The circus is a magical place where reality and fantasy collide. People fly through the air, dogs walk on two feet, people ride horses upside-down and dads spend large sums on cotton candy without complaining. There’s a romantic notion to running away with the circus, embarking on a journey of self-discovery. It’s been charted in films like Wings of Desire, Big Fish and even Big Top Pee Wee. In reality, the circus isn’t magic. It’s real people with real struggles, coming together like a family to bring smiles to other families around the world.
Jeffrey Dupre and Maro Chermayeff’s six-part mini-series Circus peels back the big top tent and reveals the inner workings of the Big Apple Circus, one of the most popular roadshows in the United States. Although it’s called Circus, it’s merely just a backdrop for the varied lives of the performers, managers and crew that all work together to ensure that the show goes off without a hitch. The emphasis is placed on how everyone comes together like a family, working through hardships and celebrating successes.
It’s through the humanizing of the performers and staff that the mini-series finds its greatest moments. They are very open with the film crew, sharing honestly about their life backgrounds and their reasons for running away with the circus. For most, they were simply born into. Some performers profiled trace their big top roots back several generations and up to a couple hundred years.
Circus goes behind the scenes, showing what life on the road is like, at least Big Apple Circus style. There’s everything from your somewhat mundane set-up and practice, bomb scares, hook-ups, break-ups and absentee parents. Filming also happened to be going on during the financial collapse from a couple years back, leading to more drama as circus officials were unsure as to how the economic downturn would affect them.
The first four parts of Circus are particularly strong. They follow a largely chronological order showing the circus from first practices through the annual tour. It’s in these parts that much of the stories are told. By the end, much of the personal conflicts have come to some sort of resolution. But there’s still two more parts to go. They’re held together by the ongoing touring but the new circus folk who are introduced at this point are far less interesting, at least when you hold them up against those that came before them.
Even still, Circus is a fascinating mini-series that benefits from fantastic cinematography that conveys both the artistry of the show and the deeply personal nature with which the show approaches. Circus strips away the romantic fantasy element of running away with the show, but replaces it with something much more real and, in many ways, even more appealing.
Circus DVD Review
Circus comes to DVD as a three-disc set. Each of the six episodes in the mini-series are shown in widescreen with English 5.1 Surround audio. English subtitles are also included. The bonus features consist of 20 additional scenes totaling more than an hour. All in all, Circus is a fantastic journey under the big top. And behind it where the real stories unfold.
Trailer
