Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 20, 2021

Cecil B. DeMille proves to be quite the showman with The Greatest Show on Earth, his sprawling 1952 film about circus life and the human drama that plays out beyond the superhuman feats. In the film, DeMille essentially takes the audience to the circus, exploring the logistical feats necessary to get it up and running. There are several such asides that explore the intricate processes and the complex moving parts that bring a travelling circus from place to place: moving it around, building it up, and pulling it down. DeMille also grants his audience access inside the Big Top for several small performances while opening up some of the backstage areas for exposure to the politics and business ends of the circus life. But the film's true draw is the balancing act between high flying adventure and a messy love triangle that develops when a talented but jealous performer finds herself caught in the middle of the business manager she loves and the handsome act who replaces her at center stage. DeMille and his team of writers prove well capable of juggling the film's interconnected elements for a full picture of circus life and a more accessible and intimae story that broadly stretches along the full spectrum of human emotion along the way.

The circus may about fun and fantastic feats under the Big Top, but the bottom line is that the bottom line is just as important as entertaining families. In a postwar world the circus’ brass decides to cut back the show to only 10 stops at big cities in hopes of keeping the books in the black. Circus manager Brad Braden (Charlton Heston) convincingly argues in favor of a full season. Not only is it just the right thing to do – this is why the circus exists, to perform -- but also because he knows that a short season will not attract the industry’s top talent, including “The Great Sebastian” (Cornel Wilde), a flamboyant showman whose act outside the Top might be more impressive than his work on the wires underneath it.

The circus’ top performer, Holly (Betty Hutton), loves Brad (Brad likes her, too, but tells her that under the Big Top she’s “just another performer") but has her heart broken – in more ways than one – when Brad tells her she’s going to play second fiddle Sebastian who will take her place at center ring. Holly, desperate for Brad’s affection but perhaps even more desperate to fight for her rightful place as the circus’ main draw, vows to double down on dangerous stunts, taking risks to reclaim what she believes to be rightfully hers. With Holly and Sebastian constantly performing not for their fans but rather to outdo one another, and with Brad fighting to keep the circus profitable and his performers in line, it would seem only a matter of time before disaster of some kind or another might tear the entire operation to the ground.

These three characters are the film's focus, though certainly, in classic DeMille fashion, there's not a "background" character in the movie. There are many moving parts and the film is in harmony only with all of them considered, whether top talent like Jimmy Stewart, playing a clown with a questionable personal history, or even faces in the crowd that react and respond to the circus performances in a manner that is meant to reflect the audience and send signals as to the true feats of daring that might not translate so well on the screen as they would in real life. And all of this is where the film thrives: it's a complete movie in every sense of the term. The documentary-style add-ins set the scene, some circus act cutaways that don't feature Holly and Sebastian give the movie scale and agreeable diversions from the drama, and of course the love triangle and sorting out the details of who should be center ring, as well as a few other high center of gravity narrative pulls, all make for one of the most complex yet accessible motion pictures ever made.

DeMille gets the most from his cast, which does not simply include human beings but also the circus itself. He shoots and captures and edits and projects the circus in such a way as to make everything around it -- animate or inanimate -- as if a single organism or, perhaps better expressed, as a series of symbiotic relationships. The circus itself just breathes. It exudes life. And DeMille's ability to keep it organized, accessible, and balanced between the logistical supports, the cutaway components, and the main story drivers is really quite amazing. The result is a movie that is an absolute joy to watch. Not only is the cast terrific, but so too is the convincing scope and scale; while the movie assuredly plays even better on a very large screen, audiences will feel drawn into both the circus proper and, of course, the essential story beats as they follow Brad, Holly, and Sebastian. Heston, Hutton, and Wilde are terrific, each of them devoted to character and the physicality the roles demand, the latter two in particular who performed their own trapeze stunts for the film.

The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Greatest Show on Earth may not be the greatest Blu-ray on Earth, but fans should be well satisfied beyond a few caveats. First, the good: the picture is pleasantly filmic. It's sharp and sure though certainly lighting can be a challenge inside the tent and a number of optical effects shots stand out quite severely. Still, the picture reveals pleasant detailing and clarity throughout, whether bare skin, clown makeup, dense and intricate costumes, or any other number of visual components scattered throughout the film. Color reproduction is solid. Colors are appropriately expressive with good, neutral contrast and plenty of opportunity for baseline punch and vitality to reds, whites, blacks, blues, and pretty much every color under the Big Top. Skin tones are lifelike as well. The image does show an inordinate number of spots and speckles and what looks like a few digital artifacts; there are several perfectly square blocks of varying colors popping up (look in the nine-minute mark for a few of the more prominent examples). The film truly demands to be projected on a large screen; no doubt the death-defying stunts and the general circus atmosphere will play much more impressively on a surface big enough to show its scale, but for home consumption, and even on more modestly sized displays, the Blu-ray is at least well capable of presenting the picture with a general level of high definition satisfaction.

The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Greatest Show on Earth swings onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack that lacks the dynamism and fluidity of a more modern engineered audio presentation. It's perfectly serviceable under its own limitations, however. Music is clear enough and plays with appropriate, though not fully stretched, front end spread. The lack of a true low end extension leaves it a little thin and fidelity is nowhere near lifelike, but listeners will certainly appreciate the essential musical engagement. Crowd applause and musical accompaniment during performances both want for greater clarity but appear relatively true to the source. The lack of surround channels limit, of course, the sense of true immersion into the environment, but the basic sound signature, along with the visual supports, do well enough to pull the listener under the Big Top. Dialogue is clear and images well enough to the center area.

The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Paramount's Blu-ray release of The Greatest Show on Earth contains only one supplement. Filmmaker Focus - Leonard Maltin on 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1080p, 7:42) features the acclaimed critic discussing DeMille's style and character, this film's quasi-documentary style, DeMille's access to the real circus, the film's narrative strings, characters, cast and performances, the actors' own physical performances in the circus, the train wreck scene, and animals on set. This release is the 16th in the "Paramount Presents" line and includes the slipcover with fold-open poster artwork. A digital copy code is included with purchase.

The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cecil B. DeMille would certainly use the experience gained in making The Greatest Show on Earth to help craft another large-scale epic in The Ten Commandments only a few short years later. Of course Show is much smaller scale with less historical significance and spiritual movement, but as a "confined" epic -- a film of sprawling grandeur and grandiose acts of courage under the Big Top -- it's quite the impressive exercise in filmmaking and storytelling excellence. The film rolls broad stroke dramatic elements into the high flying world of circus performance to fine and fun effect, yielding a memorable motion picture experience that really does have it all. Paramount's Blu-ray, part of its prestigious "Paramount Presents" line, features solid enough video and audio presentations. Sadly, supplements are limited to a single retrospective featurette. Recommended.