The banned humanity

Freaks (1932)

This movie has had a whole lot of misfortune, because it has been misunderstood or mostly because the short sighted prejudice and inequality in people's minds. It was actually filmed in 1931 but due to the studio getting scared that they couldn't sell this monstrosity they cut almost an hour out of the original and did reshoots to end up with this a bit over an hour version there is today. The ending was done over a many times also, but luckily most of the endings can be found in the DVDs as extras so you can see for yourself which is the best. After the test screening the studio wanted to burn the copies and never release it, but as the premiere was already set up they had to go and release it. As the word about it spread it was the most successful movie of all time in those limited theaters that showed it. But yet it was rushed to get banned on most of the states. And actually even today there are states where it's illegal to show this movie, although the law is not really obeyed anymore. It didn't end up doing well abroad either. This movie holds the record of being most likely the longest period in the banned movies list in the UK. Australia and many European countries followed suit. Premiere lists it as one of the most dangerous movies ever made. So this must be one hell of a sleazy disgusting exploitation nightmare, after all it's directed by the same guy who brought us Dracula (1931), so it's good that it's banned right? Well I actually can't think of another movie out there where the ban issued to it is so horribly wrong. This movie is basically about the equality of human beings. It's a story about a group of people in a circus, mostly about those "side show freaks". Handicapped people who are deformed out of the norm. There are many stories in this one and it's certainly not one dimentional. The main story is a beautiful trapeze artist who agrees to marry a midget only for his money. Things of course don't go as planned and there are the usual jealousy and revenge themes in there. But that's not all, there's a lot more. The main thing are the deformed people, how the "normal" people make fun of them, are disgusted about them and in the end abuse them to feel better for themselves. Even though the movie is named Freaks and it was also showed under the name Nature's Mistakes, it's not exploitation. Many people seem to mistake it for that. Also due to the early misleading marketing, it's certainly not horror either. The "freaks" are depicted as human beings with the same passions and problems as "normal" people have. Actually the end which has received so much bad reputation is the main factor in making them humane. Had it been Cary Grant in the place of the dwarf and people would have been cheering. Now they ran scared out of the theatre back in the days. But it captures the state of mid in the time very well and especially knowing what kind of a mass of bans the movie got it reflects the views of the time better than pretty much any movie of it's time. Seeing it now, I really can't stop wondering which fucking short sighted moron can honestly say this movie is bad for the public and deserves to be banned? But then again even today there are those who think that anyone out of the norm is a lesser being and with that this movie is still as current as it was back in the 30's. One of the most important movies of all time.
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