When your movie stars James Stewart (albeit a supporting performance), isn't any surprise he's the best aspect of the film. I believe his role of Buttons is an underrated performance of his and one of his most tragic. He has a permanent smile on his face (really, his make-up never comes off at any point), yet has a dark, troubled past. OK its obvious symbolism but you can feel his pain throughout thanks to his quiet, subtle performance. As the movie progresses it takes a surprisingly dark turn, not only with the shockingly intense train wreck sequence, but also the implication that Buttons assisted his wife to kill herself, surprising that a mainstream blockbuster would have an assisted suicide subplot in an era controlled by censorship.