The Gold Rush (1925)

Title: The Gold Rush (1925)

Director: Charles Chaplin

Review:

Don’t know how many of you guys and gals out there like watching old movies like this one, but I thoroughly enjoy searching out these old gems. Especially if they are really good classics like this one. If you are a true lover of films, you reach a point where you want to go past the stage of just watching whatever is new and you kind of start going back in film history, seeing where it all began. Seeing those classics that you never even knew existed. You would be surprised at just how entertaining some of these old silent movies can be, specially when it was Charlie Chaplin making them! Film was still on its early stages back then. Films didn’t have sound yet,  all actors could rely on were facial gestures and body language. It was a different kind of cinema because I find that sound makes up 50% of the cinematic equation. Sound and music is so important to how you see and feel a movie. But back in those days it was different. Image was king, and actors carried a lot of the film on their shoulders. They had full responsibility over what you saw and felt in a movie. Examples of great silent cinema are films like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and F.W. Murnau’s Faust, two masterpieces of German expressionism that you shouldn’t miss if you are interested in exploring silent films. But to me Charlie Chaplin was king of silent films. The guy was so successful back in those days and he did what he did so well that studios fully trusted his genius and ability to make money! They gave him his own studio and his own filmmaking crew! He would be free to create whatever the hell he wanted to create. The result was often times magic. The Gold Rush is the film that he wanted to be remembered by, it’s the one he cherished the most and the one many call his masterpiece. I find it difficult to call any one of his films his ultimate masterpiece, cause to me, they are all masterpieces!

Story revolves around “the lone prospector” a.k.a. The Tramp. A poor schmoe looking for a way to make some money. So like many people back in those days, he makes his way to the Alaskan Gold Rush. While making his way up the mountains in search of gold, he suddenly finds himself lost in the middle of the snowy mountains! So he takes refuge in an isolated cabin he finds along the way where he meets another prospector and a fugitive of the law. The three must find a way to get some food and survive the harsh winter cold! After that, the lone prospector decides to stop searching for gold and decides to get a job in town where he falls in love with a saloon girl and must fight for her affections. Will he ever win her heart even though he is just a poor moneyless tramp? And will his destiny ever change?

The thing I find so amazing about films like this one is how much emotion these actors could portray without sound or dialog. When you see Chaplin acting in one of his silent films, you could almost swear you hear some dialog going on even though the film has non! His body talks! It was something that Chaplin always fought for. He liked the way silent films worked, the art of saying a lot without uttering a single word. I have to admit, I like this as well, because Chaplin is such a well of emotions. Trust me, Chaplin could orchestrate a scene that will have you laughing like a mad man, and a few minutes later, he will have you at the verge of tears. There are some truly emotional moments on this one that will pull your heartstrings. There is this one scene where Chaplin is expecting this woman he has fallen in love with, and he prepares the dinner table for when she and her friends arrive, but she never arrives! So he starts imagining like she is there with him, its so sad! To make things worse, it’s New Years Eve! And he is all alone!

There are many memorable moments like this one in The Gold Rush. When you watch this movie, you will know where many of the old Warner Bros. cartoons got their inspiration from. Some of the situations in The Gold Rush seem cartoon like and funny. To give you a taste of the cartoonish nature of some scenes in this film; there is a scene in which the three dudes in the lonely cabin are getting extremely hungry. One of them starts looking at Chaplin and suddenly, under the effects of hunger, Chaplin starts to look like a big fat juicy chicken to him! One scene has Chaplin so hungry that he takes off his shoe, boils it and eats it as if he was eating a feast! Another classic moment has Chaplin using two forks and two pieces of bread to do this little dance thing on the dinner table. There is a scene in which a house is teetering on the edge of a cliff! And at the last minute Chaplin jumps out of it! There are many scenes on this film which are considered to be some of the most famous cinematic images in history. For that alone, you should do yourself a favor and watch this film.

The version of the film I saw was the 1942 re-release of the film. The original version of the film released in 1925 was completely silent, but for this re-release Chaplin added some narration (which he did himself) and added some music to it. He also edited a few seconds out of it and tightened the pace a bit.  The Gold Rush is a very important film, those of you interested in diving deeper into cinematic history need to start watching Chaplin films at some point. These movies are so slapstick, have such perfect timing with their gags and their comedy and they show us just how much of a genius Chaplin was. He wasn’t just funny and inventive; he was also touching, a very emotional, very human actor. I have yet to see a film of his that disappoints.

