Freaks (1932)
Freaks (1932)
Tod Browning, former circus performer and Vaudeville performer turned director is probably best known for his silent films with Lon Chaney as well as the 1931 talkie production of Dracula for Universal, also directed one of the most controversial film ever made, Freaks. The combination of the failure and shock of Freaks, as well as his having trouble adapting to the new world of Talkie films, his career would come to an end in 1939, though he would retire a very wealthy man. Freaks released in 1932 is a controversial film about a group of sideshow "freaks" in a traveling circus. The film portrays them as "normal" people, that have the same emotions and experiences as "normal" people, and in the film the real "monsters" are not those with physical deformities, but instead those who are labeled as "normal" by society. One of the performers, Hans, who is a little person becomes attracted to the trapeze performer, Cleopatra, who is using him for his money (he inherited a great fortune). Cleopatra and the strongman Hercules develop a plan that Cleopatra will marry Hans, and then poison him and get his fortune. But the "freaks" find out about the scheme and they join together to get their revenge for the injury done to Hans, because as the prologue to the film explains, there is a code that the sideshow freaks live by, and that is that an injury or insult to one, is an injury or insult to all. This is one of the first film where people with physical abnormalities were able to play themselves in a film, rather than being played by those with no physical abnormalities in special effects makeup, and the use of actual people with physical abnormalities shocked many people, to the point that the film in the UK was banned for 30 years, and it was also pulled from the theaters before the end of its theatrical run, and the censors wouldn't even allow it to play in many places. Like in the film, the real monsters are not those with physical abnormalities, it is the "normal" people who are so disgusted by the people with physical abnormalities that they are shocked and outraged by a film that empowers them and enables them to play roles with speak parts that shows them as humans. There is even a story that at the MGM studios that the cast and crew were made to eat at a separate cafeteria because the sight of them would make the other people that worked at MGM sick and unable to eat. Sadly this attitude towards those who are different is still present in the world today, there are still people that are disgusted when they see people with physical disabilities, or even when they see LGBTQIA people, so the reason that Freaks was so shocking is still relevant sadly in the world today, even though things are a bit better and a bit more enlightened. Another issue that this film addressed that is still relevant is the representation of actors with disabilities, or even the representation of LGBTQIA characters, because so often they are played by able-bodied cisgender straight people rather than by actors that experience the same condition as the character. A very recent example of this is the outrage that in the new adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, an actor with hearing was cast to play Nick Andros, a deaf and mute character. So though we've come a long ways, we still have a long ways to go, and maybe that is why Freaks is as relevant today as it was in 1932 when it so completely and totally shocked viewers and critics alike. The most horrifying thing about this film, is how horrible it shows that "normal" people are in their reactions to those who are "abnormal" in their eyes. 
Freaks was directed by Tod Browning, and written by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon, and was suggested by the 1923 short story Spurs by Tod Robbins. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Freaks was a box office bomb, with a budget of around $300,000, it barely made back its budget, and was pulled from theaters early because of both how poorly it was performing, and because of the shock, outrage, and controversy that it was causing. The censors in some countries banned the film.
For Freaks Tod Browning assembles a cast of actual sideshow freaks, and the amount of actors he employs is much larger than most circuses, and some of the actors are people that he'd worked with previously. Freaks stars Harry Earles as Hans, Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra, Henry Victor as Hercules, Daisy Earles as Frieda, Wallace Ford as Phroso, Leila Hyams as Venus, Rosco Ates as Roscoe, Rose Dione as Madame Tetrallini, Daisy and Violet Hilton as the Siamese Twins, Schlitzie as himself, Josephine Joseph as Half Woman-Half Man, Johnny Eck as Half-Boy, Frances O'Connor as Armless girl, Peter Robinson as Human skeleton, Olga Roderick as Bearded Lady, Koo Koo as Herself, Prince Randian as The Living Torso, Martha Morris as Angelo's armless wife, Elvira Snow as Pinhead Pip, Jenny Lee Snow as Pinhead Zip, Elizabeth Green as Bird Girl, Angel Rossitto as Angeleno, and Edward Brophy and Matt McHugh as the Rollo Brothers. Many of the performers either use their own names, or their stage names that they use when they perform. The cast is fantastic, and obviously authentic, and I feel myself more drawn to the humanity of the "freaks" than to the "normal" people, though I will say that a few of the "normal" people like Venus and Phroso are genuinely good people, and their characters see the other sideshow performers as equals and as humans. I think that is what this film tries to show more than anything, the "normality" and humanity of those who society outcasts and labels as "freaks", and the film is quite successful in doing that, and I feel like that is due in great part to the amazing cast of characters that Tod Browning found for the film.
