Of its time... Ok, some commentators have scratch at it but still needs stating.It's not meant to be a transending story. Strictly a glimps of its time and place.. A view of the past. Waste of time to judge it with our 2003 sophistication and awareness. Something we've been, sometimes, thrusted on us in this day and age. Back then, (think of it, over a 1/2 a century ago), people in rural locations worked hard and were generally ignorant(meant in a nice way, we take for granted our sophistication we have now), of the real seedy inner workings of the circus 'folk' and the illusion they presented. Sometimes, ignorance IS bliss.. Check out the ending act.. woman with the elephants... my god, look at the way she gave one of the elephants a good wack with her prod.. when it was a second late... doing it day in and day out. Joel and the Bots remark about her 'being bloated' could very well have been so... The now documented ill treatment of circus animals was unknown to the circus public.. all they saw, was..... well.... maybe like in 'Waiting for Godot'.. Gogo: " Well that was a waste of time"... Didi: " Yes, but it went by faster".. As for a rating, lets just give a neither here nor there 5.. whatdoyou say...??