Response to The Righteous in the Film, "Freaks"

I agree with Callie that the end of film showed the integrity of the community.   I in no way felt that the second to last scene portrayed the characters as something to be afraid of.  Fear alone would arise from the notions/bias of the viewer prior to watching it.  I was actually scared towards the beginning by the limbless man squirming on the ground.  I thought I was suddenly watching a zombie flick.  But soon enough I was snapped back to reality that he was alive and not the living dead, and I quickly grew fond of the characters as the story developed.

I thought the film was cleverly and ironically portraying Cleopatra and Hercules as the freaks. They were the deviants being ostracized.   Although most of the show members had physical disabilities/deformations, Cleo and Hercules exhibited a social disability.  This social disability was a self-centeredness that threatened the selflessness of the community.  What hurts one, hurts all. Naturally, the audience typically feels support for the performers who could not change their physical condition over Cleo and Hercules who could change their behavior but desired not to. By saying that they should have adapted their behavior, I am not suggesting they should be simply controlled to fit social norms to be useful to the community, but rather should want to change for social health reasons just like a smoker who refuses to quit despite the devastating effect on themselves and those around them. 

Community is the one thing that most of us are missing a sense of.  And not getting to know one another is sometimes what allows our immediate judgements on descendence, gender, and sexuality to be fantasized over time in our creative minds.

~ John