The Gold Rush, featuring Charles Spencer Chaplin, is a silent film of a comedy genre. The film was released in 1925 and filmed at 24 frames/second. The film’s main character is best described as “The Tramp.” The tramp is basically a small size man, an outsider, or in simple words an underdog. This is the kind of person that seeks acceptability because he is socially awkward. The story’s antagonist, Jack Cameron; played by Mack Swain, is a very brutish man, a typical bad guy in a standard Charlie Chaplin film. Again, this is done in order to get audience’s sympathy towards the Tramp. He also appears to be poor as he doesn’t seem to have enough money to afford his own cottage; poverty is another feature of the tramp. The best quality, I feel, The Tramp has is the fact that he sees “redeeming quality” in people. Meaning, he is forgiving; The Tramp forgives Georgia for not coming to his New Year’s gathering, especially when he put a lot of effort (showing that he is hardworking) to assemble the get together. The film features the traditional slapstick style acting, something Chaplin is famous for.
Charlie ChaplinAbout the Actor
August 28th, 2006
Charlie Chaplin was one of the greatest and widely loved silent movie stars. From “Easy Street” (1917) to “Modern Times” (1936), he made many of the funniest and most popular films of his time. He was best known for his character, the naive and lovable Little Tramp. The Little Tramp, a well meaning man in a raggedy suit with cane, always found himself wobbling into awkward situations and miraculously wobbling away. More than any other figure, it is this kind-hearted character that we associate with the time before the talkies. Born in London in 1889, Chaplin first visited America with a theater company in 1907. Appearing as “Billy” in the play “Sherlock Holmes”, the young Chaplin toured the country twice. On his second tour, he met Mack Sennett and was signed to Keystone Studios to act in films. In 1914 Chaplin made his first one-realer, “Making a Living”. That same year he made thirty-four more short films, including “Caught in a Cabaret”, “Caught in the Rain”, “The Face on the Bar-Room Floor”, and “His Trysting Place”. These early silent shorts allowed very little time for anything but physical comedy, and Chaplin was a master at it. Chaplin’s slapstick acrobatics made him famous, but the subtleties of his acting made him great. While Harold Lloyd played the daredevil, hanging from clocks, and Buster Keaton maneuvered through surreal and complex situations, Chaplin concerned himself with improvisation. For Chaplin, the best way to locate the humor or pathos of a situation was to create an environment and walk around it until something natural happened. The concern of early theater and film was to simply keep the audience’s attention through overdramatic acting that exaggerated emotions, but Chaplin saw in film an opportunity to control the environment enough to allow subtlety to come through .Chaplin was known as one of the most demanding men in Hollywood. Regardless of the size the part, Chaplin walked each actor through every scene. Chaplin knew that a successful scene was not simply about the star, but about everyone on the screen. He demanded that the entire cast work together in every performance. Without this unity he could not express the subtlety of character that was so important to him. The only way to achieve that unity was to maintain complete control over every scene. This constant attention to detail ran many features over-time and over-budget, but the public reaction assured him and the studios that what he was doing worked. As his popularity increased he took more liberties with filming. Movies such as his 1925 hit, “The Gold Rush”, demanded unending reworking of scenes and rebuilding of sets. Chaplin typically improvised his story in front of the camera with only a basic framework of a script. He shot and printed hundreds of takes when making a movie, each one a little experimental variation. While this method was unorthodox, because of the expense and inefficiency, it provided lively and spontaneous footage. Taking what he learned from the footage, Chaplin would often completely reorganize a scene. It was not uncommon for him to decide half-way through a film that an actor wasn’t working and start over with someone new. Many actors found the constant takes and uncertainty grueling, but always went along because they knew they were working for a master. Though Chaplin is of the silent movie era, we see his achievements carried through in the films of today. With the advent of the feature-length talkies, the need for more subtle acting became apparent. To maintain the audience’s attention throughout a six-reel film, an actor needed to move beyond constant slapstick. Chaplin had demanded this depth long before anyone else. His rigor and concern for the processes of acting and directing made his films great and led the way to a new, more sophisticated, cinema.
Summary of the Article
The Article is a brief overview of the infamous Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was born in London, England in year 1889 and actually came to US with a theatre group that he was a part of. For a while, he played the character of Billy in “Sherlock Holmes” until he finally got a break after his meeting with Mack Sennet. He found himself earning a contract with Keystone Films and released his first one reeler in 1914, “Making A Loving.” It was Chaplin’s slapstick style performance, along with his Tramp persona, that led him into stardom. The performer was so talented that he actually preferred to improvise his scenes and only relied on simple framework of the script; which many found unusual or unorthodox. Also, he was a perfectionist as he never settled for his shots and would constantly re-shoot to attain a desired product. Although he always played the main character, he never took his role to the head. He continuously encouraged his co-workers to do their best because he was a firm believer in team work. Many would consider him to be an over-rated star but such could not be further from the truth because if such was the case, he would not have been able to entertain or maintain his fan base with his long six reel silent films.
Relation Between the Article and The Screening
The article discusses about Charlie’s Tramp persona and his slapstick style performance, both of which are key subjects in The Gold Rush. The article also mentions how Charlie’s thirst for perfection would require him to constantly change sets and scenes. The writer gives “The Gold Rush” as his example for where such incidents happened.
Critical Analysis
Charlie Chaplin, actor, performer, innovator, director, The Tramp and a true star is nothing short of a genius. The proof? Well just witness the 96 minutes of pure entertainment in The Gold Rush. Getting into the class to watch this film, I must say that I was quite skeptical of the whole silent film genre. But my opinion was much changed. To say that this film was “good for its time” is actually an insult as I believe that it is actually quite timeless. The characters do a wonderful job and the slapstick form of acting is just wonderful. I must also say that The Tramp was very well portrayed as my heart went out to him on every occasion that he was ridiculed. The direction was also amazing, and not just for its period, but because it was actually very good. The scene where the house is on the edge of the clip was filmed remarkably; something that must have been extremely difficult and tedious to film for its time. Plus, the story was very good from start to finish and kept my attention throughout. Certain questions like “What happened to the dog in the cabin?” are still unanswered but do no harm to the overall genius behind this project. Most importantly, this film sparked an interest on Charlie Chaplin for me. I am now his fan and look forward to watching his other works in near future.
