by Laura Lai/Review
The movie ‘The Gold Rush’ (1925)
written and directed by Charlie Chaplin is a silent movie that left me
speechless from several points of view, but I will focus on the human
psychology and film making technology. The story is a dramatic comedy inspired
by a historical real fact: the Gold Rush to Alaska.
Charlie Chaplin – the writer of
this movie – proved to be an extraordinary observer of human psychology and
people’s behavior in relationship to other people. Therefore, to me this movie
is an artistic definition of life as a journey that people do – despite the
hardships – for gold (meaning ‘money’), food, fun and for finding love. It is
in this way that this movie symbolically unfolds. And within each of these
themes, Chaplin analyzed and marvelously illustrated human psychology. It is
the story from poverty to richness and from singlehood to marriage of a tramp
(Charlie Chaplin).
The
tramp goes to Alaska in search for gold. A storm comes that ‘rages’ for days.
He is stuck in a house with another man, the Big Jim (Mark Swain) – who has
already found some gold. Being stuck for so many days, they start to be hungry
and Big Jim has hallucinations imagining the tramp as a big chicken. The tramp
understands what was going on in Big Jim’s mind and he hides the knife and the
rifle. For Thanksgiving dinner they boil a shoe (with the shoe laces). It reminded
me of war stories, when shoes were boiled and eaten because they were made of
leather and the shoe laces were somehow wrapped and improvised as cigarettes. Chaplin
might have been inspired by these historical facts, especially that in this movie
he mentions the Chilkoot Pass in Alaska – ‘a test of men’s endurance’ – a historical
fact in the Gold Rush to Alaska. War time was a period of such endurance and such
of a tremendous great sacrifice that any candle we light or any flower we bring
is too little.
After
the storm each of them continues their search for gold. The tramp reaches the
city that has a dance floor, where people have fun and where he meets a woman
called Georgia. For him, it was love at first sight and he was sleeping with
her picture under his pillow. The man back and now: The same passionate lover
of pictures with women! Chaplin fairly noticed that the probability for a
single man to sleep with a picture of a female under his pillow is greater than
that of a woman sleeping with a picture of a man under her pillow. When Georgia
discovers her picture and learns the innocent true feelings that the tramp has
for her, she takes such a decision that points again Chaplin’s great spirit of
observation of human behavior. Usually, when two people like each other,
somehow the people around them feel the need and have the impulse to tease them
both, most of the times embarrassing them. [Don’t ask me why people like to do
that, because I have never done this to anybody; it simply has never been my
business!] But Chaplin goes further than that: Georgia and her close friends
decide to mock tramp’s innocent feelings by inviting themselves to the New
Year’s Eve dinner. For this dinner the tramp borrowed, begged and shoveled the
snow, in order to be a great host for those girls that never showed up, as they
were having fun enjoying New Year party at the dance hall.
Another
sensational scene from the point of view of human psychology and people’s
behavior is a scene in which Georgia writes to her boyfriend, Jack, a very
short note apologizing. She was apologizing for a scene in which Jack was
asking for kisses and love, and the nervous Georgia slapped him. But men find
kisses and love somewhere else. And the viewers see Jack at the table with
several other women. In his arrogance, Jack shows the letter to the other
people at his table, who learn that Georgia asked forgiveness from him. He
passes his note to the tramp, who really believes that it came from Georgia
apologizing for the dinner farce. He looks for Georgia, as the Big Jim looks
for him to take him back to the house where they were previously stuck, and
make him a multi-millionaire. But the tramp looks for Georgia and avoids Big
Jim. In the end, he goes with Big Jim and they both become very rich due to gold.
The
multi-millionaire tramp wears now two fur coats on him, as clothing might have
been an indicator of wealth in Chaplin’s time, too. [Nowadays it’s quite a
tricky indicator: one may have lots of bank loans and debts, in order to show
off with cloths and cars. Then, to me, is also the issue of the kind of business
the person is in for that amount of wealth. I personally don’t like either
loans or debts. And people’s evaluation of what I have doesn’t interest me at
all. I truly believe that all people should mind their own problems and if they
don’t have enough problems of their own and have free time, to enjoy it, rather
than to occupy it with things that aren’t their business.] Although the tramp
wears two fur coats, when he sees a cigarette butt, he picks it up. To me, it
was a marvelous way of the director to illustrate in a silent movie – which I
think is more challenging – that ‘old habits die hard’.
‘The Gold Rush’ is also a picture
of the American society of those times, and particularly of the emancipated
women, who smoke, who invite men to dance and who invite themselves to a man’s
dinner. The New Year’s fireworks are actually some gun shots – that was very
funny. I wished, though, that the director not only to brilliantly indicate
that the time period of the movie is from Thanksgiving to New Year, but also to
let us know – those who will enjoy his movie 94 years later – which year was
that New Year party. To me, this is an important detail, because although the
movie is done in 1925, it is about the Gold Rush that was at the end of the 1800s.
This
movie impressed me technically, too. It simply made me even more curious about
discovering the technical details of those times’ film-making. I was wondering
what were those shoe and shoe laces made of in 1925 that looked like a shoe,
but the actors could bite from. In the scene with the hallucination of the
tramp being a chicken – just enjoying playing with words - the chicken is well
done! How could they make that scene of the house balancing over an edge? What
about so many scenes with snow? I don’t believe there was any artificial snow
used in movies at that time! And there are also two scenes with a real bear.
The fact that Charlie Chaplin is
one of the greatest symbols of the silent movie is a fact. In ‘The Gold Rush’
it was great to discover Charlie Chaplin’s fine qualities as observer of
people’s psychology and behavior. And writing is usually based on these fine
observations about the way people are, think and behave. I personally believe
that a person is enough to be given power, in order for the others to see his
real evil or divine nature. The former will use the power to show its
superiority in all ways and to enjoy destroying lives and destinies playing God
following some ill scenarios unfolding in his mind. The later will use power to
help, to improve, to build, to bring healthiness and happiness, and usually
without expecting anything in return.
Enjoy the movie!
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