Freaks has been both celebrated as a film that is compassionate and empowering to those with disabilities, but also accused of being a film that exploits disabled people. I think, as a person who is disabled, and who in the 1930s might have been forced to find work as a sideshow freak, I feel that this film is empowering, and I feel that many who see this film as exploitative need to look into themselves and ask why they see it that way. First I have to ask if they actually watched the film, and secondly I would want to know if they see it as exploitative because they don't see the characters as human, but are themselves reviled by the depiction of a person with a physical "abnormality" playing a person with a physical "abnormality". Would this film have been controversial at all if the film starred "normal" people done up in special effects makeup? In my personal opinion a lot of the shock and disgust when it comes to this film, are the personal prejudices and bigotries of the person who views it and is shocked and disgusted. When I watch this film, I see a lot of people who are compassionate and normal human beings, who by a cruel twist of fate were born different from the norm, and it doesn't make them shocking at all. To me the horror is how Cleopatra and Hercules scheme to exploit and kill Hans for his money, and how they see the "freaks" as subhuman, to me the horror isn't even what happens to them when "freaks" get revenge for the cruelty that Hans and the others experience from Cleopatra and Hercules, I feel like there is a sense of catharsis in seeing those who bully and view others with disgust become exactly what they bullied others for.
"We drink from the loving cup! Gooble gobble gooble gobble we accept you, we accept you, one of us, one of us!" The rallying call for the freaks, both past and present, or as the Ramones said it in the song Pinhead (inspired by this film) "Gabba Gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us!" The scene at the wedding reception with the loving cup to me has always been one of the most powerful moments in cinematic history. Whether you experience a physical abnormality, like the characters in the film, or whether you are transgender, or a social outcast of any kind, it is important that we find our own family of freaks who accept us, and that we accept them. "We accept you, we accept you, one of us!" I think that is why in the 1960s Freaks saw a rediscovery and found the love of the new generation, a generation of freaks and outsiders, who could feel a sense of camaraderie with the amazing characters in this film, as they developed their own families of acceptance. Freaks the film that was reviled and despised by critics and viewers upon its release was rediscovered in the 1960s, and was looked at through the lense of social change as the world evolved from the conservative 1950s into the generation of the hippie and the freak, and even the word "freak" shifted from being an insult to being a term of empowerment and belonging. "Let your freak flag fly", this was a new generation, and as the critics reexamined the film they discovered what an amazing work that Tod Browning created in 1932, but it was 30 years ahead of its time if not even more. Now Freaks has become a cult classic and holds a very high rating on film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes.
If you have not yet experienced Freaks, I highly recommend it. This is definitely a must-see film, and if the film disgusts you because of the people in it, then I greatly encourage you to explore your own prejudices and bigotries, maybe seek the help of a therapist, because this is a film of empowerment and a film of creating your own family when you are outcast by the rest of society for being different, and to me as a transgender person that is an extremely powerful thing to see in a film. The Ramones saw the power as, punks in their day were seen as freaks and outcasts, and I think that this film can be empowering to anyone who feels outcast. Together we are strong, and an insult to one of us is an insult to all of us. Then again, maybe I am too passionately viewing this film as a person who was born with a physical abnormality being born into a body that developed the opposite sex traits from my actual gender, so I see myself as one of them, and maybe I am not seeing how it is exploitative to empower those like myself, and to let us play ourselves in a film. So I highly encourage you to watch this film for yourself, and think about how you view the film, and challenge why you view it that way. This is a great film to make people think about why it is so controversial. I love this film it is one of my all-time favourite films, and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to check it.
Freaks was directed by Tod Browning, and written by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon, and was suggested by the 1923 short story Spurs by Tod Robbins. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Freaks was a box office bomb, with a budget of around $300,000, it barely made back its budget, and was pulled from theaters early because of both how poorly it was performing, and because of the shock, outrage, and controversy that it was causing. The censors in some countries banned the film.
