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The Circus
Movie

The Circus

2018 • Unknown

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.

Overall Series Review

The Circus (2018) is a historical documentary mini-series from PBS's American Experience, exploring the rise and fall of the traveling big-top circus. The film gives credit to the circus as a uniquely American phenomenon that helped unify the country through shared spectacle, focusing on the enterprise and ambition of its creators and performers. However, the documentary adopts a modern critical lens to acknowledge the darker aspects of the historical enterprise. The narrative is careful to include the context of exploitation, discussing how the circus used and often mistreated wild animals, laborers, and people exhibited in "freak shows." It specifically critiques the role of impresarios like P.T. Barnum in displaying non-white people as 'ethnographic curiosities' and highlights that the circus was made possible by 'Western imperialism.' The depiction of women is framed through the lens of early professional empowerment, showing female performers who achieved rare wage parity and were prominent advocates for women's suffrage. The film remains firmly rooted in chronicling the historical facts of the era, which prevents the narrative from devolving into a modern political lecture.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics6/10

The film avoids simplistic vilification of white males as a class but deliberately highlights the historical exploitation of non-white and disabled people. It details P.T. Barnum's exhibition of a leased slave and the presentation of people from Africa and Asia as 'ethnographic curiosities' for entertainment. The narrative frames the historical phenomenon through a critical intersectional lens, focusing on the systemic nature of exploitation and inequality.

Oikophobia4/10

The documentary praises the circus as a 'uniquely American entertainment' that helped 'stitch into one nation the patchwork of disconnected communities,' acknowledging a positive, unifying cultural element. However, the film explicitly states the circus 'embraced and was made possible by Western imperialism,' which introduces a critical, negative framing of the Western civilizational project. The tone is more academic criticism than outright self-hatred.

Feminism5/10

The documentary presents female performers as trailblazers and economic pioneers who were one of the earliest groups of women to achieve wage parity with their male counterparts. It highlights their role as outspoken advocates for women's suffrage, framing their physical courage as proof of their 'endurance of men.' This focuses heavily on female empowerment and career fulfillment outside the domestic sphere, but does not include explicit anti-natalism or gratuitous emasculation of all men.

LGBTQ+1/10

The documentary is a historical examination of the 19th and early 20th-century big-top circus, which predates modern sexual ideology in media. The narrative maintains a normative structure by focusing on documented historical performers and events without introducing modern queer theory or lecturing on alternative sexualities or gender identity.

Anti-Theism3/10

The historical context of the circus is framed by its 'tension between its unconventional entertainments and prevailing standards of respectability.' This critiques the rigid social morality of the time, which was often tied to religious standards. However, the film focuses on historical social conflict rather than demonizing religion or Christian characters as the root of evil, nor does it promote moral relativism as a primary theme.