Rating: 5 out of 5

The Great Dictator (1940)

Title: The Great Dictator (1940)

Director: Charles Chaplin

Comments:

The Great Dictator is one of those films that if you love movies, and you feel passionate about what can be done with films, you just have to watch at some point. Charlie Chaplin is a personal hero of mine because not only was he talented, but he also had a conscience, and he knew he had to do something more then just entertain and get rich, he had to say something about the world he lived in. All of Chaplins films do this in one form or another. They comment on poverty, the great depression, greed, power and as we can see in The Great Dictator, politics. I had seen two of Chaplin’s most important films Gold Rush and Modern Times and loved them both, but I wasn’t ready for the complete level of bravado (yeah that’s the word I was looking for BRAVADO!) that this film was going to unleash upon my movie watching mind.

Story revolves around a small Jewish community struggling because of a dictatorial government that’s trying to run them out of business and completely oppress them. You might immediately think it’s the Nazi’s and that this movie is all about the Hitler and his Nazi’s taking over and oppressing the Jewish, but it isn’t. It’s all about a government that Chaplin completely made up for this movie called Tomania. And its dictator leader is called Adenoid Hynkel. And he is the one trying to take over. In the midst of it all, there’s a Jewish Barber (played by Chaplin) who is trying to make his business survive in the midst of all the crazines, while at the same time trying to fall in love with a beautiful hardworking jewish girl played by Paulette Goddard.

So where do I begin? My level of admiration for this movie is beyond compare. I personally have adored Chaplin ever since I saw Modern Times. I think he was one of the most talented and genuine human beings to walk the face of the earth. He was so creative, a true genius. He could do the music, the editing, the choreography, the directing on a film, I mean the guy was truly prolific. On this particular project, Chaplin did all those things plus he was the producer of the film, investing 1.5 million of his own on the film. Had the film gone bankrupt, Chaplin would have been bankrupt himself. But he took it upon himself to send out this message to the world. A very important message that he felt he needed to bring to the world. To the masses that adored him as one of the biggest film stars of his time.

So basically, this movie got Chaplin into a heap of trouble with the government of the United States, and across the world because of its message. Which kind of gives us a very interesting insight as to how the politics of the world work. The main jist of the film is that at one point, Chaplin’s Barber Tramp character switches places with Adenoid Hynkel, the leader of Tomania. And because they both look so much alike, nobody notices. So the humble Barber gets up on stage and addresses Hynkel’s military forces and followers sending out a message of peace, and unity. All Chaplin was saying was to hell with war; let peace and harmony amongst humans take over. Now, I ask you, is that a message you would categorize as dangerous to the world? In this scene Chaplin took the opportunity to give one of the most incredible speeches any film character has ever given. You simply have to see it and hear it for yourself to understand how grand it is.

But essentially it’s a speech against the horrors of war. And about how beautiful life could really be if we stop caring so much about hate and greed. It’s really a beautiful speech. Makes you wish everyone lived by those statements. And it’s probably why he got into so much trouble for saying it. Because it’s so truthful, so heartfelt and so incredibly valid now more then ever. The speech is so incredibly rid of the usual bullshit that we hear politicians talk, where the avoid the real subject at hand, where they talk about everything except what really needs to be addressed. Not so with Chaplin’s speech on this film. It goes straight for the heart, and says exactly what needs to be said. Sad part is probably that the world hasn’t changed all that much since Chaplin made this film in 1940. War is still going on in the world, and greed is more powerful then ever. So sad.

But what about the entertaining aspects of this film? Not everything can be gloom and doom. Well, I’m happy to inform that this film is just as much entertaining and filled with laughs as it is deep in thematic elements. Chaplin is still in top form as far as his slapstick comedic abilities go. And there are some wonderfully memorable moments in this film! For example, there is this one sequence where Chaplin’s Jewish Barber is giving one of his customers a shave while doing it to the beat of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No.5. There’s this one moment which is truly magical when Hynkel dances with a large inflatable globe of the world. Its one of the most memorable moments in cinema. There’s a sequence in which two world leaders Hynkel and Napaloni have a food fight while they decide to sign a peace treaty or not.

This is one of the things I enjoyed the most about this film, how Chaplin parodies the governments of the world in their obsession over controlling people and land, and their thirst for power. In the film Adenoid Hynkel (obviously a character modeled after Adolf Hitler) talks in gibberish that sounds like German. Chaplin takes this opportunity to make fun of how Hitler speaks, you’d swear he was speaking German, but he isn’t! Its a trick he also used in one moment in Modern Times, where you would swear he was singing in Italian, but it wasn’t. It was Chaplins own gibberish, which strangely enough you could understand just by reading his mannerisms and gestures. The results are truly funny, because in between the gibberish, you can distinguish certain words in English, its just hilarious. Even though this was one of Chaplin’s last films, he really was at the top of his game till the very end. He is one of my greatest heroes. Go and rent (or buy!) this wonderful masterpiece. It’s a film that not only entertains and makes you laugh but also says something incredibly truthful and heartfelt, and still relevant in our Modern Times.

Rating: 5 out of 5