Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The Greatest Show On Earth2 Out Of 5The Greatest Show On Earth is a plot driven feature depicting behind the scene politics of the circus which is not interesting enough to invest in it. The emotions depicted in here comes off shallow and pretentious for the most part of it is distracted by the tactics and the plays acted out in the circus where the rest of the material is offered raw and unsupervised. It is short on technical aspects like art design, background score, costume design, choreography, production design, cinematography, sound department and editing. The characters are overstuffed and undercooked which never communicates with the audience due to the crowded screen which frankly everyone wants to get off to. The camera work is decently handled and shot to please and attract the viewers which is clearly visible. The adaptation by the writers is weak and pretentious that wishes to play safe and sound unlike its characters. Cecil B. DeMille; the director, needs some work on the execution skills especially when attaining a balance of commercial and art aspects of the cinema. The performance is plausible by James Stewart and Charlton Heston but unfortunately weren't supported to that extent by the cast. The Greatest Show On Earth is chalky around the edges and completely undercooked at the core; neither does it hit nor does it swing.

I have never understood how Heston and the circus bosses did not know about the extent of Sebastion's injury. You have to think with so much invested in his presence at the show, they would have kept careful tabs on his progress. The circus must have had some kind of insurance for him as well.Still, this movie is a great deal of fun.

The film that inspired Steven Spielberg, this grand DeMille drama set against the thrills and spectacle of a 50s circus gives us a behind the scenes peek at the unlikely bunch that put on all sorts of shows for the public. These include the under pressure manager (Heston) his girlfriend/wannabe starlet (Hutton), world class trapeze artist The Great Sebastian (Conrel Wilde) and Buttons, the clown with a mysterious past (Stewart).Corny, melodramatic and cliché though it may be, this circus tale from, fittingly, one of Hollywood's greatest showmen is not without charm or a sense of fun. A game cast all embrace their larger than life roles well, with Stewart shining as both the funny yet poignantly tragic Buttons. And as expected of DeMille, the film offers tons of great, large scale spectacle (including but not limited to elephants, aerial acrobatics and the famous train crash that actually still holds up okay as a tense action scene), all set to some very cheery, smile-inducing songs to create an old fashioned type of charm and warmth that carry the picture over its weaker points.The disdain against the film's win back in 1952 stems from being seen more as an arbitrary honouring of the aging DeMille, and 'Show's' sketchy plot, stretched to over two hours, and stock characters don't do it any favours in trying to defend its title. It's all very routine soap opera that, were it not for all the wonderful sights and osmosis surrounding it, would be really by the numbers and uninspired. Plus, there is some shoddy 'early greenscreen/keying' done for some stunts which stick out painfully, However, in spite of all that, I was left with a smile on my face by the film's end. Films like this define terms like 'feel-good' and 'they just don't make 'em like this anymore'.

The DVD release for The Greatest Show On Earth plays down its Best Picture win. Hang on, isn't this supposed to be the highest accolade in the film world? Why would you downplay that your film won the award? Probably because the Academy Awards are a farce. Yeah, total shocker. I normally have a rule when reviewing movies not to mention the Oscars because I feel it is so redundant to do so. "How did this beat 'x' picture?", "Why didn't 'x' get an Oscar nomination?", such tiring statements. Best Picture winners attract viewers to a film which they would unlikely watch otherwise and because of this many films get a bad reputation as the film which beat such and such for Best Picture.The Greatest Show On Earth is one such film, made out to be worse than it is due to attracting an audience who would otherwise never watch it if it wasn't for its Best Picture win. The Greatest Show On Earth is tons of fun; at times I had a care free feeling that I was at an actual circus, minus the smell of elephant dung. There is even an appearance of people wearing costumes of Disney characters; good luck trying to put that in a non-Disney film nowadays! The acrobatic scenes are suspenseful and you really get a sense of the scope and awe; the whole thing even feels like it has weight to it, so I can forgive the odd jumpy edit. You could look at it cynically and say it's a commercial for Barnum and Bailey, well it's a very entertaining commercial at that and a very informative one offering a documentary like look at how the circus operates. It's not an easy job, therefore someone as commanding as Charlton Heston is perfect for the role as the person who runs the operations and pulls the strings behind the scenes. The movie packs a lot of material into its run time and I felt like I got my money's worth.When your movie stars James Stewart (albeit a supporting performance), isn't any surprise he's the best aspect of the film. I believe his role of Buttons is an underrated performance of his and one of his most tragic. He has a permanent smile on his face (really, his make-up never comes off at any point), yet has a dark, troubled past. OK its obvious symbolism but you can feel his pain throughout thanks to his quiet, subtle performance. As the movie progresses it takes a surprisingly dark turn, not only with the shockingly intense train wreck sequence, but also the implication that Buttons assisted his wife to kill herself, surprising that a mainstream blockbuster would have an assisted suicide subplot in an era controlled by censorship.