There also are two full-on circus parades, depicting different eras in each portion of the parade. DeMille also gives much time to the actual circus acts, including clowns, dancers and animals, including some magnificent performances by horses and elephants. More than the melodrama, and the handful of songs, what makes the film so worthwhile is its documentary-style portions that show what the great traveling circuses used to be like, including the 1,400 people who would set up the show in the morning and strip in down at night so it could move by train to the next town. Amazingly, both Hutton and Wilde trained and performed all the aerial stunts themselves … and quite well. Heston plays Brad Braden, the on-the-road manager of the circus, who becomes involved in a sort-of love triangle when his girlfriend Holly, an aerialist played by Betty Hutton (see “Annie Get Your Gun” below), starts to fall for the new main act, aerialist The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde of “Sword of Lancelot”), a noted womanizer who previously had had an affair with the circus’ Angel (Gloria Grahame, who would win her Oscar for “The Bad and the Beautiful, released the same year). It was the second feature film for legendary Charlton Heston, who would go on to win a Best Actor Oscar for “Ben-Hur” in 1960. It also earned nominations for DeMille as Best Director, Anne Bauchens for Best Editing and Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins and Miles White for Best Costumer Designs. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. DeMille spectacular, based on and using more than 60 performers and the animals of the Ringling Bros. Keeping with a loose theme of Oscar winners, this Cecil B. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952, Paramount Presents, Blu-ray, NR, 152 min.). Rating guide: 5 stars = classic 4 stars = excellent 3 stars = good 2 stars = fair dog = skip it There are only two extras: a look at “Fred Hampton for the People” (9:19), a look at Hampton’s legacy with comments by cast and crew and “Unexpected Betrayal” (7:47), a look at O’Neal. The film also earned Academy Award nominations as Best Picture and Best Script, but its only other win was for “Fight for You,” the closing song performed and co-written by H.E.R. The cinematography by Sean Bobbitt is excellent and earned him an Oscar nomination. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen of TV’s “The West Wing”) railing against his men to take care of the “latest messiah” – the film opens with news footage of Martin Luther King’s assassination and the rioting/protests that erupted afterwards – which mainly serve to show how bigoted and mean Hoover was, but we already knew that. There also are too many scenes of FBI Director J. The potentially best scene is when O’Neal visits Mitchell’s home, but the script skips digging into the socio-economic differences, leaving that to Hampton’s crowd-rousing speeches.
Half his scenes are with his FBI handler (Jesse Plemons of TV’s “Fargo” as Roy Mitchell) and nearly all seem just about jail threats and money. The only real problem with the film is the script, which does not use Stanfield dynamically enough.
#Warner brothers cartoon making fun of j edgar hoover driver#
We do see O’Neal get close to Hampton by first becoming his driver and then the head of his defense squad – yet more irony, as O’Neal is the one who gave the FBI the layout of Hampton’s apartment. If Hampton is the supporting role, then the lead falls to the “Judas” of this tale, which would be car thief William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield, yet who, strangely enough, also was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor), who becomes an FBI informant tasked with getting close to Hampton or else go to jail for 5 1/3 years for stealing a car and impersonating an FBI agent. It is a shock, after Hampton is assassinated and the film ends, to learn that Hampton was only 21 when he died. Kaluuya, as Hampton, gives more than one electrifying speech in director/co-writer Shaka King’s film, more than justifying his Academy Award victory as Best Supporting Actor, albeit some might argue he was in the wrong category. Daniel Kaluuya brings intensity to his portrayal of Fred Hampton, leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, who used his fierce speechifying to create his “rainbow coalition” of peoples of all races in 1968 Chicago against a common enemy that included the FBI and police who believe murder is a proper tool. Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros., Blu-ray or DVD, R, 126 min.).