#32: The Gold Rush

The Gold Rush (Chaplin, 1925)

I've liked the other two Chaplin films I've seen. He invented a lot of the slapstick antics that came to define comedy in the first half of the twentieth century, but for all his simple visual gags his social satire is surprisingly modern. The character he plays in all his big films is anti-bourgeouis. His dirty, disheveled appearance, childlike simpleness and ignorance to social conventions are everything a rich aristocrat would see as useless and pathetic. He exists outside the machine of society, but he's also the only character who puts any effort into heping others, even though he has the least resources to do it with. He's always playing little tricks or doing little odd jobs to get the money he needs to survive and help who he wants to help, regardless of the lack of dignity or social judgment. (And his visual comedy antics can get some occasional big laughs too.)

The Gold Rush doesn't work quite as well as the other two Chaplin films I've seen. There aren't as many 'big laugh' moments or as concise satire as Modern Times and City Lights. Also the narration is a little off putting. In the other two films you have mostly visual information to work with to get information about the plot, but in Gold Rush the voiceovers tell you all about what's going on, and it distracts you from everything that worked about silent films.

Rating: **** / 5

19/101

Others:

Unforgiven: ** 1/2 / 5

I watched it because of it's high placement by critics, but it's nowhere near as good as the Sergio Leone or John Ford Westerns. It seemed like it was mixing Western mythology with modern personalities, and that doesn't work as well as just using Western mythology.