For Freaks Tod Browning assembles a cast of actual sideshow freaks, and the amount of actors he employs is much larger than most circuses, and some of the actors are people that he'd worked with previously. Freaks stars Harry Earles as Hans, Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra, Henry Victor as Hercules, Daisy Earles as Frieda, Wallace Ford as Phroso, Leila Hyams as Venus, Rosco Ates as Roscoe, Rose Dione as Madame Tetrallini, Daisy and Violet Hilton as the Siamese Twins, Schlitzie as himself, Josephine Joseph as Half Woman-Half Man, Johnny Eck as Half-Boy, Frances O'Connor as Armless girl, Peter Robinson as Human skeleton, Olga Roderick as Bearded Lady, Koo Koo as Herself, Prince Randian as The Living Torso, Martha Morris as Angelo's armless wife, Elvira Snow as Pinhead Pip, Jenny Lee Snow as Pinhead Zip, Elizabeth Green as Bird Girl, Angel Rossitto as Angeleno, and Edward Brophy and Matt McHugh as the Rollo Brothers. Many of the performers either use their own names, or their stage names that they use when they perform. The cast is fantastic, and obviously authentic, and I feel myself more drawn to the humanity of the "freaks" than to the "normal" people, though I will say that a few of the "normal" people like Venus and Phroso are genuinely good people, and their characters see the other sideshow performers as equals and as humans. I think that is what this film tries to show more than anything, the "normality" and humanity of those who society outcasts and labels as "freaks", and the film is quite successful in doing that, and I feel like that is due in great part to the amazing cast of characters that Tod Browning found for the film.
Freaks has been both celebrated as a film that is compassionate and empowering to those with disabilities, but also accused of being a film that exploits disabled people. I think, as a person who is disabled, and who in the 1930s might have been forced to find work as a sideshow freak, I feel that this film is empowering, and I feel that many who see this film as exploitative need to look into themselves and ask why they see it that way. First I have to ask if they actually watched the film, and secondly I would want to know if they see it as exploitative because they don't see the characters as human, but are themselves reviled by the depiction of a person with a physical "abnormality" playing a person with a physical "abnormality". Would this film have been controversial at all if the film starred "normal" people done up in special effects makeup? In my personal opinion a lot of the shock and disgust when it comes to this film, are the personal prejudices and bigotries of the person who views it and is shocked and disgusted. When I watch this film, I see a lot of people who are compassionate and normal human beings, who by a cruel twist of fate were born different from the norm, and it doesn't make them shocking at all. To me the horror is how Cleopatra and Hercules scheme to exploit and kill Hans for his money, and how they see the "freaks" as subhuman, to me the horror isn't even what happens to them when "freaks" get revenge for the cruelty that Hans and the others experience from Cleopatra and Hercules, I feel like there is a sense of catharsis in seeing those who bully and view others with disgust become exactly what they bullied others for.
"We drink from the loving cup! Gooble gobble gooble gobble we accept you, we accept you, one of us, one of us!" The rallying call for the freaks, both past and present, or as the Ramones said it in the song Pinhead (inspired by this film) "Gabba Gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us!" The scene at the wedding reception with the loving cup to me has always been one of the most powerful moments in cinematic history. Whether you experience a physical abnormality, like the characters in the film, or whether you are transgender, or a social outcast of any kind, it is important that we find our own family of freaks who accept us, and that we accept them. "We accept you, we accept you, one of us!" I think that is why in the 1960s Freaks saw a rediscovery and found the love of the new generation, a generation of freaks and outsiders, who could feel a sense of camaraderie with the amazing characters in this film, as they developed their own families of acceptance. Freaks the film that was reviled and despised by critics and viewers upon its release was rediscovered in the 1960s, and was looked at through the lense of social change as the world evolved from the conservative 1950s into the generation of the hippie and the freak, and even the word "freak" shifted from being an insult to being a term of empowerment and belonging. "Let your freak flag fly", this was a new generation, and as the critics reexamined the film they discovered what an amazing work that Tod Browning created in 1932, but it was 30 years ahead of its time if not even more. Now Freaks has become a cult classic and holds a very high rating on film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes.
If you have not yet experienced Freaks, I highly recommend it. This is definitely a must-see film, and if the film disgusts you because of the people in it, then I greatly encourage you to explore your own prejudices and bigotries, maybe seek the help of a therapist, because this is a film of empowerment and a film of creating your own family when you are outcast by the rest of society for being different, and to me as a transgender person that is an extremely powerful thing to see in a film. The Ramones saw the power as, punks in their day were seen as freaks and outcasts, and I think that this film can be empowering to anyone who feels outcast. Together we are strong, and an insult to one of us is an insult to all of us. Then again, maybe I am too passionately viewing this film as a person who was born with a physical abnormality being born into a body that developed the opposite sex traits from my actual gender, so I see myself as one of them, and maybe I am not seeing how it is exploitative to empower those like myself, and to let us play ourselves in a film. So I highly encourage you to watch this film for yourself, and think about how you view the film, and challenge why you view it that way. This is a great film to make people think about why it is so controversial. I love this film it is one of my all-time favourite films, and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to check it.
Comments
Post a Comment