American Studies Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American Studies - Movie Review ExampleThe title of the film, as well as the term used to describe its characters, is disturbing, although it is the term that carnival performers have traditionally used to refer to themselves. There is much about the film that is disturbing, and not just because it is a horror film. Joan Hawkins (1996), in her discussion of the film, treats the twain most obvious identify features, disability and gender. Because identity is more complicated than that, however, I would include hotfoot, although I agree with Hawkins interpretations. As Douglas C. Baynton (2001) has rightly points out, Disability has functioned historically to justify inequality for disabled people themselves, but it has also been done so for women and minority groups (33). I would say that the characters in Freaks consider themselves a race of people, the membership of which depends upon their status as people with disabilities. When the freaks decide to accept the trapeze artist Cle opatra into their community, even though she is normal, they perform an elaborate, religious-like ceremony to commemorate it.