The film that Charlie Chaplin wanted himself to be remembered for may not be the film for which he's actually remembered today but that doesn't mean The Gold Rush is any lesser work of quality from the legendary auteur. It only means that Chaplin later went on to surpass the very standards he set for himself with this silent classic.
Nothing makes me laugh quite like silent comedies, so after a difficult week back at the grindstone after the holidays I decided it was time for a Back To Work Recovery double feature with two movies I've been looking forward to for quite a while: Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush and Buster Keaton's The General.
I try not to be one of those ridiculous parents who only allow their children to watch established classics from the canon – hoping they'll create some sort of erudite cinephile – but I will admit to making a (perhaps excessively) conscious effort to expose my young ones to a wide variety of media.
- Charlie Chaplin and America's Funniest Home Videos.
Although technically neither is a movie, I still think he has better taste than most people I know.
"We must get food. One of us must brave that storm."
It really is a unique experience watching a Chaplin film. By virtue of both the silent medium and his own genius, there is a palpable feeling that you are watching something that has not been and will never be replicated. The Gold Rush is a perfect little blend of slapstick comedy and simple romantic melodrama. The sequences in the cabin are so fun and creative, a ingenious way to generate laughs from three men being snowed in for days. Chaplin moves so perfectly that he is just funny to watch exist, and one of my favourite sequences was him desperately trying to get out of the line of sight of the gun.
The Roll Dance cured my depression, raised my IQ, and fixed my leaky bathroom faucet.
I seem to have watched the 72 min (1942 re-release) version.
I gave it 7/10 on IMDb.
My review there is still being rated and may fail and be rejected which is why I came to this site to begin with, because I hadn't left my review elsewhere to copy somewhere else.
Non c’è molto di nuovo da aggiungere: assoluto capolavoro! Voglio solo dire che, nelle mie recenti visioni di film e soprattutto corti di Charlie Chaplin, sto apprezzando come mai prima l’uso della musica. Qui tra l’altro aggiunta postuma nel 1942, dallo stesso Chaplin. Si mi concentro sulla musica perché in questo, come in tanti film, l’assenza dei dialoghi è già perfettamente compensata dalla mimica ed espressività dei personaggi, ma è il sonoro che scandisce i tempi, che introduce e ti fa capire che tipo di scena sarà, che toni avrà; insomma la musica è un autentico miracolo.
Chiudo consigliando a tutti di dare un’occhiata al lavoro di restauro straordinario, come sempre, che sta facendo la cineteca di Bologna, proprio su molti lavori di Charlie Chaplin. Ad esempio anche le primissime comiche di Essanay. Correte a vedere.
Big Jim McKay had what would be now known as post-concussion symptoms.
I recall as a very little kid seeing parts of this movie on public television one day. Of course, that version was one from the 40's that Chaplin created which made various changes and some material was excised. Last night's showing of a reconstructed version done in the early 2000's on TCM was the first time I saw this film in full and as close to the original 1925 cut as now available. I was happy to finally view one of the legendary silent movies and Chaplin's most famous work.
That said, The Gold Rush really suffers from the tangental middle section that has no relevance to the story beside adding a cliché 'silent romance' into the mix. Some of the routines run a bit too long, and this film definitely feels more like a vignette ideas for short films, and not like one cohesive structure. I get why Chaplin thought of this as his first 'masterpiece,' but it's definitely not 'there' yet. To boot, it lacks the heart of The Kid, so I think that brings it down a bit.
But I could watch that potato scene for the rest of my life all day every day and never get bored, so, there's that.