"The Gold Rush" is an outstanding silent film. It
is a comedy and is unusual in that all of the
gags work. The film stars Charlie Chaplin, who
also produced and directed it. Whether his
intentions are to make you laugh or cry, he
always gives you a good reason to do so.
The film can be divided into two parts. In the
first half, Chaplin's tramp character is an
Alaskan prospector who has to endure a
life-threatening winter storm. He is also
endangered by violent criminal Black Larson, and
good-hearted but very hungry Big Jim McKay.
In the film's second half, the tramp quits
prospecting for life in an Alaskan village.
There, he courts local beauty Georgia Hale, who
is already taken by playboy Hank Curtis. The
second half is slightly better than the first.
The plot is very basic, but the scenes work very
well on their own. One great scene has the hungry
tramp eating his boot. (There were many takes of
this scene. The boot was actually made of
licorice, and Chaplin ended up eating so much
that he nearly required hospitalization.) In
another famous scene, actually a fantasy, the tramp
entertains his girlfriend by pretending a pair of
french bread rolls are his dancin' feet.
The tramp character is the most famous of silent
films. But in premise it is similar to the
characters portrayed by Harold Lloyd or Buster
Keaton. These characters were ordinary men,
always optimistic and striving for something
better, no matter how bleak their situation may
become. (92/100)
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