[Dean's World] Dave Schuler: Tod Browning's *Freaks*

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Posted by Dave Schuler:
Tod Browning's *Freaks*
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1170082307.shtml


   Tonight at 8:30pm CST/9:30pm EST Turner Classic Movies will be showing
   Tod Browning's [1]Freaks. If you get TCM and haven't already seen the
   picture (and aren't watching Heroes), it's well worth your time.

   Although sometimes characterized as a horror movie, Browning's 1932
   parable of humanity and inhumanity is much, much more than that. It's
   a story is a beautiful trapeze artist who marries a man who's a
   sideshow attraction, infidelity, and revenge. I won't give away more
   than that--you'll have to watch it yourself to learn more. When it
   premiered three quarters of a century ago, it was considered so
   shocking it virtually ended Browning's career.

   But there's another reason to check this movie out. Many of the
   performers in it were actual sideshow performers more than 75 years
   ago. And some of those people have conditions which simply aren't seen
   any more in America or Western Europe: they're corrected at birth or
   very early in life. My wife, a teacher of special needs kids, was
   fascinated to see what might have happened to some of her students
   without today's remarkable medical interventions.

   We've come a long way both in technology and attitudes and Freaks will
   bring those points home to you.

References

   1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/