# Freaks



## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

The cult movie Freaks was released on this day in 1932.

You need to click on the green part of the post.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

We watched that one a year or so ago on either AMC or TCM - part of their Halloween line up. I think the best part of this movie is that the bad guys are those considered "normal" and the characters you care about are the ones considered "freaks".


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Another movie that could never be made today.


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## aquariumreef (Sep 16, 2010)

Pretty sure I saw my sister in that video *hmm*


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## highbury (Nov 5, 2009)

One of us!


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

A truly unique movie.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

It's kinda odd that: I was on youtube looking at images of diving horses from Atlantic City, and there was *much* discussion about whether it was cruelty at the time, animals have feelings/rights too, blahblahblah. But what about this? If some cringe at the image of a horse diving off a ramp of his own free will, then this is kinda......well, at a whole different level of questioning "Is that still okay?" I'm not really sure how I feel. This is kinda in that "I dunno" category, along with whether or not I'm making fun of death by doing up a Halloween display: I'm not sure where I stand on it. Does this movie celebrate life or degrade it? Allow these people some modicum of fame and riches while they lived? or cheapen their lives as oddities for our consumption and stares? I dunno. Seems like a bit of both. Dignified and undignified. Humans as objet d'art.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Interesting comment, Deb. I think the movie treated its subjects with sensitivity and sympathy. Certainly when you first start watching the film, the physical differences between those considered "normal" and those considered "freakish" can be your primary focus, mostly because you don't see folks like that every day. As the plot develops, though, you are entirely on the side of the sideshow performers and the differences no longer count. Their dilemmas are the same as ours - being attracted to someone who is not worthy of you, being taken advantage of by someone who has no scruples, being rejected by someone you love. These are universal human experiences, and I think that's what makes this movie succeed.


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## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

there was a documentary i once watched on the history channel about the time period when sideshow freak shows were being outlawed as inhumane and cruel to the people who were in them. Obviously treating someone different based on such shallow reasons is wrong, however the problem became that people still judged the so called "freaks" harshly AND they took away their jobs. A "normal" person certainly wasn't going to hire a "freak" so without the sideshows a lot of people lost their only way to make any money at all. And while the status of "freak" obviously does not in itself cause a person to be unintelligent the sad fact that many "freaks" are not given a proper education because it is simply assumed they wont learn and because of this horrible assumption some of the "freaks" did not have any useful skills, and of course some were physically unable to do many jobs. That time period, like many, is an example of "normal" people being "we wanna be good people, but do we reeeeaaalllly haaaaaaave to??"


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Just watched this movie over the weekend. Of course, I watched the "DVD Extras" too. Fascinating stories behind the story.
I used to have a book in which many of these performers were featured, until my biology teacher borrowed it. It's over 20 years later, and I'm pretty sure he's dead. Maybe I should get a new copy?









Anyway, a movie well worth watching simply for its historical value, but I liked it as a movie too.


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