Review of The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) by Benjamin W — 03 Aug 2010

While I credit DeMille for creating a film of elephantine proportions (no pun intended), it is simply stale to me. The story is shaped around the circus of all things (a great live thing, but on film...?) and, of course, it's not enough of a story for a 2.5 hour running time. Now, there is some decent acting going on by Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart, but no one else is really compelling. In some ways it's a documentary of the circus, and if they really wanted to do that, they should've made an honest to God documentary. As well, the random screen shots of the crowd just get annoying after a while and some of the editing is just horrendous.

While it's sad that it's more remembered as the film that shouldn't have won (over High Noon and the amazingly not nominated Singin' in the Rain), it's even sadder that the Academy felt they had to be pushed into this decision simply because of McCarthy and his bullying at the time. History deserves a better winner here.