Gregory Lopez
FILM 2600: Film History
Dr. Cathleen Londino
Fall 2011
THE GOLD RUSH
1) With high regards to Charles Chaplin and silent films, we learned in class that Chaplin was passionate about telling stories surrounded by aesthetic beauty that conveyed meaning, morals, and lessons. In contrast to films with sound, Chaplin’s silent films were artistically enhanced in a unique manner through exaggerated gestures and expressions that stimulated the viewer’s imagination. Chaplin’s overall emphasis on style, ideas, and intricate storytelling is what brought his films to life, generating and evoking a wide variety of emotions and feelings. Although Chaplin mainly evoked laughter through his assembly of motion pictures, he also provoked feelings of sadness and pity. For instance, in “ The Gold Rush”, when the tramp (Chaplin) was stood up on New Year’s eve by Georgia and her friends, after being promised by her that she would attend, made me sad and heartbroken. I felt his pain as if it was my own. This is a perfect example of how Chaplin exemplified emotions through his storytelling that inevitably affected the audience and their imagination. It was brilliant simply because he transmitted ideas through silent visual art as opposed to visuals containing the benefits of the new sound technology and innovations during the late 1920s. Chaplin’s universal style of visual art allowed him to appeal to a vast audience as opposed to being limited by sound and language, which alienated certain races, nationalities, classes, and social groups. Chaplin was able to appeal to a wide diversity through his silent works of art, which in turn, made him a universal master filmmaker.
2) Charlie Chaplin- About the Actor-American Masters
In this article, Chaplin is glorified as a king of improvisation with all due respect and acknowledgement. It shines light on his famous slapstick acrobatics and him being one of the greatest silent movie stars, who created many of the funniest and most compelling films of his time. The early life of Chaplin is review in this article with regards to his achievements that allowed him to become a master of his craft. It reveals that Chaplin was known as “ one of the most demanding men in Hollywood”. He was a strict perfectionist that stressed the importance of every actor’s part in every scene, regardless of the size. He promoted unity amongst the cast in his productions because he knew that a successful scene was not simply about the star, but everyone on the screen. His concern for quality acting and directing made his films genuinely awesome and paved the way for a new, more sophisticated generation of cinema.
Work Cited- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/charlie-chaplin/about-the-actor/77/
3) This article relates to the screening because as Chaplin’s popularity increased, he took more pride and liberties with filming. The screening we seen in class was a “hit” in 1925 that demanded overtime, over-budget, unending reworking of scenes and reconstructing of sets. It speaks on his demanding nature, which reflects his hard work, skills, performance, leadership, ambition, and determination that certainly led to his brilliant hit, “ The Gold Rush”. Though Chaplin is of the silent movie era, we can witness his accomplishment living vicariously through today’s films.
4) As a participant in the 1898 Yukon gold rush, Charlie or “the tramp” finds himself sharing a cabin with two larger and intimidating prospectors: Big Jim McKay (Mack_Swain) and Black Larsen (Tom_Murray). After going through harsh weather and near death experiences, Charlie parts company with Big Jim. In addition, Black Larson dies after attempting to go find food for the 3. Overtime, when Charlie stations himself in a nearby town, he falls in love with a woman named Georgia who barely knows he exists. He then invites her and her friends over for dinner on New Years Eve and is stood up by them, leaving him emotionally crushed. The next day, Big Jim arrives in town and where he spots Charlie. Hoping that the tramp will help him find his mountain of gold. Big Jim heads back to the mountains with Charlie determined to find gold. The two men nearly lose their lives when their cabin is almost blown over a mountain cliff. Luckily, the cabin slides safely down the side of the mountain, landing directly upon Big Jim's gold strike. Now stupendously wealthy, Charlie and Big Jim head back to the States on a freight train. Also on board is Georgia, who is unaware that Charlie has become extremely rich and thinks that he's a bum due to his attire for the picture he was going to take. She offers to hide him from the authorities, and it is at this concluding point that Charlie and Georgia discover that they're truly in love with one another.
