The Last American Freak Show (2008)

UK director Richard Butchins takes the road trip of his life when he joins a group of disabled performers who decide to live their lives on their terms. On tour in a 20 year old school bus,... See full summary »

Director:

Richard Butchins

3 nominations.

Storyline

UK director Richard Butchins takes the road trip of his life when he joins a group of disabled performers who decide to live their lives on their terms. On tour in a 20 year old school bus, travelling 2500 miles across America, the 'freaks' worked their way through the wild west. Laughing, crying and drinking - a carnival of the damned -searching for a home...

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Plot Keywords:

carnival | social justice | roadtrip | disability | circus | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Certificate:

Not Rated

User Reviews

No Direction

After seeing an advertisement prior to the airing I felt quite intrigued by what I thought I was going to see.... but unfortunately it all fell flat.

A freak show run by, a few individuals who are classed as "able bodied people" do nothing more than exploit the people with the real disabilities. The freak show in itself is a farce, it's far from a freak show. It's basically a hillbillies travelling show, a group of people who are very little talent but want a stage to play on. They use the "freaks" as a way of marketing their poorly crafted show and to some extent it works.

Throughout the whole movie you can't help but dislike the creators of this show, they come across as being nothing more than complete losers who want to live life in such a carefree way they have no regard for anyone else.

Not only is the show and organisation of the freak show a complete pile of, you know what, the documentary in itself is also a poorly made piece. The creator seems to have very little direction with this, at no point to you really get a sense of what he's trying to get out of it. Usually a documentary has an ultimate goal, whether it be getting a message across or showing the audience something in a new light, whatever it is generally there is always a motive in making a documentary. The Last American Freakshow totally fails, in the creators introduction there is no mention of a goal and even in the end there is no kind of a conclusion. Pretty much all he shows is a group of people who have nothing else to do in life other than tour around being layabout bums.

Overall this was a very disappointing documentary, I was expecting something which would open my eyes, or at least be interesting but unfortunately after about the first 15minutes I was already looking at my watch. It was tempting when the commercials came on to switch channels and not return but I wasn't sensible enough to do that. If you missed this when it was aired on TV count yourself lucky as it's really nothing more than a waste of film.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 July 2008 (Australia)

Box Office

Budget:

$300,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Freakshow Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1